A Question & Answer Session With CSUN Basketball Coach PETE CASSIDY

Cal State Northridge on Saturday played what ostensibly was its final men’s basketball game at the NCAA Division II level.

The Matadors’ upset of Cal State Bakersfield, champion of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., served as a fond farewell for CSUN, which will compete against Division I competition next fall.

Or did it?

Only a handful of good college basketball teams win their last game--the overwhelming majority lose somewhere in the playoffs.

The Matadors (12-15) simply were not good enough to earn a postseason bid. CSUN hasn’t finished higher than fourth in conference since 1985, the last time the Matadors earned a berth in the Division II playoffs.

Instead of building toward competitiveness at the major-college level, Northridge has floundered in recent seasons against Division II opposition.

This week, Pete Cassidy, CSUN’s coach, commented on the recent past and took a glimpse at the future in a question-and-answer interview with Times staff writer Mike Hiserman:

Question: Did you meet your goals for this season?

Answer: We did not meet the goals that I perceived, certainly. We were very up and down. It was a long roller-coaster ride because we lacked any kind of consistency.

Q: Morale hit a low just before the conference season started and several players said the team was better at an up-tempo pace than it was using the motion offense that you teach. Isn’t this the second season in a row you have dealt with that complaint?

A: I suppose that situation depends on who you talk to. I’ve made no secret as far as what my expectations are on the floor in terms of whether we push the ball or not push the ball. We’ve always been a medium-tempo team. There’s a time to push it and a time not to push it. We practice the break every day. That’s part of our transition game. I expect it to be done with good judgment. If by increasing the tempo of the game, it minimizes proper decision-making, then, in my mind, the tempo of the game has got to be slowed down so we can operate efficiently. Turnovers, in my mind, are a big part of the game. Ironically, this year our turnover rate in conference was very low, probably the lowest of any team in our conference. That was not our problem.

Q: And shooting was?

A: I think that’s evident. (The Matadors shot 44%.) I think our fundamentals in terms of screening and cutting at times was down. I think that sometimes reflects shooting accurately, when you don’t do things without the ball that you should be doing, that can help you get open for good shots.

Q: But did you have the type of personnel that was able to hit the shots consistently, even if they were correctly running the motion offense?

A: I believe that if we had patience and worked a little for those type of shots we’d have got them and nailed ‘em. Too often we were looking for that three-point line. That three-pointer can be a panacea. But the statistics (CSUN shot only 28.5% from long range) show that it was not a panacea for us.

Q: Have you had more trouble with discipline in recent years?

A: Any time you’re not as successful as you’d like to be, or as other people feel you should be, then as an individual, as a coach, you feel like you were not as successful getting your point across. Actually, you do a little self-evaluation on that and try to figure out where you may be failing and try to shore up a little.

Q: In retrospect, how important was this season in terms of the transition to Division I?

A: I think you can let outside factors influence you out of proportion to what they should. I really thought I was trying to take the people we had this year and help them become the best they could be and not trying to do that with a conscious awareness of how this would catapult us out of Division II and into Division I. I looked at our schedule, our players, and that’s what I concentrated on this year. Others may have been focusing on other things.

Q: What type of “outside factors?”

A: I was focusing on this team and this schedule, not what it might do for us or might not do for us. Other people think on those terms certainly, and I can understand that. But I can’t afford to think on those terms when I’m dealing with a group of people in a given year, given goals for now.

Q: Will that approach change at all next season?

A: I am going to take next year’s personnel, I’m going to evaluate our schedule, and I’m going to try and win every game I can win, game by game, and solve every problem I can solve the best I can, as they crop up.

Q: How can Northridge hope to be competitive at the Division I level when it’s been five years since the school has been to the playoffs at the Division II level?

A: Remember that up until a few years ago, we were only operating with one scholarship . . . We missed a lot of the top kids we recruited because people in our conference had full rides and we had books and tuition. (Other schools) have had their eight to 12 full rides every year when we’ve had one to three. We’ve had $6,000 and that’s all we’ve had for years and years up until the last two years. Then our transition period occurs, so what are you going to recruit for? Last year we tried to get a lot of freshmen to help us in Division I.

Q: At this point, wouldn’t it appear that CSUN’s chances of having a competitive team next season are rather slim?

A: We haven’t finished recruiting yet so I don’t know. I think it’s terrible to start something on a negative note like that. I don’t like that.

Q: Is it hard to be positive about the situation as it appears now?

A: But I must be. If I’m going to be put in the position of ‘You can’t win. Woe is you,’ type of crap, I don’t want to be a part of that. We’re dealing with young men and their lives and their aspirations. You can’t go into that negatively. If we get the right combination of people, a lot of nice things can happen. If we believe, it can happen. If you want to be negative, hell, throw in the towel. I can’t afford to be negative.

Q: Were you an advocate of the Division I move?

A: The move to Division I was a decision made by the entire department.

Q: But what about you personally?

A: I’m a member of the department.

Q: And you were in favor of it?

A: I’m a company man.

Q: What does that mean?

A: Don’t try to read anything into that. The vote was in favor of a move to Division I . . . The consensus was that it was the thing to do in light of the fact that the university was growing to some 40,000 strong in students. We’re a university representing at least one valley that is close to a million and a half people, plus the surrounding valleys . . . It was felt by the community and faculty at large, as I understand it, and the administration that it was the right thing to do now--to upgrade the athletic program so it would be in line with what they felt the university should be in representing the community.

Q: Does such a change mean you will approach coaching, even strategy, differently?

A: Not your basic X’s and O’s strategy. Your strategy changes based on your people, what you can do and can’t do. If you’re facing 6-9, 6-10 guys with your 6-5 guys, then . . . I’m going to have to think about that one . . . The basic concepts of basketball are not going to change from what I think is important in terms of getting the ball inside and having an inside-outside attack. It’s how you take your personnel and make that happen. But that’s something we can analyze later. Right now we just have to go out and get the best people we can get.

Q: How are you going to approach recruiting?

A: I’m not going to compete with the same athletes that SC and UCLA are going to compete for. I would hope that in time we can gain enough of our own prestige to be competing for the same type of athletes as the other schools in our area. We have limitations in terms of our recruiting area. Pretty much we have to stay in state because of our financial resources--because of the cost of out-of-state tuition. I don’t think other schools have that same problem.

Q: You’re saying if they need an impact player, they can go out of state to get that one player?

A: Or two or three. There’s no question that California is picked over by everybody in the country. I think we need the opportunity to at least hit the surrounding states. Obviously, we’d like to get the local guys first, I don’t advocate going out of state for an entire squad, but we’d like to have the chance to pick up maybe the one or two guys that can help us turn the corner. In basketball, one or two guys can do that.

Q: Is that option open to you this year?

A: That’s not something we can really look at. Really I’d rather recruit right here in the Valley and get everybody here. That’s what excites local fans . . . Well, winning excites local fans . . . but obviously it’s a state university so you’d like to have in-state people. The problem is, (other schools) are coming in and taking our better players. A good many of them have gone to Syracuse and places like that. And when those guys are taken out, then the other schools in the state go after the next line of players. So then it becomes, where are you in the pecking order?

Q: It was the school’s plan to offer 13 scholarships for its first season of Division I basketball. (The Division I maximum is 15.) Is that on target?

A: I think we’re in that ballpark.

Q: How many of those do you have to raise funds for?

A: I’m not sure. I haven’t sat down yet with my athletic director and gotten hard figures on it. He’s instructed me to get the best players we can get. (It’s always been) ‘here is your budget and here is what you can do and anything you do over that, you raise,’ which is fine. But I know that everybody is doing all they can here to try to bring about the resources that will allow us to be as successful as we can be, given the set of circumstances that we have at this point.

Q: Is there a greater sense of urgency this year to make a jump in the quality of player you are attempting to attract?

A: Insofar as our schedule has been upgraded so much, maybe the urgency factor is there a little bit more so. We’re going to do whatever we feel we have to do to improve ourselves at every position.

Q: There are those who believe that an on-campus arena must come before there should be any expectation of competitive major-college basketball. Others believe the team has to show it can win before an investment like that should be made. How do you look at it?

A: I think it’s the total package. I think the first step that has to be taken is that we have to be in a conference. When you’re in a conference, you have goals--winning championships, making the conference tournament, then maybe down the road making the tournament of 64.

Q: You are entering the third year of a three-year contract next season. Do you feel any extra pressure to succeed?

A: Some pressure is self-imposed. (Former UCLA) Coach (John) Wooden always said that. If I worry about things like that, I don’t think about the things that I should be thinking about. For years and years, I had a year-to-year contract and never thought about it. Now, all of a sudden, people want me to start thinking about things that I shouldn’t be thinking about. I think I’ve got to have faith in the administration of this university and the athletic department. And I have that. That’s all. I just go out and do my job. As far as what other people might say, that’s just them talking.