Minor Leaves Matadors, Takes Shot at NBA Draft

Greg Minor, a part-time starter at Cal State Northridge the last two seasons, has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft.

The 6-foot-3 guard from Canyon High led Northridge in three-point shooting in both of his seasons, making 120 of 289 in his career. However, Minor, a junior, had problems with Coach Bobby Braswell and quit school days after the season ended in February.

Braswell suspended Minor and forward Rico Harris late in the season for breaking team rules. Minor returned to play in the Big Sky Conference tournament, but made it clear he would not return next year.

Minor would have to sit out a year if he transferred to another Division I school. He has decided to take a different route.

“I’ve been working out a lot lately and I feel I am ready mentally and physically,” he said. “Whether it’s the NBA or something else, I want to show my real skills.

“All these other guys, all they have over me is a name. If I can get on the court, everything will take care of itself.”

Minor averaged 8.8 points a game last season and 12.2 in 1997-98. He started only 13 games, more often coming off the bench to provide quick points from three-point range.

Braswell moved Minor to point guard midway through last season. Although his scoring diminished, Minor was able to display ballhandling skills.

Still, he was rarely on the floor in the closing minutes of close games.

“I like Coach Braswell, don’t get me wrong,” Minor said. “It just didn’t work out. Everybody can see that. I wasn’t happy. I’m not going to lie about that.”

The NBA won’t release a list of underclassmen eligible for the draft until May 16.

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Count on Mike Batesole returning for a fifth season as Northridge baseball coach.

Sam Jankovich, interim athletic director, said Northridge almost certainly will re-sign Batesole, whose contract expires at the end of June. It’s just a matter of time and resolving details.

Batesole, 35, was selected national coach of the year in 1998 by Collegiate Baseball after leading the Matadors to a 37-19 record.

“We feel it is close to being resolved,” Jankovich said. “We did ask Batesole to submit all the paperwork. It will all be in place. We have every intention of signing him to a new contract and being very fair with him.”

That would provide a pleasing end to a disappointing season for Batesole, whose team was 23-26 entering a game Wednesday at San Diego and has hovered around .500 much of the season.

Batesole said he has tried to focus on matters at hand rather than his contract.

“There are some big things that this university is trying to work out and it’s something where I’m going to have to wait my turn,” Batesole said. “I know Sam has a plan for this place and when he’s ready to get to it, I’m sure he will. I’ve been here long enough that I understand that. I’m trying to look at the big picture. And that gives me the patience I need, I think.”

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There are few guarantees in Division III baseball, as Cal Lutheran understands.

Last week, the Kingsmen celebrated their seventh Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in the last eight years. But they are not assured of an eighth consecutive appearance in the regional, which is comprised of six teams from California and Texas.

The regional field won’t be announced until May 9, making this weekend’s regular-season ending tournament at UC San Diego important.

Cal Lutheran (26-10) opens Saturday against Chapman, an independent competing with the Kingsmen for a regional berth. Chapman has defeated the Kingsmen twice.

Cal Lutheran is is batting .339 and its opponents’ earned-run average is 9.12.

Jeremy Schlosser is batting .387 and set a school record with 23 doubles.

Ace Tom Canale, a sophomore right-hander, is 8-4 with a 1.72 ERA and set a school record with 110 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .194 against him.

Right-hander Eric Kiszczak is 4-0 and holds the school record with 24 victories in his career.

None of that, however, gives Cal Lutheran an entry into the regional. That changes next season, when the SCIAC champion is guaranteed a berth. For now, the Kingsmen must sweat it out.

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They were a pitch-and-catch tandem at Valley College and now former quarterback Joe Mauldin and former wide receiver Billy Parra are reunited.

The two recently became Pierce assistants under first-year Coach David Banuelos, Mauldin working with the quarterbacks and Parra with the receivers.

“After knowing each other for so many years, we are going to coach together,” Parra said Wednesday before a Pierce spring practice. “It’s going to be fun.”

Mauldin and Parra first met while growing up in Pacoima and played together in youth leagues and for one season at San Fernando High, before Parra transferred to Kennedy.

They hooked up at Valley in 1992, before Parra transferred to Chico State and Mauldin left for Missouri Western State, an NCAA Division II school. Mauldin later played with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and in Europe NFL.

Mauldin passed for 1,905 yards and 14 touchdowns at Valley in 1992 and Parra had 11 receptions for 180 yards and two touchdowns that season.

Parra said he will return to coach the receivers at Kennedy next season and work at Pierce as an offensive consultant.

“We are going to the West Coast offense [at Pierce], with a two-back, three-receiver set, more like the Denver Broncos run,” Parra said.

The Brahmas were primarily a passing team the last few years under Coach Bill Norton, now an assistant at Valley.

Banuelos has hired Broderick Jackson to coach the defensive line.

Jackson last season coached at Harbor and before that at Whittier College and Cal Lutheran.

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Jose Merino of Glendale College will drop the 10,000 meters when he runs in the Southern California track and field preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday.

Merino won the 3,000 steeplechase and 5,000 in the Western State Conference championships at Bakersfield College on Friday after winning the 10,000 on April 17, but Coach Eddie Lopez figures that running all three events again would be too taxing.

“The 10,000 would take too much out of him,” Lopez said. “I just want him to concentrate on the steeplechase and the 5,000.”

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A bad baton pass on the first exchange of a qualifying heat in the 400 relay cost the Cal State Northridge men’s team dearly in the California-Nevada track and field championships at UC San Diego on Saturday.

The Northridge foursome of junior Marcus Bivines, senior Bryant Eubanks, junior Tim Brown and senior Craig Kelley was expected to contend for the title after clocking a school-record 40.09 a week earlier in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

But they were disqualified after winning their heat because they passed the baton out of their exchange zone on the first handoff.

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Staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Steve Henson, Vince Kowalick and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.