News Scrapbook 1986-1988

San Francisco, CA (San Francisco Co.) Chronicle (Cir. D. 630,954) (Cir. S. 483,291) FEB 2 O 1987 ..A/kn'• P. c. B

Escondido, CA (San Diego Co.) Times Advocate (Cir. D. 32,685) (Cir. S. 34,568)

f£B 1 91987

E

1.,1 I 888

Pieces forUSD

Spartans Lose Bruins Squeeze By Oregon State Charles Rochelin scored

Good chemistry leads Toreros to top in WCAC By Jay Posner Times-Advocate Sportswriter SAN DIEGO - Somebody once described the University of San Diego's basketball team as one where the whole 1s greater than the sum of its parts. Somebody was right. Despite their sparklin~ 20-4 recor~: the Tor~ro~ are not a team around which the term All-Amenca is used often, if at all. But they are a "team," in every sense of the word. "We fit together like a puzzle," said 7-foot center Scott Thompson, the closest thing the Torerl?s have to an All-American. "Everybody knows their role~ Each guy does his job, and _w~ end up p~etty good. Where they may end up 1s m the National Colle- giate Athletic Association tournament. They we~e there three years ago, when Thompson and h1s three roommate-teammates - Eric Musselman, Nils Madden and Steve Krallman - were fresh- men. Princeton knocked them out in the first round, and they vowed to return. Now three seasons later, they would have that return ~11 but locked up if they were in just about any other conference. Leading the West Coast Athletic Conference by two games, the Toreros ~eed o!11Y to ~n ?ne_oftheir last three games - startmg with tomght s 7.30 con- test against second-place Gonzaga at the USD Sports Center - to clinch the regular-season con- ference title. For the first time, however, that won't be enough. The WCAC's automatic bid to this year's NCAA tournament will go to the winner of its inaugural postseason tournament, scheduled for Feb. 28 and March6-7. . In most leagues, the regular-season champ10n earns an NCAA bid even ifit is upset in the postsea- son tournament. Particularly if that champion fin- ishes with upward of 20 victories. But this is the WCAC, not the Big East or the Big Ten and conferences such as the WCAC generally receive only one bid. Thus USD knows the ·only sure ticket to the NCAAs'runs through San Francisco the first week- end in March. . "When it was put in," Coach Hank Egan said of the tournament, "they said that at the end of the season, one coach was going to cry foul and every-

WEST COAST and Gerald Thomas missed the front end of a one-and-one after time had expired as UC Santa Bar- bara moved into third place in the PCAA with a 53-52 win over San Jose State at Goleta. The Spartans (7-8, 11-13) entered the ·game in a four-way tie for sec- ond, but after missing 12 of 18 free throws for the night, are now in a four-way tie for fourth, with Long Beach State, Fullerton State and Utah State. Elsewhere, Kenny Travis scor- ed 17 points and New Mexieo State (8-7, 14-12) beat UC Irvine, 70-66, at Las Cruces. The victory was NMSU's fourth straight and sixth 1n the last seven games . . . Richard Morton scored 26 points and Herman Weh- ster added 18 to lead Fullerton State (7-8, 14-10) to a 94-71 rout of visiting Utah State(7-8, 14-13>. 'loreros Clinch Mark Manor and Scott Thomp- son scored 14 points apiece~ Die inched the W,{' AC tjt)e with a 61-48 victory over Gonzaga. San Diego Hl-1, 21-4) leads the nation in field-goal defense and limited the Bulldogs (8-4, 17-8) to just37 percent. 'lhe WAC Junior forward Fennis Dembo had 29 points to lead Wyoming m-2, 19-6) to its l,OOOth victory, an 85-73 win over hopeless San Diego State. The Cowboys scored 52 points in the second half to ice their 10th straight win, tying school and conference records at the expense of the Aztecs (0-13, 2-24), who have lost 17 straight and have the worst record in the country. Elsewhere, Gale Gondrezick scored 22 points to lead Utah (8-a, 16-9) to an 80-o4 win over Air Forte at the Academy ... At Fort Collins, Anthony Goodrum came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points and give Colorado State (7-8, 13-13) a 69-02 win over Hawaii. /1

five points in the final 3¼ min- utes last night as UCLA out- lasted Oregon State, 57-53, and remained atop the Pacific 10. The Bruins (12-4, 18-a) benefit- ted from OSU's 30 percent shooting, but the BeaVCl"ll (10-5, 18-a) had a chance to tie in the final seconds. Eric Knox missed a three-pointer with five seconds to play and Ro- chelin sank one of two free throws with three seconds left. Rochelin led the Bruins with 12 points, while Reggie Miller added 11 and Montel Hatcher 10. Jose Ortiz, the Pac-l0's leading scorer, strug- gled inside throughout the game but topped Oregon State with 19. UCLA leads Arizona by a half- game in the Pac-10 race, while Ore- gon State dropped into third, 111:& games behind the Bruins. Elsewhere in the conference, Cloverdale product Craig McMillan scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half as Arizona 111-4, 16-9) drilled Washington State (4- 11, 8-16), 84-58, in Tucson. Arizona led, 4743, with 12 minutes left be- fore a 12-0 run, six by McMillan, ended WSU's hopes. At Tempe, senior guard Bobby Thompson sank a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left to give Arizona State a 71-70 upset of Washington. Steve Beck sank two free throws with 24 seconds to go to cut Arizona State's deficit to 7CMS and set the stage for Thompson's game-winning shot. Anthony Taylor broke loose for all of his game-high 18 points in the final 14minutes as host Oregon edg- ed USC, 57-55. Taylor hit a free throw to give the Ducks their fil"llt lead of the game, 49-48, with 3:22 to play, but it took a goaltendlng call with 1:02 left to give Oregon the lead for good. Spartans lose Carrick DeHart bit a short jumper with five seconds to play,

Robert Gauthier/The Times-Advocate

· t

Please see USD, page C& poin_s~a_g.:._a_m_e_. ---------=::'.""""-==-----------1------'

16

USD's most recognized player is 7-foot center Scott Thompson who averages nearly

CG TIMES-ADVO~ TE, Escondido, Ca., Thursday, February 19, 1987 USD \_ /_ Continued from page c 1 ,1(!~

us or.doesn't cover us is ... that's nice, and it's great for the school and it's what you're looking for, but that's not what our kids' major concern is now." Said Musselman: "It gets under my skin a lot for the simple fact . that we beat them the last two years. Now we have been getting the headlines, but even at the be- ginning of the year, for the first 10 games, State was ahead." Musselman admitted San Diego State has many times more stu- dents and local alumni than USD, but he did say, "I find it hard to believe." Still, USD is better off now than it was at this time four years ago. And remember, this is only the school's eighth season at the Divi- sion I level. "From a recognition stand- point," Egan said, "my job has been easier than the guy before me (Brovelli). He kind of built the rec- ognition. We've kind of main- tained it." What about the future? Six of the top nine players are senfors, in- cluding every starter except Means. Raised academic standards have admittedly shrunken the pool of talent available to USD, though Egan says he does have a nucleus of young, talented players ready to step in next season. "We've kind of set the roots here," Thompson said. Can it last? "I sure as hell hope so," Thomp- son said. "I hope all the hard work didn't go for nothing," Musselman added. "I don't think it has." L,,

Both Thompson and Mussel- man said building that chemistry begins early, during recruiting sea- son. "Recruits come in here and ana- lyze us," Thompson said, "and we analyze them, too. If a kid's a bad kid, we'll tell the coaches that and they'll respect our opinion." That has happened, the players said, but not often. "Normally we get quality kids here because the academic stan- dards are higher than most places," Thompson said. "It may be harder to find them, but they're there. And how can you not like to come to San Diego?" Here's one reason why. Lack of recognition. • When a San Diego reporter phoned the NCAA this week to in- quire about the Toreros' tourna- ment chances, an NCAA official said, "USD? What conference is it . ?" m. • USD's 20-4 record garnered the Toreros a grand total of two votes in this we-:lk's Associated Press top 20 poll. "Two guys," Egan said. "They're good friends of mine. I tell you what, that's probably all the friends I've got, so we need a couple more wins." • For the most part, the Toreros don't gain much media coverage unless they're very good, and San Diego State is very. bad. Of course, that's exactly what's happening now. "That's the way life is," Egan said. "What we're concerned about is we've stjll got three regular-sea- son games and the (WCAC) tour- nament. Whether the press covers

obviously ours is clicking right now. I've never been on a team ~here _the camaraderie has been hketh1s." Added Egan: "The unselfishness and the balance on this ballclub has been the most important fac- tor. The general makeup of this team is t hat it considers itself a team, and what the team accom- plishes is more important to each

. ,

.

.

b d

o y else was gomg to thmk 1t s a good de~I. And that's exactly what's gomg to take place." . Except Egan, who replaced Jim Brovelh after the 198~ tournament season , says he won t exactly cry

·th ·t" of the ~ndividuals th~ what he ac-

to d

fo~~air has n th·

1 '

comphshes."

O wi

. 0 mg

•

he said. "I~ 1s what it is. The fight Thompson is t he one Torero has been _Ptcked, an~ now we've g?t who would most benefit from a to fight 1t. \Yhat Iv~ got to do is "star" system but the two-time prepare to wm the t~mg." . all-conferenc; selection says he _And the_Toreros will be satisfied isn't interested. w_1th nothmg less than an NCAA "I think I could be a one-on-one ~d ' · player, but I'm not that type of "We've done a lot up to now," player," Thompson said. "I think Thompson said, "but nothing's you win by being together. We're been accomplished. We've won 20 not a one-man team. A lot ofrecog- games (including 10 in a row), but nition is given to me, but we have that doesn't mean anything now." other guys that play, too." • • • Thompson leads the club in both How have they won those 20 scoring (15.9 points a game) and games? Terms such as "balance," rebounding (7.5 a game), but he "chemistry" and "close-knit" are gets plenty of help from forward used most often to describe the To- Madden (11.4, 7.1) and point guard reros' success. Paul Leonard (11.4, 4.5 assists), "I think the chemistry is ex- who is shooting 50 percent from traordinary," said Musselman, a three-point range. The other two reserve guard whose father, Bill, starters, forward Mark Manor (8.7 has coached on both the college points a game) and guard Danny and professional level. "I don't Means (7.5), are shooting better think there are too many teams in than 45 percent from long range as the country 'that are this well. close-knit. The club's chemistry really "I have friends on other teams comes into focus on defense. The across the country, and they're al- Toreros ranked eighth in the na- ways complaining about certain tion last year in field goal percent- guys on the team. If you walked in- age defense (.424), and they've im- to our locker room any day, there's proved in 1987. Through 24 games, never any bickering amongst us. opponents have converted just 40 "I think that's the key. Some percent of their field-goal at- teams click better than others, and tempts.

c.. CD --+o\

CD :::J CJ) CD -~ a. < -· CJ) 0 '< "'O

Q) ::J CD 0 -· r-+ (') -· N CD c..