“With very guarded optimism” is how Cal State Fullerton
men's basketball Coach Bob Burton is approaching the 2005-
06 season. The Titans are coming off the second-most successful
year in the school's 45-year basketball history and the pieces are
in place to post back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in
two decades.
“We have a lot of proven players but also a lot of new
faces and it will take time to blend them in,” said Burton, who
in his second year guided the Titans to the best Div. I record in
Southern California at 21-11, the Titans' first winning season
since 1992-93. “Where the leadership will come from is the real
question. We lost three tremendous seniors, not only on the court
but off.
“I expect a lot to fall on Bobby Brown's shoulders. He's
one of the best point guards in the West and how far we can go
will probably be based more on his leadership than his playing
ability.”
Gone are forwards Ralphy Holmes, Yaphett King and
Hardy Asprilla. The first two seemingly willed the team to win
after Asprilla was lost for the year to a knee injury on Jan. 13 in
game No. 12. Holmes led the Big West Conference in scoring
and rebounding and King averaged 14.7 points in BWC play as
both earned second-team all-conference honors. Asprilla, who
was leading the BWC in rebounding when injured, remained a
vocal presence on the bench as the Titans won 13 of their final 17
games including a pair of NIT victories at Oregon State and San
Francisco.
Point guard Brown (6-1, Los Angeles, Westchester HS),
center Jamaal Brown (6-7, Spartanburg, SC, Western Kentucky)
and shooting guard Jermaine Harper (6-3, Gardena, Virginia)
are the returning starters from a resilient team that didn't get a
minute from its projected starting center, lost a reserve guard in
December to a reoccurrence of cancer and had only eight players
in uniform for the last game of a season full of accomplishments.
Bobby Brown is not your typical point guard. The
junior-to-be packages a vast repertoire of offensive firepower
with the normal playmaking role. He is a prolific 3-point shooter
and also can attack the basket. In the Big West he was third in
scoring (16.8 ppg), third in assists (4.66 apg), third in free-throw
percentage (.827) and second in 3-point field goals made (2.66
pg). In only two seasons, he has CSF's second (85) and fifth-best
(70) single-season totals of 3-point field goals made and his twoyear
total of 155 is only 36 shy of the career mark.
Senior-to-be Jamaal Brown joined the Titans after five
games and became the inside force to complement the Titans'
shot-happy perimeter game. He was third in the conference in
rebounding (7.6 rpg) and seventh in field-goal percentage (.496)
and made three game-winning shots while averaging 12.4 points.
Both Browns earned all-conference honorable mention.
Senior-to-be Harper was the only starter not to average
in double figures, coming up just shy at 9.7 ppg. He was a classic
streak shooter with four games of 20 or more points and nine
of four points or less. Seventy percent of his shots came from
behind the 3-point arc as he made 70 of 191 to match Bobby
Brown for the fifth-best single-season total by a Titan. He also
developed into a relentless perimeter defender.
Key reserves returning are senior point guard John Clemmons (6-0, Los Angeles, El Camino JC), junior forward
Justin Burns (6-6, Birmingham, Alabama, Cypress JC), senior
guard Vershan Cottrell (6-2, Renton, WA, Ohlone JC) and junior
center Derek Quinet (6-9, San Jose, West Valley JC) along with
lightly used forward Danny Lambert (6-4, Irvine, Irvine Valley
JC). They will be joined by four redshirts, three community college
transfers and two incoming freshmen.
The newcomers most likely to make an immediate
impact include explosive guard Frank Robinson (6-4, 225, Los
Angeles, CA), power forward Gary Nunez (6-8, Bronx, NY) and
wing player Jerard Moret (6-4, Los Angeles, CA).
“Those three should be huge for us,” said Burton. “Each
should play a significant role.”
Robinson sat out last season after transferring from East Carolina. He is an explosive leaper and penetrator who has been
quite impressive in his summer league play. He averaged 3.8
points and 1.8 rebounds in 26 games for the Pirates in 2003-04.
Nunez was the Western State Conference North Division
Player of the Year in 2004-05 at Ventura College. He averaged
16.5 points and 8.3 rebounds. In the state quarterfinals against
eventual state champion Fresno City College he made 15 of 19
shots in a 30-point, 13-rebound losing effort. For the season he
shot .645 from the floor and for his career a school record .640.
His team went 24-0 in two years of North conference play.
Moret is the more advanced of a pair of new Titans from
Westchester High School's latest state championship team. He
is a slasher who plays great defense. Further away from helping
immediately is 6-7 wing player Jerrel Lake (Los Angeles).
There is plenty of size waiting to be developed into
Div. I talent. Chris Minardo (Chino Hills) is a 6-9 forward with
perimeter shooting skills with three years of eligibility after a
season at Citrus College. Manny Montano (Vista) is a 6-foot-10
transfer from Palomar College. They will be competing daily
with redshirt centers Adam Tancredi (6-9, Santa Ana), who has
two years of eligibility remaining after transferring from Quinnipiac,
and Curtis Battles (6-10, Los Angeles), the 350-pound
transfer from West Hills College. Guard Damien Massey (5-11,
Long Beach) , who redshirted last year after walking on from Jordan
High, completes a roster which also includes 4-year transfers
Scott Cutley from Kent State and Ray Reed from Georgetown,
who must sit out this season.
Fullerton plays only two non-conference games at home
before the end of the calendar year -- vs. Hope International on
Nov. 20 and vs. Pepperdine on Nov. 23. They later host UC
Davis and South Dakota State to balance out eight road dates that
include a Nov. 30 stop at Kansas State and tournaments in Miami
and San Francisco.
Based on returning talent, the Big West Conference race
appears wide open. The four teams that separated themselves
from the pack last year in 18-0 league champion Pacific (lost
eight seniors), 13-5 Utah State (moved to the Western Athletic
Conference) 12-6 Cal State Northridge (lost three multi-year
starters) and 12-6 Cal State Fullerton (lost three starting forwards)
appear vulnerable. UC Irvine (8-10), injury-wracked
UC Santa Barbara (7-11) and late-blossoming Long Beach State
(7-11) are poised to move up.