News Scrapbook 1981-1982

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Completes Its 'Preseason' With 91-58 Win

EVENING TRIBUNE

JAN 13 1982

TOR EROS PLAY TOMORROW: The University of San Diego Toreros play Gonzaga University to- morrow night at Alcala Park at 7:35.

u. . IQ !? 2 ,i,Utq-J College :Notes

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By George Cordry J Adv e At the University of San Diego, Don Ca- pener, whom Palomar League basketball fans will recall from his prep playing days at Torrey Pines, ls only the sixth man on USD's basketball squad, but he's having an excellent year for the 7-5 Toreros, who entertain Gonzaga at 7:35 p.m. on Thursday Capener, a sophomore, has returned to USD after a two-year 'Mormon mission. He's averaging 8.2 points a game and has connected on 52 percent of his shots from the floor and 84 percent of his free throws. He's a 6-foot-6 forward-guard. At USIU, the road-weary Gulls are in the midst of a brief home -basketball stand after havlng played 17 of their first 18 games away Home for USIU, 5·15 on the season, ls Mira Mesa High School, where the Gulls will meet Northern Arizona on Thursday night. The USIU lee hoclcey team fares a little better, pfaying 18 of its 31 1981·82 games at the Mira Mesa House of Ice, including matches with Northern Ari· zona on Friday and Saturday evenings.

EVENING TRIBUNE JAN 1 i982 • The University of San ~iego women's etba_ll team is in Laramie, Wyo., taking part m the D1~! Classic tournament where the Toreras open up against Utah tate tonight at 9. Other teams m the tourney are Wyo- ming Mexico State, Idaho U., Pacific Christian, Colorado Wom~n·s College and Oklahoma Baptist College.

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EVEN ING TRIBUNE 1 ...

Aztecs, Toreros lay it on the line By T.R. Reinman Tribune Sportswriter Now, they'll tell you, 91 days after it started, now is when it really begins.

San Diego State and University of San Diego started their basketball seasons in the middle of October but they have just begun the serious business of conference play - walks down the yellow brick road the coaches hope will end on easy street: the NCAA playoffs. An invitation, not even a first-round win, just, "Say, fellas, come on over and play," is worth $95,000 this year. To automatically collect the dough you have to pass "Go," and that means winning your conference title - in State's case, the Western Athletic Conference; for USD, the West Coast Athletic Conference. The Aztecs actually opened their conference schedule Saturday with a loss at Hawaii, their fourth loss of the year, all of which have come on the road. "I just hope it doesn't become a psychological thing" said Coach Smokey Gaines, whose Aztecs are unbeaten ~t home, 8-4 at this point in the season. "You've got to win at least half your games on the road. And they're not going to be easy on the road as it is." . "We're as ready as we're going to be," said USD Coach Jim Brovelli, whose team is 7-5. "We're well prepared, we're healthy. We're a little deeper than we were a year ago. I feel I can go about nine men deep now without gettmg hurt and I couldn't do that a year ago." Tne University of New Mexico (8-6) comes into the Sports Aren for a 7:30 game tonight with State and USD hosts Gonzaga University (7-5) on the Torero campus at the same time. State has had an up and down season. The Aztecs have at times looked brilliant, at other times lackluster. Or, as Gaines says, "We'll be up and down. Some days the sun will shine and some days the rain will fall." They won easily at home against lesser foes and lost big to nationally ranked teams on the road early in the season. They got all they wanted from USD in December, and, forced out of their own style of play, earned a tough win. They won impressively in the Cabrillo Classic against good teams. And then they lost two in a row on the road. The Toreros, well, it's a little harder to tell about the Toreros. Their average margin of victory has been 21 points, and they've been losing games by seven. But a cl?ser look indicates they've been beaten inside, by State, with Leonard Allen & Co., by UC Irvine with Kevin Magee, by Cal-Berkeley with Mark McNamara and by Southeastern Louisiana with Jerry Kelly. "_Robby (Roberts) and Gerald (Jones) have really come on mthe last couple of games," said Brovelli of his start- ing forwards. "Hopefully they can continue where thev left off. If we're going to compete in the WCAC this year we're going to need some consistency from the forwards. One forward who has lost some consistency over the

EDDIE MORRIS May start tonight

RUSTY WHITMARSH Top Torero scorer

las~ couple of games is State's Don Plummer His place in Games' startin_g lineup is expected to be taken by Eddie Morns, who will play opposite Michael Cage and next to ~enter Leonard Allen in what could be an imposing front !me. Allen is the WAC's second-leading field-goal percentage shooter at .625, including a .733 binge through the past five games. Cage is finally starting to show his stuff after a sl~w start· in the past three games he's averaged 15 pom1:>. M?ms has seen limited time this season, but he can light 1t up when he gets warmed up. At gua_rd, State's Keith Smith leads the conference in assists w~th 7.9 per game and is second in scoring for the Aztecs w_1th a 12.6 average. Zack Jones is the team's top scorer with 13.9. The ~obo~, with center Mark Snow, formerly of Poway and Hehx high schools and the University of Kansas, have a pomt guard named Smith too, Phil, who is the second- leadmg scorer m_the WAC with 17.3 points per game and hands out 6.9 assists. The1r only other player averaging more than six points is forward Don Brkovich, with 13.5. The Toreros have only guard Rusty Whitmarsh averag- mg dou~le figures, 12.7, and nobody on the team is in the top five many conf_erence statistical category. But USD is at the top of the list m team defense and its opponents have gotten fewer rebounds than anyone else's in the WCAC, all of which is either a tribute to tough team defe_ns~ ,or a senes of deliberate-style, lopsided wins. Agam, its hard to tell about the Toreros. Gonzaga, wh!ch_ was 18-8 las~ year and has everybody back, plays a d1sc1phned style similar to USD, and brings in a 6-1~, 6-9, 6-8 frontcourt and three guys averaging double figures. I~'s not a long hike to the end of the road, but it starts tonight

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