Men’s basketball: Heavily guarded

Tony Altobelli

Even Orange Coast College Sports Information Director Sam

Felsenfeld knows what he’s in for as the men’s basketball team begins its

2000-2001 season.

“These guys are going to make me work my tail off,” Felsenfeld said in

regard to the number of points expected to be put on the scoreboard.

Not stacked with a ton of size, the Pirates are going to try to outrun

and outshoot the opposition, according the second-year coach Mark Hill.

“We have a team that can score 90-100 points a game,” Hill said. “Our

two biggest areas of importance are going to be defense and rebounding.

That’s where the ballgames are going to come down to.”

The Pirates have only two starters and three returners from last

year’s 11-14 squad.

Among those returning is Ryan Earl. The 5-foot-11 point guard will be

called upon to pick up the offensive slack from the loss of last year’s

scoring leader David Castleton, who will be playing for Cal State

Fullerton this year.

“He’s one of the most improved players in our conference,” Hill said.

“From baseline to baseline, there’s not too many faster. He can really

get down the floor and with his improved shooting, he’s going to be a

factor from the three-point line.”

Another all-around performer for the Pirates is 6-3 shooting guard

Nick Burwell. The Inglewood High grad was a redshirted last year and will

be called upon to apply a big chunk of the offense.

“Nick has a great combination of being big and strong with the ability

to score,” Hill said. “He will be among the conference leaders in scoring

because he can take smaller guards and post them up, as well as take

bigger defenders and shoot from out on the perimeter.”

According to Hill, the height-challenged Pirates will run a three- and

sometimes four-guard offense to keep the points piling up.

“We’ll run whatever becomes available to us,” Hill said. “We’re small,

but we’re deep, so we can continue to bring in fresh legs.”

In the paint, players like sophomore Chad Hagedorn, as well as

freshmen Mark Meyers (6-7, 240) and Phil Ventimiglia (6-6, 180) will have

to supply the combination of rebounds and points.

“As a group, we’ve really worked hard this off-season,” Hill said.

“We’ll have to see how we develop as far as chemistry goes. I’ve been

surprised with how quickly the newer players have learned our offensive

game plan.”

The newcomers Hill was referring to include freshmen Phil Ventimiglia

and Santa Ana Valley product Rich Oliver.

ORANGE COAST COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL

3 Randy Libistre 5-11 Fr. G

4 Ryan Earl 5-11 So. G

5 Rich Oliver 6-5 Fr. F/C

13 Michael Allen 6-1 Fr. G

14 Phil Ventimiglia 6-6 Fr. F

20 Ryan Webster 6-4 Fr. G/F

21 Jeremy Madrid 6-2 So. G

23 Mister McKinney 6-2 Fr. G

25 Scott Rivera 6-2 So. G

31 Mark Meyers 6-7 Fr. C

33 Ali Hamade 6-4 Fr. G/F

34 Chad Hagedorn 6-4 So. F

42 Nick Burwell 6-3 So. G

Coach: Mark Hill