College Division : Assistant Learns New Approach at Cal State L.A.

The men’s basketball team at Cal State Los Angeles has a new assistant coach this season.

But he didn’t take the traditional route to his position.

Park Soo Kyo, 32, of South Korea, has joined the Golden Eagles as part of an exchange program with a semiprofessional team in Seoul.

He is hoping to pick up the intricacies of American college basketball and take them back with him to Seoul when he becomes coach of the Hyundai team next year.

“It’s a learning situation for him,” Coach Henry Dyer of Cal State L.A. said. “He’s a player who wants to get into coaching and (his team) felt it would be good for him to come and get some ideas.

“He wants to learn how to coach. He’s observing practice and writing down the drills.”

Dyer said Park has been diagramming offensive and defensive plays in hopes of building a play book to use with his Korean team.

“I’m sure he won’t use all of our ideas, but it gives him an idea of what decisions we make and why we do them,” Dyer said.

The coach said Park also has an opportunity to ask questions and make comments during coaching meetings.

This is not to say, however, that Park is a newcomer to basketball.

He had been a top amateur player, having been a member of the South Korean national team from 1976 through 1986 and captain of the squad from 1980 through 1985. He averaged 30 points in leading South Korea to the silver medal at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, and the gold at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.

He also played on the Hyundai team from 1978 through 1987, earning three South Korean championships during that span.

Park had been an assistant coach for the Hyundai team last season after serving as a player-coach in 1987.

So, Park is an old hand at basketball. Even so, he has been quick to notice the differences between basketball in South Korea and the United States.

“It’s the best, American basketball,” he said. “Korean players only shoot.”

He also said that Korean players tend to focus more on 3-point shots and less on the inside game than Americans.

But when Park returns to coach in South Korea next season, the team is likely to take a decidedly different approach.

There is more than one reason to keep an eye on Cal State Northridge this week.

Not only will the Matadors be the hosts of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II men’s soccer Final Four Saturday and Sunday but Northridge will also be the site of the Division II Southwest Regional in women’s volleyball Friday.

It will be Northridge’s second straight appearance in the Final Four soccer tournament and the first time the Matadors will play host.

The Matadors (17-7) earned a Final Four appearance with a 3-2 overtime victory over Seattle Pacific on Nov. 19.

Northridge, which lost to Southern Connecticut State in the title game last year in Tampa, Fla., will play Oakland of Michigan (17-2-3) in its semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday after Southern Connecticut (19-4-3) faces Florida Tech (13-6) in the first semifinal at 4:30. The winners will play for the title at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The Matadors have been led on offense by freshman midfielder Scott Piri with 11 goals and 6 assists for 28 points and senior forward Steve Lazarus with 10 goals and 6 assists for 26 points. But Northridge reached the Final Four again, thanks to 3 goals by freshman midfielder Bobby Reyes.

In women’s volleyball, Northridge will begin defense of its Division II title when it plays host to Chapman. Northridge, ranked No. 4 in Division II most of the season, is 30-11, and Chapman, which finished fourth in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., is 24-19.

The winner will advance to the Division II quarterfinals next week at an undetermined site.

Northridge has been led by senior setter Karen Langston and sophomore middle hitter Kathleen Dixon. Chapman’s leader has been junior hitter Kristy Anderson.

It certainly has not been the best of starts for tiny West Coast Christian College in men’s basketball this season.

The Knights are off to an 0-5 start and their scores have not been pretty.

Take last week’s game against Cal Baptist, for example. The Knights were crushed, 124-23.

West Coast, a National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics school which was 3-24 in its first season under Coach Frank Crank, has had similar results in most of its other games. The Knights lost to Fresno Pacific, 105-34; to Cal Poly Pomona, 109-34, and to Bethany Bible, 113-40.

Their only close score was an 84-77 loss to Loma Linda, which is competing as a club team.

The results do not figure to improve for the Knights when they visit Azusa Pacific (2-0) in the first round of the Cougar Tournament Thursday.

In most seasons, it probably would not be too surprising to see Cal Poly Pomona with a 6-0 record early in the women’s basketball season.

After all, the Broncos have won 7 straight CCAA titles and have won the NCAA Division II title 3 times since 1982.

Only Pomona was expecting to struggle early this season with a tough schedule and the loss of senior forward Marcine Edmonds, an all-conference player who suffered a knee injury.

But the Broncos could hardly be called a struggling team after defeating Cal State Fullerton, a Division I team, in the final of the Converse tournament in Fullerton Saturday.

On the way to 4 wins last week, the Broncos also defeated Division II powers West Texas State and Abilene Christian.

College Division Notes

UC Riverside, which tied with Cal State Northridge for the CCAA title at 11-1, has also advanced into the NCAA women’s volleyball regional and will play host to conference rivals Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Bakersfield in a 3-team tournament starting Friday. Bakersfield (24-12) meets Pomona (17-15) in the opener Friday and the winner faces Riverside (23-4) Saturday for a berth in the quarterfinals. . . . The Cal State Los Angeles men’s basketball team matched its win total of last season with its 77-73 win over St. Thomas of Minnesota last week. The Golden Eagles (2-2) finished 2-23 last season. They will face a much tougher test against Kentucky Wesleyan, ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Cal State L.A.