CS Northridge

CS Northridge Basketball Schedule: 08-09

Press Release — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:57:49 -0700

Northridge, Calif. - The 2008-09 Cal State Northridge men's basketball team, expected to be the favorites to repeat as Big West regular season champions, will be gathering thousands of frequent flier miles during the early portion of the 2008-09 schedule which was announced on Wednesday by Matador head coach Bobby Braswell.

Following a Nov. 14 (7:05 p.m.) regular season home opener against Cal Lutheran at The Matadome, the Matadors embark on a highly competitive six game road trek that begins at one of the toughest venues in the Pac-10, Maples Pavilion on the campus of Stanford University (Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m.). For the past several years, the Cardinal has been one of the top teams in the country.

From Palo Alto, the Matadors head south to the home court of Cal State Bakersfield for a Nov. 21 (7:00 p.m.) non-league encounter. Then the six game road trip kicks into high gear when Cal State Northridge travels to The Pit in Albuquerque to face another high profile national program, the New Mexico Lobos on Nov. 24 (7:00 p.m.).

From there, the Matadors travel to relatively uncharted territory with two games in the East. Only four other times in the previous 50 years of Matador basketball has the team ventured this far from home. First, there is a stop on Nov. 29 (3:00 p.m.) at Rider College which is located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Two days later, the Matadors will take a 45-minute bus trip to Philadelphia to play Drexel University on Dec. 1.

Then on Dec. 7 (7:00 p.m.), the six-game road trip ends with a highly anticipated contest at Pauley Pavilion to face the powerful UCLA Bruins. The Bruins, who have played in three straight Final Fours, are again expected to dominate the Pac-10 in 2008-09, and are again contenders to make the Final Four in 2009. The last time these two teams collided, the Matadors upset the nationally-ranked Bruins, 78-74, at Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 21, 2000.

The Matadors finally return home for two games on Dec. 1 (7:05 p.m.) against Denver and Dec. 18 (7:05 p.m.) against Pepperdine. But then again, it's back on the road, this time with trips to San Diego State (Dec . 22, 7:00 p.m.) and to open the Big West season on Dec. 29 (7:00 p.m.) at Cal State Fullerton.

Cal State Northridge will have 12 regular season home games including nine Big West contests. The conference home opener is Jan. 2 (7:05 p.m.) against another league favorite, the Pacific Tigers. Note: There is the possibility that another home game will be added to the existing schedule.

The 2008-09 CS Northridge Men's Basketball Schedule
Note: One more home game may be added at a later date

November
3 (MONDAY) - LA VERNE (EXHIBITION), 7:05 p.m.
8 (SATURDAY) - CARROLL COLLEGE (EXHIBITION), 7:05 p.m.
14 (FRIDAY) - CAL LUTHERAN, 7:05 p.m.
18 (Tuesday) - at Stanford, 7:30 p.m.
21 (Friday) - at Cal State Bakersfield, 7:00 p.m.
24 (Monday) - at New Mexico, 7:00 p.m.
29 (Saturday) - at Rider, 3:00 p.m.

December
1 (Monday) - at Drexel, tba
7 (Sunday) - at UCLA, 7:00 p.m.
9 (TUESDAY) - DENVER, 7:05 P.M.
18 (THURSDAY) - PEPPERDINE, 7:05 P.M.
22 (Monday) - at San Diego State, 7:00 p.m.
*29 (Monday) - at Cal State Fullerton, 7:00 p.m.

January
*2 (FRIDAY) - PACIFIC, 7:05 P.M.
*5 (MONDAY) - UC DAVIS, 7:05 P.M.
*14 (Wednesday) - at UC Riverside, 7:00 p.m.
*17 (Saturday) - at Long Beach State, 7:00 p.m.
*21 (WEDNESDAY) - CAL STATE FULLERTON, 7:05 P.M.
*24 (SATURDAY) - UC IRVINE, 7:05 P.M.
*29 (Thursday) - at UC Santa Barbara, 7:00 p.m.
*31 (Saturday) - at Cal Poly, 7:00 p.m.

February
5 (THURSDAY) - CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD, 7:05 P.M.
*11 (WEDNESDAY) - CAL POLY, 7:05 P.M.
*14 (SATURDAY) - UC RIVERSIDE, 7:05 P.M.
*18 (Wednesday) - at UC Irvine, 7:00 p.m.
21 (Saturday) - at ESPN Bracketbuster, tba
*25 (WEDNESDAY) - UC SANTA BARBARA, 7:05 P.M.
*28 (SATURDAY) - LONG BEACH STATE, 7:05 P.M.

March
*5 (Thursday) - at UC Davis, 7:00 p.m.
*7 (Saturday) - at Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
11-14 (Wednesday-Saturday) - at Big West Tournament (Anaheim, Ca), tba
19-22 (Thursday-Sunday) - at NCAA Tournament, tba
26-29 (Thursday-Sunday) - at NCAA Tournament, tba

April
4-6 Saturday-Monday - at NCAA Final Four (Detroit, Mi), tba

*Big West Conference Game

2008-09 Northridge Matadors Preview: #115

Joel Welser — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:35:55 -0700

California State Northridge Matadors

Overall Rank: #115

Conference Rank: #2 Big West

2007-08: 20-10, 12-4, 1^st

2007-08 postseason: none

Cal State Northridge has not had such high expectations since they joined the Big West. And the folks in the Valley think this could be the year that the Matadors make it back to the NCAA Tournament. With super sub Deon Tresvant back and leading the way, this really could be the year. Tresvant averaged a team high 13.9 points per game last year and never started a single game. The 6-0 senior is a great shooter and hit nearly three long balls per contest.

Who’s Out:

Oddly, the two players who paved the way for the Matadors success over the last four years are now gone, but that will not curb the enthusiasm in Northridge. Calvin Chitwood averaged 10.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks during his senior campaign. Jonathan Heard added 11.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals. Not only will their production be missed, but their leadership will be as well. Jayme Miller started all 30 games during his senior season. The 6-8, 240 pounder rarely put up huge numbers, but his presence under the basket will be missed. Rai Colston never really worked his way into the regular rotation during his two years with the team after transferring from a junior college.

Who’s In:

The Matadors need some depth up front and they found it with this group of newcomers. Willie Galick, a transfer from Pepperdine, is ready to step into a starting role. The 6-8 power forward started 21 games for the Waves two years ago and averaged 6.5 points and 3.7 rebounds. Galick can block a few shots, but it is his versatility to play inside and out that makes him so dangerous. Jermaine Smith missed last season with a knee injury. The junior college transfer will see his first playing time with the Matadors this year and will at least be a solid shotblocking and rebounding threat. Seven-footer Xavier Crawford will not do much scoring, but having a guy that big will make things interesting. Vincent Cordell and Kenny Daniels will add some depth on the wings. Both junior college transfers, the 6-6 Cordell and the 6-4 Daniels are ready to make an impact this year. Mark Hill will be eligible after the fall semester. The transfer from Tulsa will add even more depth at the point.

Who to Watch:

Tresvant is not the only experienced player returning to the backcourt. Josh Jenkins averaged 10.5 points per game and dished out 6.4 assists. Jenkins does a good job getting to the basket and creating for his teammates, but he could stand to develop a little more consistency on his jump shot. His 3.9 turnovers per game sounds high, but the Matadors will run at every opportunity so the turnovers will happen. Yet, there is room for improvement for his senior season. Paul Wayne is an experienced backup point guard. Rob Haynes and Rodrigue Mels will join Tresvant on the wings. Haynes is a decent scorer and slasher, but if expects to start at the three guard spot, Haynes needs to help out more on the glass. Mels saw limited action last year, but he has the potential to be a decent scoring threat off the bench and take over Tresvant’s old job as the sixth man.

Final Projection:

Up front Northridge will depend on Tremaine Townsend. The 6-9 senior has a big wing span and he used that asset to grab 9.8 rebounds and tally 1.2 blocks per contest last year. He is a solid scorer as well and can even step outside and consistently hit the mid-range jumper. Townsend was a double-double threat every game last year and will be so again this year. With Gallick by his side, Coach Bobby Braswell’s team has a solid frontcourt. Consistency of play might keep the Matadors away from being the obvious conference favorites, but this is a group who can beat just about anybody on any given night.

Projected Post-season Tournament: none

Projected Starting Five:

Josh Jenkins, Senior, Guard, 10.5 points per game

Deon Tresvant, Senior, Guard, 13.9 points per game

Rob Haynes, Senior, Guard, 6.8 points per game

Willie Galick, Junior, Forward, DNP last season

Tremaine Townsend, Senior, Forward, 10.1 points per game

Complete Top 144 Ranking | 2008-09 Preview & Awards | Coach Interviews | Discuss the Preview

Daily Dribble: Friday Report Card

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:31:22 -0800

The Report Card

A - Big West Race

The battle for top spot in the Big West is shaping up to be an exciting race. The top four teams in the conference met last night with Pacific beating Northridge in OT and UCSB getting the best of Fullerton. These four teams are now all within a game of each other. Northridge is still the favorite in my opinion, as their schedule shapes up nicely.. with a challenging road game at Fullerton, but otherwise home games or easy road games remaining.

B - Pittsburgh

When Levance Fields and Mike Cook went down right before New Year's, this team looked like it might collapse. But since the Dayton debacle, the Panthers have hung tough in Big East play and currently sit at 6-4 after Ramon's buzzer-beater upended West Virginia. The Panthers did enough in their non-conference schedule so that anything over .500 in league play should situate them nicely for the Big Dance. The rest of their schedule is by no means a walk in the park, four road games at Marquette, ND, WVU, and Syracuse remain, which is why last night's win was so important.

C - Shaun Pruitt

Watching the senior hit only 1 of 7 free throws, including two at the end of the 2nd OT that could have won the game, was painful. But it pains me to put Pruitt low on the list, because he's one of my favorite players in the Big Ten, is the team's most consistent player, and he's worked hard to improve since freshman year.

D - Virginia

Remember when the Cavs beat Arizona back in November and then almost beat Syracuse a couple weeks later. They were 10-2 heading into January 1st, but are just 1-8 in 2008.. must have been some bad champagne on New Year's. Obviously the increased talent-level of the ACC competition is a big reason for the struggles, but they're not even coming close to winning games. Making things worse, its not like youth is an excuse. Singletary & Joseph are seniors, and Diane is a junior.

F - Illini Nation

Enough with the Eric Gordon obsession. It's not his fault your coach can't recruit.. brought in nobody with talent last year, and has no one good lined up for next year. At one point during the game, the announcers mentioned that this team "has more talent" than a 10-14 team. But that's completely wrong. This team barely has the talent of a 10-14 team.. but Weber's coaching (he can't recruit but he can coach) keeps them in games.

The Daily Report Card tells you all you need to know about the day in college hoops. From good to bad and bad to worse, I'll be laying down the law.

Previous Best / Worst

February 6th - Chris Lofton / Dick Vitale

February 5th - Bob Knight / Josh Heytvelt

February 4th - New York Giants / Washington State

February 1st - Nevada / Penn

January 31st - Kansas State / St. John's

January 29th - Winthrop / Dyson & Wiggins

January 28th - Rutgers / Doris Burke

January 25th - Ron Hunter / Princeton Offense

January 23rd - Kentucky / Archbishop Burke

January 22nd - DJ Augustin / Scott Sutton

January 21st - New York Giants / Marquette

January 20th - Maryland / ESPN.com editors

January 18th - Cleveland State / Marquette

January 17th - Drake / HP Laptops

January 14th - Roy Hibbert / Michigan State

January 10th - Tony Bennett / Saint Louis

January 9th - DJ White / CSTV

January 8th - Robert Morris / Schedule Makers

January 7th - Wayne Ellington / Illinois

January 6th - Herb Sendek / Kentucky

Welser Wonders: Bo Ryan, Dave Odom, CSUN

Joel Welser — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:05:12 -0800

As a neutral observer, I never get to have any personal interest in the bubble. But I figure I have the right to cheer for my alma mater and boy is it fun. Even when my school has little to no chance of an at-large bid, I still can’t help but check the RPI numbers right after an opponent of an opponent plays a game. ‘Was that win by Utah Valley State enough to move Northridge up .01 points in the RPI?’ I always hope and wonder. And those Matadors kick off this week of what “Welser Wonders…”

WELSER WONDERS..

…where the love is for the Matadors? I’m not one to care about polls very much, since they are meaningless and it is difficult to argue with somebody’s opinion of a team, but I had to find a way to talk about California State University, Northridge. In the collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, CSUN is ranked 13th. Ranked 12th is Cleveland State and UC Santa Barbara is 11th. So what’s the problem? Northridge has beaten both of those teams this year.

Cleveland State has a valid argument. Their RPI is nine spots better than CSUN and they do have some quality wins over Butler, Florida State and Valparaiso. UCSB, on the other hand, has one good win against UNLV. However, at least by the RPI numbers, that is not as impressive of a win as Northridge’s victory over Cleveland State. Northridge has a better record than UCSB and a much better RPI. CSUN’s worse loss of the year is at Washington, while the Gauchos lost to UC Irvine.

It is quite clear that the preseason expectations have continued to play a large part in these polls. UCSB was expected to win the Big West while CSUN was expected to continue their mediocrity by turning the ball over 20 times a game and getting out-rebounded by 30 a game. Luckily, it has no effect on anything and the Big West will come down to four days in Anaheim anyway. And, of course, the Matadors lost to Chicago State on Tuesday after I wrote this anyway, so there goes my fun RPI watching.

…why he doesn’t take his own advice? About a month ago I was talking to a friend about hoops. What else would I talk about? Somehow we got on the topic of Texas A&M and they were wondering how good they really were. So I go on about senior leadership, the absence of Acie Law and so forth. Beating Washington and Ohio State on a neutral floor is all well and good, but the Aggies lost their only true road game at Arizona by 11. After glancing at a schedule during that conversation, I told my friend if he wanted to make some easy money, take Texas Tech and the points on January 16th.

The occasional trip to the slot machines and the not so friendly family card game is about as much gambling as I can handle, but when a team is playing their second road game in mid-January, you can bet the spread will be in your favor. It turned out there was no need to take the five or six points Vegas was giving the Red Raiders, as TAMU lost by 15. It didn’t get any better a few days later when the team had to head to Kansas State where they lost by 21.

The real story, besides me not trusting myself, is that Texas A&M has had the second easiest schedule in the Big XII and the RPI numbers are not promising if they can’t win a game on the road. The next road game is Saturday in Stillwater and besides the February 5th trip to Iowa State, Okie State may be the most winnable road game on the Aggies schedule.

…what to think about the departure of South Carolina coach Dave Odom? Odom stepped down, or retired, or whatever you want to call it, this week effective at the end of the season. The Gamecocks have actually done better than I expected this year. They’ve only lost to one team outside of the top 50 in the RPI and have beaten two teams in the top 50 in Providence and Arkansas. Who really expected anything better than that? But that is part of the problem…the expectations in Columbia are a lot higher than consistent NIT success.

Coach Odom’s resignation speech reminded me of Richard Nixon. Even the most die-hard Democrats who have been hoping for years for that moment must have felt some pity for the man inside the tough exterior as he said goodbye to the nation. Most South Carolina fans probably weren’t as sympathetic. When you lose your people, it is time to move on and that is what Coach Odom has done. The coach mentioned many times during his press conference that the fans weren’t behind his team anymore. I don’t know if it is ever wise to boo your own team, but it happens and that is a good time to go your separate ways.

The problem was Coach Odom’s constant mention of the fans rubbed some the wrong way. I don’t think he intended to blame the fans, he was just pointing out the fact that when the fans aren’t behind you, it is time for a change, but some came away with the impression that the fans were being blamed. To keep the politics thing going, that didn’t work for Jimmy Carter and the energy crisis and it won’t work in college basketball either. In the end, it was time for a change and now South Carolina fans can at least be excited for the rest of this season about next season.

…when we will learn to respect Bo Ryan? Except for last year, the Badgers rarely have any superstars. That is the case again this year and Wisconsin is off to a 16-2 start. Most had them pegged as a bubble team, but Coach Ryan is back to his old ways of going under the radar and putting together a quality team based on solid defense and interchangeable parts. Trevon Hughes, Brian Butch and Marcus Landry are all averaging double figure scoring and the bench has plenty of talent.

However, the jury is not out quite yet on the Badgers. The team’s two losses were against Duke and Marquette, which is fine. Their best win is at Texas, which is becoming less and less impressive with each passing two point Longhorn victory over inferior opponents. Wisconsin’s 6-0 conference mark is somewhat misleading. The Badgers have played Michigan twice and each of the four other cellar dwellers of the Big Ten. Once the Badgers start playing Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State and Minnesota, we will see if the Badgers are something special or just another probable one and done team come March.