Titans Host Occidental
Dec. 11, 2009
Fullerton, Calif. -
Complete Release in PDF Format 
UPCOMING:
Sat., Dec. 12 -- Occidental, Titan Gym (4,000), 7:30 p.m. (following 5 p.m. women's game vs. BYU)
at Basketball Travelers Invitational in Logan, Utah - Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (10,270):
Mon., Dec. 21 -- vs. Weber State, 5:30 p.m. MST
Tues., Dec. 22 -- at Utah State, 8 p.m. MST
Wed., Dec. 23 - - vs. Morehead State, 5:30 p.m. MST
IN A NUTSHELL: The Titans have lost three games in a row on the road and hope to turn things around against a good 5-1 NCAA Div. III team from Occidental College before taking a week off for final exams. The Titans haven't lost more than three games in a row since Coach Bob Burton's first season at Fullerton (2003-04) when they had a 4-game losing skein.
AUDIO: The Occidental game can be heard live on the internet on computers with sound cards. Listeners may access the CSF Athletics home page at www.fullertontitans.com and follow the links. Mike Martinez will describe the game.
VIDEO: All Titan home games and road Big West Conference games are available via videostreaming, normally on a subscription basis. Details are available on the Big West website at www.bigwest.org.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
No. Name Ht. Yr. ppg r/apg Quick Notes
G 11 Jacques Streeter* 6-0 So. 10.3 3.8a Staggered by the flu in Nacogdoches; played only 38 minutes total
G 0 Aaron Thompson* 6-4 Sr. 12.8 5.2r Back-to-back career highs of 22 points; BWC Player of Week (Nov. 16-22)
F 5 Gerard Anderson* 6-6 Jr. 6.3 5.3r Hand injury has limited him to 4 points, 11 rebounds total in last 3 games
F 12 Jer'Vaughn Johnson 6-6 Jr. 11.3 6.2r Scored career-high 19 points against his former SDSU team
C 13 Bryce Webster 6-10 Jr. 6.3 5.0r Grabbed 14 rebounds at UCLA; played final 16 minutes with 4 fouls
OFF THE BENCH:
G 3 Devon Peltier 5-11 Jr. 6.7 0.5a Has hit 8-of-18 treys last 3 games to average 10 points
G 14 Jamel McGuire 6-5 Jr. 1.7 1.8a Extremely fast guard from San Diego City College
F 15 Orane Chin 6-7 So. 9.0 4.2r Hit clutch trey in final minute to get Titans within a point at Stephen F. Austin
G 21 Robbie Robinson 6-5 Jr. 2.3 1.5r Key member of Riverside City College's state championship team in `08-09
G 22 Frank Granados 5-8 Sr. 1.5 0.0a Walk-on practiced against women's team last three years
G 24 Eric Williams 6-3 Jr. 3.0 1.5a Walk-on from Orange Coast who played at Metro State as freshman
F 33 Ray Miller* 6-8 Sr. 2.5 0.8r Led team last season with .631 field-goal percentage
F 42 Papa Guisse* 6-8 Sr. 1.6 2.2r Started 21 of team's 32 games last year
*letters earned
SERIES HISTORY: The Titans and Tigers have met five times with Fullerton holding a 5-0 edge. The Titans won the last meeting, 83-63, on Dec. 20, 2003, after a 24-year interruption in the series.
ABOUT THE TIGERS: Coach Brian Newhall is in his 22nd year with a career mark of 322-217. The Tigers have won five in a row since dropping their opener at Azusa Pacific. They are shooting 53 percent from the floor including 45 percent from the 3-point line and are outrebounding opponents by 7 per game. Senior guard Conti Huston leads the team in scoring at 20.5 points per game but three other teammates also are in double figures.
THE COACH: Bob Burton is in his seventh year at Cal State Fullerton with a campus and career record of 110-80. Three losses in a row have dropped his winning percentage to .5789, a few ticks below Bobby Dye's .583 (109-78) school record from the 1970s. The late Alex Omalev has the most total victories (139-176) followed by George McQuarn (122-117) and then Burton.
FRIENDLY CONFINES: Under Bob Burton, the Titans are 56-24 (.700) in Titan Gym but they went only 2-6 in Big West Conference play last season. They have won their last seven home non-conference games since a loss to Wright State on Dec. 22, 2007.
NOT THIS TIME: Not since a trip to Utah State and Idaho on Jan. 20 & 22, 2005, had the Titans failed to fly home with at least one victory from a multi-game road trip -- a span of 16 road trips -- before it occurred in Texas on Dec. 4-5. They had two 2-0 trips, one 2-1 trip and 13 1-1 adventures between the 0-2s.
NO DOUBLE FIGURES: When Bryce Webster and Devon Peltier led the Titans with only 8 points vs. Central Arkansas on Dec. 4, it was the lowest point total for a Titan scoring leader in the program's 36-year Div. I history. In only three other games did no Titan score in double figures -- 9 by Pape Sow vs. USF, Nov. 19, 2005; 9 by Babacar Camara at Valparaiso on Dec. 22, 2000; and 9 by both Ike Harmon and Chris Dade at Utah State on Feb. 7, 1998.
ANOTHER LOW: Fullerton's 49 points vs. Central Arkansa were its lowest output since a 77-44 loss at UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 31, 2004. The only other sub-50-point game in the Bob Burton Era was a 57-49 loss at Utah State on Jan. 22, 2004.
FAST START: Fullerton was 3-0 out of the gate for the fourth time in the Burton Era. But only in 2006-07 have the Titans made it to 4-0.
OVERTIME SUCCESS: Fullerton has won five of its last six overtime games, which covers this season and the previous three.
STOPPING THE TREY: In opening 3-0, Fullerton held its opponents to a .200 percentage (15-for-75) from the 3-point line. But in losing three in a row, the Titans have seen their opponents shoot .409 (18-for-44) from behind the arc. Fullerton opponents shot .367 last year and .375 the year before. Despite the loss of Josh Akognon, the Titans are a better 3-point shooting team this year at .391 (36-for-92) compared to last year's .344. Aaron Thompson's 10-for-15 (.667) effort, which is among the nation's leaders, tops the list. Devon Peltier is at .435 (10-for-23).
HOME BODIES: Cal State Fullerton has only five games on its 2009-10 schedule outside the state of California --two tourney games in Nacogdoches, Texas, and three in Logan, Utah. Last season the Titans traveled far and wide -- to Honolulu, Portland, Baton Rouge, Las Cruces and Bozeman after a Labor Day exhibition tour to Vancouver, BC.
SHORT-TERM EXPERIENCE: Despite five returning lettermen, the Titans have no players remaining on the roster who suited up during the 2007-08 Big West Conference championship and NCAA Tournament season. Jacques Streeter (32), Gerard Anderson (29), Papa Guisse (21), Aaron Thompson (16) and Ray Miller (12) did combine for 110 starts last season.
DIV. I TRANSFERS: The Titans have two new Div. I transfers eligible this season in Orane Chin (South Florida) and Jer'Vaughn Johnson (San Diego State) plus two players who began at 4-year schools but came to Fullerton via the community college route (Bryce Webster from Minnesota via Irvine Valley and Eric Williams from Metro State in Colorado via Orange Coast). The Titans have two more Div. I transfers redshirting in Sean Williams from Syracuse and Andre Hardy from Oral Roberts. They bring the total of Div. I transfers to CSF to 13 in the Bob Burton Era and 36 in the program's now 35-year Div. I history.
SHELTON TO REDSHIRT: D. J. Shelton, the only freshman in CSF's program, will redshirt this season. The 6-9 forward is a product of East Bakersfield High School. His cousin, Tim Shelton, is on the San Diego State team but nursing a knee injury.
FALL SIGNEES: Cal State Fullerton received two national letters of intent in the November signing period:
&\#149; De'Andre Haskins is attending Citrus College in Azusa after playing his freshman year at Valparaiso University in Indiana. The 6-foot-4 wing player out of Long Beach Jordan HS averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds for the Crusaders and, as a lefthander, will draw comparisons to recent Titan Frank Robinson.
&\#149; Isiah Umipig is a senior at Federal Way High School and lives in Seattle, Washington. The 6-1 point guard led his team to the Class 4A state championship in 2008-09 and was his team's leading scorer in the championship game win over Garfield, 62-54, in the Tacoma Dome with 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He played only 13 games his junior season due to an ankle injury. The title was the first in school history.
