Andy Newman took over a broken down men’s basketball program last April and not only made Cal State Northridge run again, but the Matadors quickly became one of the most flashy, durable and efficient teams in the Big West Conference.
Newman’s highly successful first season as head coach at CSUN came to an end on Thursday night with a 75-68 loss to third-seeded Hawaii in a quarterfinal of the Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nevada.
The Rainbow Warriors (20-13) advanced to play second-seeded UC Davis (19-12) in the late semifinal on Friday night (approx. 8:30 p.m.).
Meanwhile, the seventh-seeded Matadors (19-15) can finally sit back and admire and appreciate the alterations they brought to a program that combined for 14 wins the previous two seasons.
“That CSUN team played their hearts out, played their hearts out (Wednesday) night, played their hearts out tonight, just gave everything they could,” Newman said. “Man, so proud of their effort. Wish we would have made a couple more baskets down the stretch, but super proud of what they gave.”
After four successful seasons at Cal State San Bernardino, Newman was named the fourth Northridge head coach in six seasons last April and immediately persuaded four returning players to give him a chance, while seven others headed elsewhere.
“The guys who decided to come back and play for me, we have a special bond that they would trust me with their senior years,” Newman said. “That’s pretty big, so this (loss) was especially tough for me, personally.”
Little attention was paid when Northridge led Stanford with 2½ minutes left in its season opener in November, nor when the Matadors picked themselves up after that loss and won three days later at Idaho.
All of that changed when Northridge knocked off UCLA, 76-72, on Dec. 19 at Pauley Pavilion and the Matadors rode that high to a 3-0 start in conference play, capped by a 10-point win against visiting Hawaii.
Another 4-0 run in the middle of…
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