CSUN-Cal Game, on Shaky Footing, Is Back On

NORTHRIDGE â€”  Cal State Northridge’s on-again, off-again date with California for a men’s basketball game is on again.

Pete Cassidy, Northridge’s coach, and John Kasser, Cal’s athletic director, said Friday their teams will meet Feb. 7 in Berkeley.

The teams were scheduled to play tonight but the game was postponed because of Monday’s 6.6 earthquake, centered in Northridge. Cal initially asked that the game be rescheduled for Monday night. When Northridge officials declined it appeared the game would be canceled.

Northridge has not played or practiced since falling to Colorado, 100-85, Monday night in Boulder, Colo. The school’s gym is unusable because fallen lights and debris are littering the floor.

The Northridge campus is closed until at least Monday, school President Blenda J. Wilson said Friday. Bob Hiegert, Northridge’s athletic director, said it might be more than a week until the gym’s hardwood surface is playable.

The gym passed an initial inspection by a structural engineer, but it must pass another examination next week and then be thoroughly cleaned and repaired.

Cassidy said he was trying to find an alternative site for the team to practice, beginning Monday. Northridge will make its next scheduled trip, against Northeastern Illinois on Jan. 29 in Chicago, and then at Notre Dame on Jan. 31 in South Bend, Ind., Hiegert said.

Also keeping their next scheduled competition dates will be Northridge’s women’s basketball and men’s volleyball teams. The basketball team will play at Pacific on Tuesday night and at San Francisco on Wednesday night. The men’s volleyball team, which has been practicing at Occidental College, will open Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action Wednesday night at UC Irvine.

Casualties of the earthquake are Northridge’s swim and diving home meet next Saturday against San Diego and UC Irvine, and a quadrangular track meet scheduled for the same day with Irvine, Southern Utah and Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Don Strametz, Northridge’s track and field coach, told Hiegert he would be unable to organize his scattered team in time for the meet.

Since the quake, Strametz has been unable to reach two athletes, although a third who was unaccounted for, weightman Mike McClintock, checked in Friday.