In describing his men’s basketball program to recruits, Cal State Northridge head coach Andy Newman is a fast talker.
Newman’s coaching style emphasizes defense, energetic play, and one of college basketball’s fastest offenses. The Matadors’ average possession is 14.7 seconds, fourth shortest among 352 Division I programs.
“I think that’s where the game of basketball is going,” said Newman, whose Matadors play Hawaii tonight in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. “Everybody wants to play fast. Kids want to play fast. I think they’re playing faster at an early age. I think it’s easy to convince kids to play faster than to convince them to slow it down and play slower.”
The offensive pace and CSUN’s academic reputation are equalizers in a sport in which the Matadors are battling the lure of the transfer portal and the race for name, image and likeness paychecks.
When Newman was hired as CSUN’s coach in April 2023 after a successful stint at Cal State San Bernardino, every Matador on the recently completed 2022-23 roster had graduated or was in the portal. He had to re-recruit CSUN players. The Matadors went 19-15 last season, a 12-victory improvement over the previous year.
This season, there are three returnees. Eleven Matadors began their college career at other schools, including junior guard Robert Thibiant, who was a manager at Arizona.
“It’s certainly where college basketball is trending right now,” Newman said of the constant roster changes. “We’re preparing that every year we’re just going to have to reload. And hopefully that means we’ll be able to attract some talented kids from the Southern California area that want to come back home and want to play fast and score a lot of points and win a lot of games.”
Newman’s style originates from now-retired coach Bob Burton. He played for Burton at West Valley College, where the Vikings went 65-6 during Newman’s two seasons. Newman was an assistant coach under Burton for nine seasons at Cal State Fullerton. Believing transition defense was a challenging task, Burton decided to implement a complementary fast-paced offense. Burton and Newman added the “Carolina Break,” in which the transition offense uses spacing, high and low posts, and ball reversals.
At CSUN, Newman said, “we try to recruit with the mindset of going to get guys who can really score. And then we hope their coachable enough that they’ll let us teach them how important it is to defend and really get them to buy in on that end.”
Keonte Jones, who transferred from a junior college in June 2023, has embraced the Matadors’ two-way approach. Jones is hitting 47.6% of his 3s while also providing the Matadors with possessions with his rebounding (Big West-leading 8.9 per game), 32 steals and 29 blocks.
At 6 feet 6 and 192 pounds, Jones starts at the wing but also can slide into the four position. “We try to keep him on the other team’s best players as much as possible,” Newman said. “He’s a really tough kid. He’s not afraid of contact. And just from an athletic standpoint, he’s really explosive. When he’s near the ball and somebody else is, a lot of times that just comes down to willingness to be physical and go get the ball.”
Mahmoud Fofana, also 6-6, is an impactful defender who played for Newman at CSU San Bernardino.
“There are some guys who fill up the stat sheet and put a lot of points on the scoreboard,” Newman said. “He has the same impact for us from a winning standpoint, it’s just that he’s more about keeping points off the scoreboard.”
Transfers Marcus Adams Jr. (BYU) and Scotty Washington (Cal Baptist), as well as PJ Fuller (Washington), were signed to expand the Matadors’ offense. Adams leads with a 15.5 scoring average, including 40.5% accuracy on 3s.
“We knew going into this year we needed to expand our offensive attack and get guys who can shoot the ball a little bit,” Newman said of Adams and Washington. “Those two guys are really good in that space. Both are very competent shooters. That really allows our penetrators to get to the basket because those gaps are a lot bigger now. I think now we’re a little bit more multi-dimensional as far as scoring goes. We can score at all three levels, which last year we had to be about 2 feet away from the basket in order to score. Now we have different ways to do it. Those two guys have really bought into our system and how we play and playing fast. They’re getting a lot of open shots early in the shot clock.”
Rainbow Warriors Basketball
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Hawaii (11-5, 3-2 Big west) vs. Cal State Northridge (11-6, 3-3 BW)
>> When: Today, 7:05 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM; 92.7-FM
