FULLERTON — The NIL landscape has made it harder than ever for mid-major college basketball programs to keep up with the power conferences off the court, and maintaining some semblance of roster continuity is arguably the biggest challenge.
“I think you liken it to the process of speed dating,” Cal State Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said during the Big West Conference season preview show on Field of 68 last month. “You literally are trying to hurry up and get to know one another, your players, and you are openly hoping that your players hurry up and get to learn your concepts so that in very short order they can execute them. That’s a tough, tall ask, but it’s the lay of the land, and it’s being done across the country. Those people that are having success, I think they find a way to get that done and get that figured out quickly.”
After consecutive 20-win seasons that included a Big West Tournament title and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, Fullerton finished 10th in the conference last season (14-18 overall, 7-13 Big West) and did not qualify for the conference tournament.
The Titans also lost their top three scorers from that team, so there is a lot of production that needs to be replaced and cohesion to be developed as the team heads into its season opener at reigning WAC champion Grand Canyon on Monday at 6 p.m. PT.
“It takes time, which is not on our side,” Taylor said of getting an overhauled roster to gel quickly. “We’re all trying to figure each other out, and somehow, some way, we’ll begin to gel at the right point of the season. We begin to play together, and we’re fresh, and we just put it all together at the right time. It’s obviously good to be playing (your) best basketball at the end of the season and on into the conference tournament, and we’ve been fortunate to be able to figure that thing out and do that (often). And I’m hoping that this year will be the same.”
Taylor retooled his roster with eight new players, a group that includes 6-foot-4, 210-pound guard Zion Richardson, who began his career at Wofford before spending the past two years at Division II Quincy (Illinois). Richardson averaged 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds and shot 41% from 3-point range last season and should complement returnee Donovan Oday, a 6-2 junior guard who averaged 7.1 points off the bench last season.
Missouri transfer Kaleb Brown, a 6-7, 245-pound forward, was the Alabama State Player of the Year in high school, but he played in just two games for the Tigers last season before being sidelined by a leg injury.
Freddie Cooper is a 6-3 guard who averaged 13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game last season at Moberly Area Community College in Missouri. An all-state player while in high school in Chicago, he averaged 10.4 ppg and 4.1 rpg at Murray State in 2022-23 before his year of JC basketball.
Among the returning Titans, fifth-year forward John Mikey Square averaged 4.9 points and 3.4 rebounds last season.
Fullerton has traditionally been a team that featured four athletic players on the outside with a lot of isolations and attacking drives, but Taylor expects his team to play a more physical style this season with larger lineups.
“As much as I would like to play that way (attacking), we’re gonna have to play things a little bit different because our guards are not what we’re used to having in terms of allowing space and allowing them to get downhill and attack,” Taylor said. “We’re gonna attack a different way and utilize our size. We could be on the floor with the smallest guy being 6-4 and the tallest guy being 6-11, maybe 7-feet.
“Being able to take advantage of that, the advantage that it does provide us is we’ve got size across the board. It’s a little bit different in terms of not maybe being as athletic as we were, but I think being physical and being tough and almost playing a level of smash-mouth basketball is going to be our new identity. That’s how we’re going to have to move forward and execute that system for us to take advantage of the skill set that we have in our in our toolkit.”
Fullerton’s November slate appears challenging, with true road games against GCU, Stanford, Colorado, Oregon State, UCLA, Pepperdine and Pacific and just one home game against Idaho State.
The Titans will attempt to find their groove in time for conference play – they were picked to finish 10th (out if 11 teams) in the Big West coaches’ preseason poll.
“They always pick us last. They never count on us to do anything,” said Taylor, whose 155 wins are tied with Bob Burton atop the program’s all-time list. “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to play good basketball. We’re trying to understand how to play together, which I think is really important, especially in this league. But we’re trying to play a brand of basketball that that will allow guys to showcase their talent, showcase their skill. We have to go out and define ourselves day by day once again but expect everybody else to not give us anything.”
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