Little Vs. Big Series Continues as Before

SAN DIEGO —  Basketball, San Diego style, made its 1992-93 debut in what was its Sports Arena finale, at least for this season.

That bitter cross-town rivalry, the one that divides households and cul de sacs, played before a gathering of 2,909 at the Sports Arena. This was USD, the little school on the hill, against San Diego State, the big school on a bigger hill.

OK, so it’s maybe not so bitter. Maybe it only divides a law office or two. And maybe this modest gathering was a long way from wild and crazy.

However, this was for the San Diego Collegiate Basketball Championship, which in no way is related to March Madness. Bragging rights were at stake on whatever playgrounds or gymnasiums these kids might frequent in the summer.

As has become the norm of late, the little school on the hill was the victor. It was not close. USD won, 85-60, its largest margin of victory in the series.

In spite of the cross-town nature of the rivalry, the game did not come with much hype and hoopla. It did not help that neither of these teams were coming off stellar seasons. SDSU was 2-26 in 1991-92, meaning it had only two more victories than George Bush, who had a very bad 1992. USD, at 14-14, was at least middle of the road, which was better than being a road kill.

USD had controlled this rivalry of late, winning five of the last six encounters. That was in the Era of Jim Brandenburg, whom SDSU basketball fans regarded about as highly as the faculty regards Thomas Day. SDSU won the first six games after USD became a Division I entity, all that came before being a matter of the block bully beating up on the little kid.

No one really knew what to expect of these teams in 1992-93, and probably still don’t. It was like a battle between mystery guests.

Figure USD to be around .500, maybe winning 18 if everything falls into place. Figure SDSU to win maybe six to eight games, maybe a dozen if everything falls into place.

Nothing that happened Tuesday night changes those evaluations.

The coaching matchups were interesting. USD’s Hank Egan and SDSU’s Tony Fuller had 559 games of collegiate head coaching experience. None of them involved Fuller, who made his debut as The Man Who Isn’t Jerry Tarkanian.

The matchup in the stands was interesting as well. USD’s fans were almost as worked up as Charger fans with the Raiders in town, with their “The Big Game . . . Crush State” T-shirts. SDSU’s fans were almost incognito, as though embarrassed by last year’s 2-26 record or smarting from that 63-17 shellacking by Miami last Saturday.

And a new rule is interesting. If a player gets blood on his jersey, it has to come off. Foul problems have caused teams to run out of players, but not jerseys. This new rule could result in Skins vs. Skins sometime before the year is over.

As it was, the guys in the light blue shirts took it to the guys in the white. SDSU, the big school, also had the big kids, but you wouldn’t have known that from the inside shooting and rebounding.

USD owned the inside. That resulted in 54.5% shooting to SDSU’s 34.5%. And that also resulted in a 44-33 rebounding edge.

“We got a lot of shots from getting down the floor,” Egan said. “We got down the floor with our quickness and got organized and put a lot of pressure on them.”

This “getting down the floor quickly” concept is not exactly the way Egan, the disciplined tactician, has usually coached the game.

“These guys,” he said, “are dragging me into the 20th century.”

It’s more likely a matter of a veteran coach adjusting to his personnel.

It may also have been a matter of the little school, in spite of its recent success, taking this rivalry a little more seriously.

“This serious is important for this little school,” Egan said. “It would be great if both these schools get it going and this becomes a big game in town.”

In the other locker room, Young Mr. Fuller was shaking his head.

“I’ve had better days,” he said. “Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would end like this.”

Is it more important to the little school?

“Our guys should have been pumped too,” he said. “I thought they were.”

And so this taste of The Big Arena was over. Both teams return to their campus gyms for the remainder of their seasons, which, of course, have just begun.

That size crowd in those places will rattle the rafters.