News Scrapbook 1985

Son Di go, CA (Son Diego Co.) Son Diego Union (Ci r. D. 217,324) (Cir. S. 339,7881 N V 13 1985

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1,, 1R8& occer Tritons to face cold field, hot tean1

home. Morgan is from Seattle UPBOARD - USO women's ketball Coach Kathy Marpe and her. staff will conduct a free clime for ju r and senior high school coaches from 6:30 .m to 9 p.m. Sunday at USD There is no pre-registration. For more information call Marpe at

260-4803 ... SDSU closed its soccer season with a 3·0 Joss to crosstown rival USIU last weekend. But the Az- tecs (8·8-4) had some highlights this season. Senior goalie Garry Wilcox set a school record with eight shut• outs and Steve Boardman set the mark for assists with 11.

hold r of numerou school r ords, mclud1ng career pomt.:; and coring averag , and Cheryl Carton Landay, badminton and field hockey player at UCSD from 1973 through 1975 and curr ntly the women's national bad• mmton mgl champion. Carton- Landay never lo a b d 11n,on sin- g! or doubles match 1 ccllege UCSD also will hold a umni events turday for water polo (11 a.m.), women' veil ball (4 p.m.) and worn n's ba k lball ( :30).

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t's a great place to play ba ketball," said Hank Egan. If the man sounded

wistful, who could blame him? Egan was talking about the University of. ew Mexico s arena, "The Pit," where his USD Tore[Qs will open their eason tomorrow night in an Albuquerque Tribune Classic gam against Long Beach State. He would rather have been talking about someplace in San Diego. Any place in San Diego. With httle notice, our citv has become the site of some good, occas onally great. college ba k tball of late. That's the problem . with little notice T ere remams a difference, 1t seems, between playmg great basketball and being a great place to play bask ball. Too bad. Egan's Torero and Smokey Gam ' San Diego State Aztecs have do e much to accompllsh the first piece of busines . But the sec·ond still remains a dream. Two years m a row, San Diego has advanced a Divi io I team to the 'C'.AA Tournament In 1984 USD (then under Jim Brovelli) won the West Coast Athletic Conference champion hip and 18 of its 28 games to earn a to •'"!lament bid In 1985. San Diego State went 23·8 and won the postseason Western thletic Conference tournament to gam an NCAA invitation 'fhe cvmbined record of these schools over the past two seasons is 72-42, a winning percentage of .632. PUBLIC REACTIO!\' has been a yawn. USD continues to play its home games on campus in the 2,500-seat Sports Center, which is rarely fil'ed Why go elsewhere' During San Die o State's 23·8 season, best in hE: DlV!sion I history of that school. the Aztecs attracted an average of 3,575 witnesses to the 13,741-seat Sports Arena. They have never filled the place, not even for games with DePaul, UNLV, Villanova, Michigan State, Virginia, Tennessee, UTEP and BYU. You can understand why Egan and Gaines enjoy taking teams into New Mexico's "Pit." despite its reputation as one of the more difficult buildings in America for a visiting team. "You know you're going to have 17,000 people there who really enjoy the game," explains Egan. "The band plays. People shout and holler and do all those things you're supposed to do at a college basketball game. I enjoy it. It's not easy to play there, but it's really exciting." There's something else, too. The citizens of Albuquerque recognize a good basketball team, even when it w ars a visiting uniform. fhey know that San Diego State has won four of its last six games there, a remarkable feat. They may express their admiration in rather, ah, hostile ways, but, hey, any recognition is better than none. THE LOBOS A, 'D their supporters will be visited again this season by San Diego teams worthy of notice. Egan's Toreros are considered challengers for the WCAC championship, chiefly because they possess what everybody wants - a 7-foot center. Junior Scott Thompson was all- conference as a sophomore, and Egan believes he is just coming into his own. The coach particularly prizes Thompson for his pa ing

AZTEC WOMEr. l 20 - n Diego State · ran ed No. 16 in the A oriated Pre pr season worn n'. ba ket ii poll despite !os• mg even play from last ason's 21-9 team. The Attecs h ve made the A playoffs both y rs Earnest Rtggtn ha coached the team. SDSU won't be battling USC and (CLA for a conference "Champion- hip th1 season Th Aztecs, former- ly In the We tern Collegiate Athletic A oc1at10n, now are membe of the P c1f1c Coa t Athletic A sociatioo Other members are old nertlesi Long Beach State, UC-lrtme, eva• da-La Vegas, FuUcrton State, Ha• wan nd Umve ty of th Pacific. Long Beach LS ran ed o. 11 and UNLV, which SDSU upset m the first round of the playoff last eason, is lied for 20th with SL J ph's. Texas i No. l. WEST MEETS F a, Japan la weekend. The Aztecs won the race m 1983 and finished sixth last year. Osaka Physical Education College won for the econd straight y r with a time of 2:03:20, breaking the mark of 2:05:17 et by SDSU in '83. The Uni- ver 1ty of Leningrad was second. USIU's West Coast Athletic Con- ference champion women's er country team will compete in the NCAA West Regional on Satur ay in Se ttl . The USIU and men' teams also will compete. Another qualifier is D junior Lori Morgan, who will feel qght at TO SDSU women's er fimshed ninth in Country relays in

Son Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Son Diego Union (Cir. D. 217,324) (Cir. S. 339,788) NOV 21

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playing time together. If we're 5-5 going into the WAC (season), we might be all right." · If the Aztecs are 5.5 going into the WAC, it might be a miracle, since they will spend most of their preseason playing the likes of Fresno State, UNLV, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida and Oral Roberts on the road. "We thought it would do a good job of getting us ready for the conference" says Gaines. "We also wanted to do it this year when we have so many new players. We thought it would be good to give up this year when we have a young ball club and next year have all those teams returning (home games) to us." Plea"e understand that Smokey conced · nothing. If and when it's health), he has high hopes for this team. Watson, Gaines believes, is a legitimate All-American. Johnson, a refugee from LSU, "could be the kind of transfer for our program that (wide receiver) Jim Sandusky was for the football program." Senior point guard Creon Dorsey "has really improved over last year. He has matured 100 percent." Then there's 6-4 freshman Josh Lowery. "He's probably the best shooting guard I've ever coached," says Gaines, "and that includes Terry Durod and John Long at the University of Detroit. He'll get a few teams out of their zone (defense)." But will he get a few people into the Sports Arena? Ah, that's the question.

been troubled by injury problems. John Martens (knees), Gerald Murray (knee) and transfer Steffond Johnson (back) all have missed significant practice time. Even worse, Anthony Watson, the Aztecs' All-America candidate at guard, has split his right hand badly enough to require 12 stitches. "It's the first time since I've been coaching that I've had this many injuries in the preseason," says Gaines. "It's especially tough because seven of our 12 players are new, and we can't get any continuity going." The Aztecs, who open their season Nov. 29 against Louisiana Tech in the Sun•Met Classic at Fresno, had better get something going soon. Beginning with that opponent, an NCAA Tournament entry last season, the Aztecs will face eight straight schools that had winning records. Their average log was 22·9. Only one of those teams, USD, will be played in San Diego. Not until San Diego State meets UNC-Charlotte in the opening round of the Holiday Bowl Classic will it face a team with a losing 1984-85 record (5·23). "THIS PROBABLY IS going to be my toughest year here since my first year," says Gaines. But he expects to do considerably better than the 6-21 record that team posted. "We've got some kids who can play," he says. "It's just a matter of getting healthy and getting some

CGi!liltded from D-1 skills and will run his offense off the big pivotman. "With most teams the offense stops when you throw it into the post," says Egan. "With us, that's where it beg111s'." The coach also is pleased to have Mark Bostic, who missed last season with a broken ankle, and community college transfer Paul Leonard. "Having those two makes a big difference for us, quickness-wise," Egan says. "We were hurting in that area last year." This has the look of a typical Egan team, which means the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts. "V e don't have any really great impact players," the coach sllys. • We have people who fill roles and can do certain things for us. "If it all comes together, we're going to be a very nice basketball team. If it doe n t, we're going to be struggling. "We're healthy. We're experienced. We're playing the kind of competition that we're going to find out about ourselves early." THE LAST ALSO could be said of San Diego State. But hardly the first. The Aztecs are not all that experienced, and they're anything but healthy. Gaines has lost all three of last season's starters along the front line - Leonard Allen, Andre Ross and Michael Kennedy. To compound the problem, each of the three players expected to replace the departed has

El Ca1o 11 , CA ISa11 o,ego Co) Daily Cali1or111a11 I Cir. D 100,27'1 l

LocalNews

~.BASKETBALL COACHES CLINIC/ The University of san Die o worn n's ba k tball team will host an open practice for the ben ftt of juntor h1 h and high school girls coaches unday at th Sports C nter on camp Th 100 will be run by head coach Kathy Marpe who will begin th practice with an Informal meeting from 6 30 to 7 p m Ateam workout will follow from 7to 8o'clock a will a cn_mmag from 8 to 9 Vi itlng coach will be able to talk with plavers and USO co ch aft r th crlmmag Adm1ss1on is free and · :e erv lions ar not n e ary Phon Ma eat 2604803 for more mformatton t'/ 5 5