Recently in men's basketball Category
Cal State San Bernardino Head Coach Jeff Oliver concluded a late spring and summer season of recruiting by signing one community college player and two NCAA Division I players to compete for the Coyotes in 2008-09.
All three have the potential to be key contributors as the Coyotes prepare to compete for another California Collegiate Athletic Association title and a shot at regional and national championships.
New to the fold are:
Tavaris Gilbert, a 6-8 post player from Ventura College who started 18 games, averaging 12.5 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game and shot 49 percent from the field, 58 percent from three-point range. As a freshman at
Devin Montgomery, a 6-foot point guard who was a starter at
DuBois Williams, a 6-6 guard who is transferring in from St. Mary's College in
"Tavaris brings added depth to our front court," said Oliver. "He's a guy who can score underneath and step out to the three. He will present a difficult matchup for our opponents."
Williams, Oliver said, "is a point guard in a 6-6 body. He has more offensive tools than he has had a chance to display at his other schools. And, he's a tremendous rebounder for a guard."
Oliver previously announced the signings of Larry DeHughes, a 6-4 guard from
The Cal State San Bernardino men's basketball team graduated seven players, five of whom played considerable minutes. Head coach Jeff Oliver has started rebuilding with the addition of four players to the program.
All are transfers, which has pretty much been his pattern since stepping in as head coach six years ago.
Oliver said the team's biggest needs have been addressed. The Coyotes (22-8, 15-5) led the CCAA in scoring defense but were just fifth in offense and seventh in field-goal percentage.
The Coyotes have finished with at least a share of the conference title seven of the last nine years but were bounced from the Division II West Region tournament in the quarterfinal.
"Our achillies heel was our offense and the fact that we weren't consistent from long distance," he said. "We took care of those issues. I expect us to be one of the better 3-point shooting teams."
The newcomers are 6-foot-7 junior forward Brandon Brown (Holmes CC in Goodman, Miss.), 6-4 junior guard Larry DeHughes (Fullerton JC), 6-4 senior forward-guard Michael Frazier (Mt. San Jacinto/Northern Colorado) and 6-2 junior point guard Lawrence Tyson (Northeastern JC in Colorado/Cal State Northridge).
Brown, a New Orleans native, averaged 27 points and 13 points for a team that went 16-8. He had a season high of 38 points twice.
Oliver expects him to be an impact player.
"He could be the best inside scorer we have ever had," he said. "He is an absolute presence in the paint and has 101 post moves and he's a great athlete."
Frazier last played at Northern Colorado in 2003-04 after transferring from Mt. San Jacinto. Oliver said he has unlimited range and won't affected by the move of the 3-point line back a foot.
DeHughes played at Compton as a freshman and at Fullerton last year, helping the Hornets to the state title game and earning All-Orange Empire Conference honors.
Tyson played at Cal State Northridge as a freshman and is a graduate of Quartz Hill High School.
The Coyotes have just one returning starter - defensive stopper Phil Jones. Reserves Devon Davis, Reggie Brown and Steve Gaston saw considerable time while freshman Ryan Kinney saw some playing time.
Those who redshirted last year expected to have an impact next season are guard Tim Denson, a transfer from Colorado State, and center Jordan Richard, out of Los Osos High School.
Guard Omar Krayem, who redshirted last season afer coming in from Eastern Washington, is not returning.
Oliver is still looking for a wing, a point guard and another big man.
The only other question mark is an intangible as Oliver will be looking for a floor leader to replace departed guard Marlon Pierce who filled that role.
"We really don't know yet who is going to be the take charge guy," he said.
Cal State San Bernardino's men's basketball team, co-champions of the California Collegiate Athletic Association this past season, will conduct a basketball clinic for youths ages eight to 17 on Saturday, May 24, at the Highland Family YMCA.
Current CSUSB players along with some former players will join Assistant Coach Darren French in covering the fundamentals of basketball during the session which is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The clinic is free.
The YMCA is located at
WADSWORTH, Ohio -- The 2007-08 men's basketball season ended in mid-March for his teammates but Cal State San Bernardino senior guard Marlon Pierce has been racking up the frequent flyer miles while playing in two all-star events in the East and Midwest in the past month.
Pierce finished his cross-country journeys with a 13-point, three-steals performance in the third place game of the Collegiate Basketball Invitational Tournament in this Ohio city 40 miles south of Cleveland. His team -- Premier Pontiac -- won the game 102-95, last Friday night.
It was the 6-2 guard's best showing in the tournament. He hit five of nine field goals, lincluding three of five shots from three-point range and collected one assist in 28 minutes as a starter.
The teams in the tournament were made up of graduating seniors from NCAA Div. II, Div. III and NAIA universities and colleges throughout the country.
In late March, Pierce had the privilege of playing in the NCAA Div. II All-Star Basketball Game at the James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., during the Div. II national championship tournament, the same place Pierce and the Coyotes visited a year ago when they reached the Final Four.
In his other games with the Premier Pontiac team, Pierce scored four points, grabbed four rebounds and made two steals in 25 minutes in a 102-90 win over Renacci-Doraty Chevrolet on Thursday, April 24. Pierce scored eight points and grabbed two rebounds in 22 minutes in his team's 108-81 loss to First Merit. He sank two of four shots from three-point range.
Pierce was the only player from the California Collegiate Athletic Association to participate in the tournament. The championship game was telecast live on ESPNU.
Cal State San Bernardino senior David Reichel has signed with the Los Angeles Lightning of the International Basketball League which plays through June.
The IBL is made up of teams from the Midwest and West Coast along with teams from
The Lightning plays its home games at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, just a few miles from Reichel’s home in Camarillo where he played his high school ball and one year at nearby The Master’s College before coming to CSUSB.
The 6-8 Reichel scored six points in eight minutes of action in Saturday’s game against
Two veteran NBA players are the marquee players for the Lightning – 11-year NBA veteran Lamond Murray and Fred Vinson, most recently an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers.
“This is an opportunity for me to show what I can do and hope I can sign a contract with an international team in Europe,
He said the IBL has a 50 percent success rate of placing players with pro teams at higher levels and overseas.
Asked about the quality of play in the IBL compared to NCAA Division II, Reichel said, “Everyone is not that much quicker, but they are much stronger and the veterans know all the tricks of the trade.”
Reichel had an outstanding year for the Coyotes in 2006-07, averaging 5.6 points a game in 32 games, helping CSUSB post a 26-6 record and win the NCAA Div. II West Regional. The team made the Elite Eight for the third time in the history of the program and became the first to advance to the Final Four, beating Wingate 100-73 in the quarterfinals.
He averaged 14 minutes per game, shot 54 percent from the field and set a new all-time single-season record by hitting 50 percent of his three-pointers (39 of 78) in 2006-07.
His senior season was marred by a thumb injury that forced him to miss six games and affected his shooting and playing time. He averaged 5.1 points per game but shot only 36 percent from the field. Still, he averaged 15 minutes per game for a team that won a CCAA conference co-championship.
Reichel’s best performance of 2007-08 was a career-high, 17-point outing against Kentucky Wesleyan in early November in the Disney West Coast Classic. He averaged 7.4 points a game before being hurt during the Christmas break. He scored 11 points against
The Lightning is owned and managed by Mark Harwell, a television and film executive. The head coach is Ron Quarterman, former coach at
The IBL teams include
The Lightning play most of their games at home at CLU, but will be traveling to
By Michelle Gardner
Staff Writer
Cal Poly Pomona got off to a good start with its recruiting class signing a pair of players coach Greg Kamansky thinks can make an impact right away.
Kevin Ryan, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward out of El Segundo High School, and Dwayne Fells, a 235-pound forward out of Fullerton High School, are the first to sign letters of intent.
“I am very pleased. This gets us off to a great start,” Kamansky said. “They’re guys that can be program changers. You never know how guys are going to progress but they have that kind of potential.”
Ryan averaged 22 points and 15 rebounds, earning Pioneer League Most Outstanding Player honors this past season.
Fells averaged 20 points and 14 rebounds, earning first-team all-Freeway League honors. He was the league’s Most Valuable Player as a junior in 2007 and was a two-time, all-CIF selection.
Those additions address one of the Broncos biggest needs with the departure of center Kaelen Daniels and his backup Kein Neveu.
Kamansky said he is still looking to add three or four more players, with the biggest emphasis now going to the guard position. While the Broncos recruiting focus has typically been on high school graduates, he might look to fill that void with a more experienced transfer.
Cal Poly graduates shooting guard Angelo Tsagarakis but does already have a quality player in the fold in Austin Swift, a Division I transfer who redshirted last year because of an ankle injury.
“We never seem to have a problem with the big men but we never get enough guards,” he said.
The Broncos finished 13-15 this past season and just missed their fifth NCAA Division II postseason berth in six seasons by finishing second in the CCAA Tournament.
“We’re hoping these guys can get us back to where we’re challenging for a conference title and back up there with the elite teams,” he said.
Marlon Pierce, the senior guard from Cal State San Bernardino who has earned all-conference, all-region and honorable mention all-America honors this season, is heading to his second post-season all-star event later this month.
Pierce, the 6-2 guard from
The three-day event features eight teams of eight players representing NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA schools. Each team will play three games in the tournament, considered a showcase for pro scouts from various pro leagues including the NBA.
An all-star game, featuring 20 players chosen from the 65 that will be playing in
the tournament, will be played on Saturday, April 26, at 8 p.m. central daylight time and be televised live on cable channel ESPNU.
CBI will take place at
“I am confident that this class of players will help make the public aware of the high level of talent at the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA levels,” said CBI founder John McCarthy. “With approximately 1,000 colleges and universities within these divisions, the selection of players has truly been a challenging task. Narrowing this field to 65 players has been very difficult.”
The three-day event exposes the players to professional team representatives, agents and national media while competing against many of the best non-Division I players in the nation.
Each of the eight teams is sponsored by a
Other West Region Division II players playing in the tournament are: Rob Will, a 6-10 center from Seattle Pacific; 7-foot center Marko Lkoaric of Chaminade; guard Luke Cooper of West Region champion Alaska Anchorage;
Also in the tournament are 6-5 guard Jonte Flowers and 6-8 forward John Smith from NCAA Div. II national champion
“This event is simply good for the game of basketball on several levels,” McCarthy said.
Pierce’s team opens the tournament at 10 a.m. on April 24 against Renacci-Doraty Chevrolet led by Kolaric of Chaminade.
Each team has a host family from the city of
Pierce averaged 12.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and nearly four assists per game for the Coyotes in 2007-08, helping them win a share of the California Collegiate Athletic Association title and a berth in the NCAA tournament. The team finished 22-8 on the season and ranked 14th in the nation.
He scored a team-high 13 points with three assists in the the Coyotes’ 67-63 loss to BYU-Hawaii in the West Region quarterfinals.
He earned all-CCAA first-team, all-West Region first team and Division II Bulletin all-America honorable mention. He scored a career high 29 points against UC San Diego.
At the Div. II all-star game in
Pierce played at
By Michelle Gardner
Staff Writer
A good start was probably the worst thing that could have happened to the Cal State San Bernardino men’s basketball team.
The Coyotes were an impressive 8-0 despite a difficult schedule and they even boasted an exhibition win over Division I Youngstown State. So hopes for a return trip to the national semifinal were not unrealistic.
The Coyotes had their moments but didn’t put 40 minutes together in any game after that. They settled for a still-stellar 22-8 record and a share of the CCAA title for the seventh time in nine years, both noteworthy accomplishments. But with three Elite appearances since 1999, the bar has been raised higher at Cal State.
This year’s run ended with a 67-63 loss to Brigham Young-Hawaii in the West Region quarterfinal at Anchorage.
“I don’t think we were as good as we thought we were,” said Coyotes coach Jeff Oliver, who just wrapped up his sixth season heading the program. “We relied a little too much on our defense and that carried us because we never got it totally together at the other end of the floor.”
The Coyotes came up empty in the close games. They were just 1-3 in overtime and seven of their eight losses were by a total of 24 points. They lost three times when allowing 65 points or less.
“Most of those games we win and it isn’t even close if we have just an average offensive game,” Oliver said.
The Coyotes, who won 20 games for the ninth time in 10 years, came in to the season having lost seven players including their top four scorers.
This year’s team seemed more balanced, with 12 players getting regular playing time, but it never got the same production it got from its top two departed players - Ivan Johnson and Prentice Harris.
“I thought we had balance but it turned out to be a balance of mediocrity,” Oliver added. “We needed more production from our top guys and more production from our middle guys.”
The good news for Oliver is that the Coyotes will start next season with more players who have experience in the system than was the case this year. Seven players are leaving, four of them starters. Among those are all-conference selections Michael Earl, Lance Ortiz and Marlon Pierce.
The core of six who will be counted on heavily next year includes guard Steve Gaston, center Devon Davis, forward Ryan Kinney and guard-forwards Renardo Bass, Phil Jones and Reggie Brown. Gaston, Brown and Kinney are threats form long distance but will need to be more consistent. Jones and Bass were both top-notch defenders but will be asked to contribute more on offense.
Oliver also is high on the three players who redshirted this year. Guards Tim Denson (Colorado State) and Omar Krayem (Eastern Washington) are both Division I transfers. Jordan Richard, a 6-foot-9 center out of Los Osos, has potential to fill the void left by the departure of Earl.
Oliver said he hopes to bring at least five players into the program, at least one at every position. As has been the case Oliver will look for experienced players out of the junior college ranks.
“It never hurts to have some competition so I am hoping we get at least five, maybe as many as seven guys,” he said.
Oliver said his team is not going back to the Disney West Coast Classic in Anaheim since the event is trying to rotate representation out of the CCAA. Humboldt State will be the likely conference participant.
The Coyotes will open the season with games at Seattle Pacific against Great Northwest Athletic Conference contenders Western Washington and Seattle Pacific.
They will go back to Las Vegas but not the same event they had played in the last two years against GNAC schools. Instead they will face Grand Canyon, which once was in the CCAA and now plays out of the Pacific West Conference, and San Francisco School of the Arts, which has been accepted into the Pac West for next season.
Oliver said he will also have exhibition games against two Division I schools which should be confirmed in the next month.
By Michelle Gardner
Staff Writer
Cal Poly Pomona coach Greg Kamansky spent most of Friday watching the junior college state tournament in Stockton. He would have rather been in Alaska, where eight teams were competing in the Division II West Regional.
For just the second time in the last six years the Broncos did not make the playoffs. And for the first time in Kamansky’s eight-year tenure Cal Poly finished under .500 at 13-15. So it is back to the drawing board.
“We need to upgrade at every position,” Kamansky said, by phone from Stockton. “We need posts but we also need guards. We really need everything.”
Kamansky wasn’t surprised at the sub-par season, acknowledging that the signs were there early. Division I transfer Austin Swift injured an ankle this summer and never got well. He tried to play through it, but shut it down after just two games.
With the Broncos carrying only 10 players, about five fewer than most teams, the injury loomed large.
“Because of our depth, or lack of it, we’re always just one injury away. That is always the case. And it showed this year,” Kamansky said.
He added that the rest of the team came in out of shape, making matters worse.
It was indeed a rollercoaster ride for the Kamansky’s crew. The Broncos got off to a 2-6 start but seemingly recovered when it put together midseason wins over perennial powers Humboldt State and Cal State San Bernardino, both nationally ranked at the time. But Cal Poly hit the skids again and barely made it into the eight-team conference tournament.
It finished off the regular season with an impressive win at Humboldt, then reeled off two wins in the conference tournament before losing the final to UC San Diego.
“We were able to end on a somewhat positive note so that is something we can hold on to,” Kamansky said.
The Broncos are losing just three seniors, two of them posts in Kaelen Daniels (8.3 points, 5.3 rebounds per game) and reserve Kevin Neveau (5.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg). The other departing player is shooting guard Angelo Tsagarakis (15.1 ppg, 2.5 assists per game) who was deadly from 3-point range when he was on but also sometimes erratic.
The good news is that the Broncos have a centerpiece to build around in junior Larry Gordon (17.7 ppg, 9.1 rpg). The Montclair product was a first-team all-conference and all-region selection and likely would have been in the hunt for player of the year honors had the Broncos finished higher.
Among the other returning veterans will be junior wing Donnelle Booker (7.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg), junior guard Rich Collins (5.1 ppg), sophomore guard Isaac Waters and freshman forward Tobias Jahn, all of whom saw considerable playing time.
Kamansky said he is looking for five to six newcomers that will bring an intensity that was sometimes missing this season. He typically tries to build via the high school ranks but will be looking for some seasoned junior college players as well.
“We looked good at times but we were very average most of the time,” he said. “The team chemistry was never quite right and we didn’t always get in there and compete hard. Those are the things we have to address.”
By MATT NEVALA
For the San Bernardino Sun
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In unfamiliar surroundings, the Coyotes found themselves in a familiar situation Friday during the NCAA Division II West Regional. Only this time, the Cal State San Bernardino men’s basketball team couldn’t get past Brigham Young University-Hawaii in the opening round.
Making their first appearance on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, the Coyotes hustled their way back from a nine-point, second-half deficit before falling to BYU-Hawaii 67-63 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex. Cal State’s usually sound defense from baseline to baseline disappeared too often, especially down the stretch when the Seasiders closed with one needed basket after another.
“We were horrible tonight,” Cal State coach Jeff Oliver said. “We didn’t do what we do – pressure the ball, guard the ball and rebound.
“If we don’t do that, we’re probably not going to win.”
Last season, the Coyotes cruised to the Division II Final Four after opening the postseason with a 71-68 win over BYU-Hawaii in Arcata. This season, the Seasiders dashed the team’s title dreams in Anchorage, the ride over after posting a 22-8 record.
“We knew going in that no one was going to let us win,” said Coyotes senior guard Marlon Pierce. “Right now, it’s tough to think about the season as a whole. Looking back, there will probably be some things I’ll be proud of and some things to be disappointed in.”
The Coyotes and BYU-Hawaii played the second of four games on Friday’s opening-round docket. They also played in front of a capacity crowd, despite host and top-seeded Alaska Anchorage not playing until the nightcap. While not booed or hassled, second-seeded Cal State clearly didn’t feel the love from the Anchorage fans the way BYU-Hawaii did as the game moved along. The seventh-seeded Seasiders were met with continued cheers. Maybe it had something to do with Alaska and Hawaii together not being connected to the Lower 48, the term Alaskans use to describe the contiguous portion of the country.The Coyotes, defending region champs and perennial Division II powerhouses, believed it was something else.
“We’re pretty used to that,” senior guard Lance Ortiz said.
Pierce knew what was up.
“We’ve had a pretty big target on our back all year,” he said. “Everywhere we played, even the neutral sites, we were all we had. Our 15 to 18 guys with the coaches included (are) what we had all season. It was nothing we hadn’t seen before.”
BYU-Hawaii committed 11 of its 12 first-half turnovers in the first 12 minutes. After that, it made only one turnover before halftime. The Seasiders (19-7) solved Cal State’s full-court pressure defense and began getting easy looks for their big men – 6-foot-9 sophomore center Lucas Alves and 6-7 junior Jermaine Odjegba. Each player finished with 16 points.
Alves’ emphatic slam from the left side with 4:19 to play in the first half gave BYU-Hawaii a 24-20 lead. The advantage grew to five (34-29) by the break.
“The two people that hurt us were their bigs and bigs aren’t supposed to hurt us,” Oliver said. “It was a major problem.”
And one that got worse for the Coyotes in the second half before it got a little better.
Alves shook loose for three second-half dunks, including a pair of ooh- and aah-inspiring alley oops. The second on a pass from Corey Neilson gave the Seasiders a 49-42 lead with 12:39 to play.
“(The Coyotes) tried to press the ball as much as they could so the weak side was kind of wide open,” Alves said. “The first time, I was open so I just threw my finger up (looking for the pass). Yes, I was pretty surprised it worked again after that.”
BYU-Hawaii extended the lead to 51-42 moments after Alves’ alley-oop dunk. It was then when the Coyotes found their defensive prowess and mounted the comeback.
Cal State made stop after stop and scored the next 10 points. Joseph Tillman’s long-range jumper gave his team a 52-51 lead with 6:16 remaining. The Seasiders scored, but Cal State answered with an Ortiz three-pointer and Michael Earl free throw. The Coyotes led 56-53, but they then went scoreless the next 2:37.
They also relented defensively, allowing eight consecutive BYU-Hawaii points. Pierce and Ortiz each knocked down three-pointers. Ortiz’s triple with 52 seconds left sliced the Seasiders’ lead to 63-62. Odjegba left-side leaner and a pair of Neilson free throws finished off the Coyotes.
Alves grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. BYU-Hawaii will play rival Chaminade in today’s region semifinal.
Pierce led Cal State with 13 points. Ortiz added 11. The Coyotes were beat on the boards 32-25. BYU-Hawaii shot 54.9 percent (28 of 51) from the floor.
In a classy postgame move, Oliver closed his comments by thanking his group of eight seniors, led by Pierce, Ortiz and Earl.
“Overall, this probably wasn’t the most talented team I’ve had,” said the coach in his sixth season. “But it’s probably been the most enjoyable to coach. This core group (of seniors) is the one that put us back on the map after having the one .500 year. My hat is off to those guys that got us pointed back in the right direction.”
Matt Nevala is a former Anchorage Daily News sports reporter. Contact him at nevs@gci.net.
