There was a pretty big collision in the first half of the Fresno State Bulldogs' BracketBusters game at Cal State Northridge on Saturday, when forward Jerry Brown took the ball hard to the basket.
The Matadors' Michael Lizarraga stepped in to take a charge, arriving just a little late at the point of contact on the left side of the lane. Brown barreled into him and both players went crashing to the floor. The call by the officials was a block, the foul on Lizarraga.
There was no conversation as they got up. But there could have been, even though Lizarraga, a 6-foot-7 senior, is the only deaf player in Division I basketball.
Brown is fluent in American Sign Language, having learned it when he was attending Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco, and we're going to go ahead and guess that he doesn't have a lot of company among his DI peers.
The Bulldogs' forward said he wasn't aware that Lizarraga was deaf -- ''No one told me they had a deaf player,'' he said. ''I would have talked to him if I got a chance.'' But he likes to use ASL any chance he gets, and will engage strangers on the street if he sees them signing.
''It's not common that you can just walk down the street and see someone doing it, but if you do, it's just common courtesy to introduce yourself to them in sign language. It's an ASL thing,'' Brown said.
''You see someone signing, you introduce yourself to them, give them your name sign. People get happy when they see that's you're hearing, too, and you know their language. That someone really learned our language. They might tap their friend on the shoulder and sign, 'Hey, he's hearing.' And I'm like, 'Yeah.' It's a good feeling. It puts a smile on everybody's face.''
That stands out for Brown. At Sacred Heart, there are a number of language classes offered including Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and French. He said he enrolled in ASL because he thought he would get more out of it, even if Mandarin and Spanish are the most widely-spoken languages in the world.
''Spanish is something that probably here in the few years everybody in the United States is going to have to know, and I know sign language has a smaller base, but it's a base that I wanted to be a part of,'' Brown said. ''You can touch people in a more special way.
''A lot of people know how to speak Spanish and, not taking anything away from them, but I think sign language is more special to me.''
THE RESULTS
Tuesday:
NEW MEXICO STATE 100, Northern New Mexico 68
NEVADA 61, Cal State Bakersfield 47
HAWAII 82, New Orleans 58
UTAH STATE 70, Montana Tech 58
Thursday:
LOUISIANA TECH 58, North Dakota 53
Saturday:
Fresno State 62, CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 49
NEW MEXICO STATE 71, Drake 55
IONA 90, Nevada 84
LOUISIANA TECH 84, Central Arkansas 62
MONTANA 94, Hawaii 79
UC Santa Barbara 72, UTAH STATE 64
San Jose State 79, SACRAMENTO STATE 67
IDAHO 77, Portland State 68
ABOUT THAT 9.1%
Fresno State allowed Cal State Northridge to hit only 2 of 22 shots in the second half of its victory at the Matadome, just three days after the Matadors had dropped 94 points on Cal Poly.
That's an incredible 9.1%.
And that's by far the best half defensively for the Bulldogs this season. The lowest shooting percentage allowed by Fresno State in a half had been 25% -- Illinois State hit only 6 of its 24 shots in the second half in losing to the Bulldogs in the season-opener.
The last time the Bulldogs held an opponent to a field-goal percentage of less than 20% for an entire game was Dec. 6, 2009, when San Diego made only 18.6% (11 of 59) in losing 69-37 at the Save Mart Center.
In that game, the Toreros shot 17.2% (5 of 29) in the first half and 20% (6 of 30) in the second, and no doubt looked bad doing it.
HEY, CONGRATS ...
Before BracketBusters, there was Take Out Your Frustrations Tuesday in the WAC, with some teams picking up easy victories over some rather interesting opponents. Not to poke fun, but ... yeah, it's hard not to. Some of those teams on WAC floors were not good enough to be considered bad.
New Mexico State, for instance, played Northern New Mexico, which not only is a Division II team in the NAIA, but it is the only winless team in both NAIA divisions.
That's 239 teams -- 113 in Division I and 126 in Division II.
The Eagles were 0-29 going in and 0-30 coming out, 100-68 losers to the Aggies. Of the 16 players on the roster, not a single one was averaging even 10 points per game.
Northern New Mexico was outscored this season by an average of 84.3 to 66.4, a minus-17.8. The only teams in NAIA Division II that were ranked lower were Kansas Wesleyan (minus-20.04), Evergreen State (minus-20.12) and AIB College of Business (minus-21.59).
Kansas Wesleyan has managed to win three games and the AIB Business College has won two games. Evergreen State, nicknamed the Geoducks, is 1-25. Foodie alert: a geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) is a large saltwater clam native to the Pacific Northwest and, yes, it is quite tasty.
Anyway, the Eagles' Tevin Caldwell should get some props. The 6-foot-4 freshman scored a season-high 17 points in the loss to the New Mexico State. He went in averaging 6.8 points per game.
Aggies' coach Marvin Menzies didn't play forward Wendell McKines in the game, giving the leading scorer and rebounder in the WAC the night off to rest or maybe just to stave off boredom.
So, who else?
Utah State beat a NAIA Division I team in Montana Tech 70-58, a win that did not exactly have coach Stew Morrill glowing.
''[Monday] after practice I had some oral surgery and that was better than what I just saw,'' the Aggies coach said, after the game. ''That is about what I thought of that game. Give Montana Tech credit. They came in and did what they had to do, but we were not ready to play. Montana Tech just ran us around, made shots in the first half and made us look stupid.''
Nevada beat Cal State Bakersfield, which at least is a Division I program.
Tough to say the Pack was all that engaged in its 61-47 victory, though, especially considering the travel schedule before and after the game.
Hawaii also beat New Orleans, which is transitioning to NCAA Division III from Division I because of declining enrollment following Hurricane Katrina and steep budget cuts.
The Warriors took that one 82-58, though guard Zane Johnson continued to flail away from the 3-point line. The senior guard was 3 of 12 and 3 of 10 from behind the arc, scoring nine points, and he did not do much better in the BracketBusters victory over New Orleans.
Over the past five games, Johnson, a solid scorer for Hawaii early in the year, has made only 6 of his last 26 shots from the 3-point line (21.4%) and scored fewer than 10 points in four consecutive games for the first time in his Division I career.
ROAD BUSTERS
BracketBusters weekend was not very kind to the WAC, particularly league-leading Nevada.
The Wolf Pack was coming off the WAC road swing to Hawaii and San Jose State, came home for a Tuesday game against Cal State Bakersfield, then a couple days later was back on the road for a cross country trip to Iona, which is in New Rochelle, N.Y.
They racked up some airline miles. And, of course, they lost.
Nevada was not the only WAC team to lose its BracketBusters matchup -- Hawaii lost at Montana, a Big Sky Conference team; and Utah State lost at home to UC Santa Barbara, a Big West team.
For what it's worth, the WAC was ranked 12th in RPI ratings going into the weekend.
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which includes Iona, was 18th in the RPI. The Big Sky was ranked 24th and the Big West was 26th.
QUICK HITS
** In Nevada's loss at Iona the Gaels hit 62.3% (33 of 53) of its shots, the highest percentage the Pack has allowed since Brigham Young hit 63.3 on Dec. 22, 2009.
** Utah State has now lost four games this season at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, the most on its home floor since the 1994-'95 season.
** Montana guard Kareem Jamar had a triple-double in the Grizzlies victory over Hawaii with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. It was the first triple-double by a Montana player in at least 30 seasons.
** Idaho center Kyle Barone scored a career-high 25 points the Vandals' victory over Portland State, hitting 10 of 11 shots in the third-best shooting performance in school history and the best since Mike Hall was 10 of 11 in a victory over San Jose State on Jan. 24, 2008.
** In coming back from a double-digit second half deficit to win at Sacramento State, San Jose State scored on 16 consecutive possessions. The Spartans hit 68.2% (15 of 22) of their shots in the final 20 minutes including 6 of 7 at the 3-point line.
** Fresno State doesn't have a deep bench and coach Rodney Terry used only seven players in the Bulldogs' victory at Cal State Northridge, but they outscored the Matadors 20-5. Most of those points came from Kevin Foster, who had 17 and seven rebounds.
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