Titans Hope Opener Is a Learning Experience

The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team opens its season tonight against defending national champion UCLA in Pauley Pavilion, and Coach Bob Hawking is expecting it to be “a good learning experience” for his team, no matter what happens.

“I’ve been telling our kids that it’s a tremendous challenge, but with that comes a tremendous opportunity,” Hawking said. “It will be a good measuring stick to find out where we are now as a team.”

UCLA is 1-2 after losses to Santa Clara and Vanderbilt in the Maui Invitational.

Tonight’s game will be televised by Prime Sports.

Hawking looks back on last year’s game with the Bruins with some good thoughts despite UCLA’s 99-65 victory. UCLA was ranked No. 2 nationally at the time.

“We were competitive with them for the first 22 minutes,” Hawking said. “But then they turned on the after-burners.”

UCLA led, 44-40, with 18 minutes left, before going on a 12-0 run and pulling away.

“We learned a lot from that game last season,” Hawking said. “It helped us right after that.”

The Titans defeated Nevada Las Vegas, 82-80, in Thomas & Mack Center a week later.

Hawking settled on his lineup Monday. Transfer John Williams moved into the starting power forward spot after his 28-point performance in 28 minutes in last week’s exhibition game.

Dirk Rassloff has recovered from a mild concussion in the last exhibition game and will start at center. The other three starters are guards Ali Nayab, Chris Dade and Chuck Overton.

Chris St. Clair will come off the bench in his familiar sixth-man role. Hawking still is uncertain whether St. Clair will be available the entire season. A medical redshirt year is still under consideration because of St. Clair’s knee injury at the end of last season that required surgery.

“He’ll be able to play through the Loyola Marymount game before we have to make a decision,” Hawking said. “At that point, we’ll get together with him, his parents and his doctor and make the decision. We’ll see how he responds in the next two weeks. We should know better after that.”

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The women’s basketball team had a troubled start in the Cyclone Classic last weekend in Ames, Iowa, losing to Arizona State, 59-40, and Idaho State, 80-42.

“Both teams played a 2-3 zone against us, and we just weren’t prepared for it,” Coach Debbie Ayres said. “With two new point guards, and with a total of 10 players new to Division I basketball, and eight of them freshmen, we’ve had a lot to work on in the preseason, and we hadn’t spent much time working on zone defenses.”

Most troubling was 23% shooting for the two games.

“Part of the problem was that we took some poor shots,” Ayres said. “There probably was some nervousness involved with it being our first two games. But I don’t think I’ve ever had a team shoot that badly two nights in a row.”

Ayres said the rebounding also was below par, also because of the team’s lack of experience against a zone.

“We did play some good defense ourselves the first night against Arizona State, but that was about it,” Ayres said,

Ayres was disappointed her team wasn’t able to play an exhibition game. The Russian Junior team canceled its scheduled exhibition.

“If we had played that game, it might have helped,” Ayres said. “We have to rely on exhibition games with teams that don’t require a guarantee to come here, and most of the teams want at least $1,000,” Ayres said.

The Titans’ next game is Friday at San Diego.

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The Titan men’s basketball team probably will have a difficult time climbing into the upper division of the Big West this season, but broadcasts of some of its road games appear headed into cyberspace.

Fullerton is working on an arrangement for broadcasts of its road games to be carried on World Wide Web, which provides radio programming that can be picked up on personal computers via the Internet, according to Mel Franks, sports information director. That coverage is tentatively scheduled to begin Dec. 22.

The broadcasts will be the same as those heard on the university’s Titan TV Channel, which will start carrying only audio on the games Dec. 2. The Titan Channel is on various local cable outlets.

Personal computers must have a modem and audio card for such broadcasts to receive them, Franks said.

Franks also said the university is hopeful of televising some home games on the Titan TV Channel by the 1996-1997 season. “Fiber optics are being installed for the station, and that should be complete next year,” Franks said. “A major stumbling block has been the lack of a remote truck, but the fiber optics eliminate the need for that.”

Titan Notes

The UCLA-Fullerton men’s basketball game tonight is one of two Titan games to be televised live by Prime Sports. The network also is scheduled to carry the Titans’ game Dec. 5 at San Diego State. . . . Shayla Bradshaw (11 ppg) is the only Titan women’s basketball player averaging in double figures after two games. . . . The 12-19 record this season by the women’s volleyball team is the school’s best since the 1981 team went 18-17. Fullerton loses only one senior from the roster, defensive specialist Kathy Hernandez.