Ventura Programs Are Twice as Tough

This is becoming old hat but the Ventura College men’s and women’s basketball teams love the fit.

Once again, the two teams--or is it four, what with all that depth?--are playing in the State championships. That’s five consecutive appearances for the men, the defending champions, and three for the women.

Ventura is one of three schools, with Riverside and Saddleback, to have entries in the men’s and women’s eight-team tournaments that run today through Saturday in San Jose.

The Ventura women open against Feather River (23-10) today at 5 p.m. and the men face City College of San Francisco (25-9) tonight at 8. They could play back to back Saturday evening for respective titles.

That, perhaps, is the biggest difference between the Pirates and the rest of the teams in each division--both Ventura teams are favored to win. The men are 31-2 and have won 17 consecutive games; the women are 32-0 and came close to losing only twice, back in December. Both finished the regular season top-ranked in the state.

Should Ventura pull off the double, it would be the California junior college to claim men’s and women’s basketball titles in the same season.

For the men, however, the way to San Jose had a few potholes.

The Pirates, with eight returning sophomores, got off to a 14-0 start under first-year Coach Virgil Watson and seemed poised to challenge last season’s 37-1 record under Phil Mathews, who built Ventura into a perennial power. Mathews left after last season to run the program at the University of San Francisco.

But this season, the Pirate ship was taking on water. Egos and selfishness were threatening to sink the boat, especially after Ventura was upset twice in the Hancock tournament in late December.

“People started telling some of these guys that this [season] they had to score more to get noticed by the big colleges,” said Watson, a former Mathews assistant. “There were a lot of personal agendas that were put in these guys’ heads. People outside the program were telling them things that caused problems.”

Some players chose to test Watson, to see how far he would stretch. And some longtime backers of the program, missing Mathews’ fiery personality, were not so eager to support the low-key Watson.

“They started to act like I was totally new and had no clue,” Watson said. “[Mathews] had this program running on all cylinders and some people wanted me to keep everything the same. . . . Most [detractors] have reembraced the program.”

And the Pirates are back in familiar territory.

They were hardly pushed after the two losses and clinched a berth in the championships with a 100-77 pummeling of 13th-ranked Chaffey on Saturday in the third round of the Southern California Regional.

Ventura, with its two formidable five-man units that replace each other on the court every few minutes, has an excellent chance to become the fourth school since 1952, when the men’s tournament started, to win consecutive titles.

The Pirates have had plenty of championship opportunities the past four seasons. They lost in the semifinals in 1992 and in the title games in 1993 and ’94 before winning last year.

On the women’s side, Ventura has been downright overwhelming.

The Pirates average 87.3 points and allow 53.4. Three times, they held opponents to 30 or fewer points. In a 79-41 victory over Oxnard in February, they allowed only four points in the first half.

“We haven’t had any bad games,” said Coach Ned Mircetic, in his sixth season with the team. “We’ve depended on our defense to keep us at a certain level. Our game plan has been to put tremendous defensive pressure on our opponents.”

Their three-guard scheme, sparked by sophomores Marina Torres--perhaps the best point guard in the state--Tori Anderson and freshman K.K. Johns, creates turnovers and can afford to gamble because Ventura’s front line, led by 6-foot-1 freshman center Adria Sneed, efficiently plugs the inside.

“I told them when we started that they were the most-talented team I’ve had,” Mircetic said. “But I wasn’t sure if they were ready to play college basketball. . . . They’ve come together. This team plays hard in each and every game.”

That’s the trademark of the Ventura teams. It started when Mathews took over the men’s program in the 1985-86 season and continues now. Both Watson and Mircetic, also a former Mathews assistant, demand that work ethic from their players.

“I saw all the things Phil put to the test and I applied them to my team,” Mircetic said.

As they say, if the hat fits, wear it.