Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Wednesday, January 02, 2002

There is a method to Bill Brown's madness at California. "I think I know what I'm doing," he said, laughing. "I hope I do. We're not doing this as a gimmick."

What Brown is doing is using 10 players, substituting entire units at a time throughout the game. The leading scorer comes off the bench. So does last season's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference rookie of the year. A starter a year ago is now the ninth man in the rotation. And three players who could break into the lineup won't even break a sweat this season.

"It's hard to say we're doing something wrong," Brown said of the Vulcans, who are 10-1 with a six-game winning streak. "We still have a long way to go and a lot of room to grow. The players force you to do this if they're playing well."

California, whose only loss was 96-87 to West Chester in early December, plays host to Mansfield Saturday.

California's leading scorer is 6-foot-3 junior guard Ryan Stefanski, who averages 18 points as a reserve playing 25-26 minutes per game. He had a high game of 38 points against Cheyney State that included 11 3-pointers.

Stefanski and 6-5, 220-pound guard Ishmieal Kamara (16 ppg) share time and also find themselves on the floor at the same time.

"We can slide Kamara to the point and move Stefanski to shooting guard," Brown said. "I'm not concerned about increasing their minutes and their statistics."

The Vulcans are getting points from a lot of different players to average nearly 87 per game.

"My second team scores more than my first team," Brown said. "The first group is sounder fundamentally and is a much better defensive team. Both groups bring something different to the table.

"The second group plays at least 15 minutes, seven or eight minutes each half."

The Vulcans are getting significant contributions from three players new to the program -- 6-8 Ryan Boles (10 ppg), a transfer from NCAA Division I Mercer; 6-7 Tom Frederick (10 ppg), a transfer from Division I Morgan State; 5-10 playmaker Sharif Brown (10 ppg), a transfer from Philadelphia Community College.

"Boles runs and jumps as well as anybody in our conference," Brown said. "This is probably the most versatile team I've had at California. We've never been two-deep with this much talent. It's a very flexible team that can score inside and outside. It's a very good shooting team, over 50 percent from the field and in the mid-40s from the 3-point line."

To illustrate the depth of talent, 5-10 Gerrmar Ballard (Valley High School) doesn't start after being the PSAC West rookie of the year last season. Senior forward Damon Taylor, who started 15 games last season, is the ninth man.

"That shows you how many good players we have," Brown said. "If you're going to have a winning team, you have to give up some individuality. Playing 10 guys allows us to play very hard with no coasting. They're in a certain rhythm.

"I tell the guys they're still going to get their shots. There's not that much difference between my No. 1 and 2 players and Nos. 9 and 10."

The Vulcans, with only two seniors on the roster, have three players sitting out who will be expected to contribute next season -- 6-7 Kevin Handy, a transfer who led Kutztown in scoring and rebounding last year; 6-8 guard/forward Justin Dawson, a junior college transfer; and freshman guard Guillaume Beyl.

"All three are good enough to play for us right now, but you can have only so many players on the court at the same time," Brown said.

"Every day in practice there's serious competition. We know we're going to have to kick it up another notch when league play starts."

Take it to the mat

Pitt-Johnstown's two-time All-American Shad Benton, ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II at 157 pounds, was fifth in the Division I-dominated Midlands tournament at Northwestern University. Brandon Newill, ranked No. 2 at 125 pounds, was seventh.

Benton is 22-2 for the season, and Newill is 15-5.