Cal State San Bernardino: February 2012 Archives

The Cal State San Bernardino men's basketball team has not missed the NCAA Division II playoffs in back-to-back years since 1998-1999. But that is looming as a pretty strong possibility unless the Coyotes can regroup. Quickly!!!

The Coyotes were lambasted by Chico State on Saturday 73-58. And it wasn't even that close.

It's hard to figure out how the Coyotes could come out that flat. They started the night in a four-way tie for first place. That alone should have been enough motivation. But the Coyotes needed the game badly. They're facing the daunting task of finishing the regular season with four straight road games inlcuding back-to-back games at Humboldt and Sonoma the last weekend that are nearly impossible to sweep.

The Coyotes also don't have any quality wins to hang there hat on either. They were already 0-2 vs. Cal Poly Pomona and 0-1 vs. Humboldt. Now they're 0-2 against Chico as well.

They also had a couple of sub-par performances in nonconference play against Pac West foes Grand Canyon and Dixie State. The Dixie loss looks legit but the longer the season plays out the worse the loss to Grand Canyon seems to be. Its a far inferior conference and going 0-2 against two teams from there will not help.

The Coyotes are 2-0 against both Dominguez Hills and Cal State L.A. but those are two are both floundering and looking like averaget teams at best,.

So when the West Region rankings come out on Wednesday the Coyotes will be nowhere to be found. Their only chance at advancing to the postseason will be to win the CCAA Tournament. As wildly as inconsistent as this team has been, it doesn't appear capeable of putting together three straight quality wins, especially when their opponents will have the same sense of urgency.

It's disappointing because the pieces appeared to be there.

Cal State San Bernardino guard Angela Streets has been named the California Collegiate Athletic Association's (CCAA) women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 5.

Streets, a senior from Chandler, Ariz., had a solid weekend while helping the Coyotes to wins over Cal State Dominguez and Cal State L.A., and their first CCAA sweep of the season. She averaged 24.5 points on 14-for-29 shooting (46.2 percent), four rebounds and two assists while playing all but three minutes in her team's two games.

During a 64-49 win over the Toros on Friday, Streets scored 24 points, collected four rebounds, three assists, a steal and block. She followed that effort with 25 points, four rebounds and two assists in a 63-57 victory over Cal State L.A.

Riverside native Brandon Ward of Cal State Monterey Bay was named Men's Player of the Week.

Cal State San Bernardino is next in action on Friday when it hosts Cal State Stanislaus at 5:30 p.m.

CCAA Women's Basketball Players of the Week:

Nov. 7-13: Chelsea Carlisle (UC San Diego)

Nov. 14-20: Sarah Semenero (Cal Poly Pomona)

Nov. 21-27: Chelsea Carlisle (UC San Diego)

Nov. 28 - Dec. 4: Brandi Stephens (Cal State Monterey Bay);

Dec. 5-11: Theresa Henderson (Cal State Stanislaus)

Dec. 12-18: Ariel Marsh (Cal Poly Pomona)

Dec. 19-25: Catie Richards (Humboldt State)

Dec. 26 - Jan. 1: Megan Ford (Cal Poly Pomona)

Jan. 2-8: Syncro Bull (Chico State)

Jan. 9-15: Chelsea Carlisle (UC San Diego)

Jan. 16-22: Daisy Feder (UC San Diego)

Jan. 23-29: Jazzi Johnson (Cal State L.A.)

Jan. 30-Feb. 5: Angela Streets (Cal State San Bernardino).

What basketball fan doesn't like a good dunk? How about one that brings downs the house? Literally?

Well they don't get much better than the dunk by Cal State San Bernardino behemoth Kwame Alexander against CCAA foe Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday at Coussoulis Arena.

Alexander took a perfectly time Alley-Oop from Tre Brewer, soared through the air and dunked it home with such conviction it pulled the entire backboard down, bringing a roar from the small crowd. It was restored to its proper position even before the buzzing stopped.

Well the dunk is a hit on You Tube. Isn't everything these days? Punch in Kwame Alexanders's name and go to the entry "CSUSB Alexander Dunk PullsDown the Backboard." It wasn't posted until late Saturday and has already drawn 3,000 hits in less than 24 hours.

Stick with it because there are a couple of great slo-mo replays and note the backboard just misses coming down on the shoulder of a Dominguez player.

School officials are planning to put a highlight reel of his dunks this season. Those of us who get to watch him are spoiled by the ordinary dunk because there are so many spectacular ones. He's easily the most exciting player to watch in the conference and worth the price of admission.

Why there aren't more fans there to watch him alone is more puzzling. That's also a subject for another day!

Well, I had Thursday night off and it wasn't exactly a good "TV" night so I spent much of it watching the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies game. Why that game? Well former Cal State San Bernardino player Ivan Johnson is a rookie with the Hawks so I had a vested interest.

It's always nice when someone you saw through the growing stages makes it up to the professional ranks. There are two other prominent ones for me - Keyon Dooling of the Boston Celtics is one I know from his high school days back in Florida. The other is Texas Rangers catcher Mike Napoli, whom I also covered in the prep ranks as well as in the minor leagues.

Well Johnson is one we all knew had a chance of making it in the NBA IF his demons didn't get to him first. He's toiled in the D-League and overseas. This was a chance a lot of guys don't get, especially at 27.

Ivan seems to be making the most of it. He just missed a double-double with 10 points (the first two coming on a thuindering dunk), nine rebounds and two blocked shots. He logged 28 minutes, the most he has logged in a game this season.

The numbers were a bit skewed. The game was a blow out (96-77), not indicative of how well the Hawks have been playing as of late, so the subs did see a lot of action. But Ivan did play 10 uninterrupted minutes in the first half when it was still competitive.

Then the second half. Ivan did draw a technical foul late in the fourth quarter after a phantom foul call on him . . some things never change. Replays showed Ivan never touched the guy he supposedly fouled. The TV analyst also admitted the technical foul was really weak one. But when you're a rookie, you really can't say boo. Referees have the last word and they're going to send a message,.

He is averaging 5.4 points and 3.5 rebounds.

With Al Horford out for the near future Ivan is going to continue to see steady playing time. He has played as little as 2 minutes but is typically between 15 and 25 minutes. He has been through a lot in his life and it is great to see him fulfilling his dream. It's a chance he needs to take full advantage of.