COC NOTEBOOK: LET THE GAMES BEGIN : CANYONS HAS SCHEDULE WOES.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer

Greg Herrick wants to see his College of the Canyons women's basketball team improve, but it's difficult when there are no games scheduled.

The Lady Cougars have played just once since the season began 2-1/2 weeks ago. With a mostly new team, that's not helping.

``We need to get on the floor,'' Herrick said. ``We're antsy. It seemed like it was last year we played.''

Herrick knows it was Nov. 14, a victory over Cypress. Since then, he had a conversation with a coach at Ventura, who told him his team is 5-2.

There are reasons for the lack of games. First, Canyons didn't play in a tournament in Long Beach that it had won the past two years. Herrick didn't realize Canyons wasn't in until spring, which was by then too late to find other games.

Herrick thinks the reason has to do with the two lopsided scores between Canyons and Long Beach. One year, the Lady Cougars won 102-58. The next year, it was 115-57.

Then there was Saturday night, the game that didn't happen. Canyons and Fullerton often play each other first, but this year Fullerton asked the game to be moved to Thanksgiving. Herrick agreed.

At the scheduled 5 p.m. start, there was no Fullerton.

At 6 p.m., there was no Fullerton.

At 6:15, Fullerton walked into the Canyons gym. The coaches thought the game was at 7, but they got stuck in traffic for three hours.

Herrick offered the Hornets 15 minutes of warmup, and Canyons men's coach Lee Smelser offered to delay the start of the men's game with Cerritos until 8.

But Fullerton refused, saying 15 minutes wasn't enough time.

``If I'd have been on the freeway for three hours, I'd have played,'' he said. ``We had a nice crowd.''

The next scheduled game is the College of the Sequoias tournament in Visalia. Canyons hasn't fared well there in the past, but Herrick is hopeful that the team has improved with all that practice.

``We're not the same team,'' he said. ``We've had some good practices.''

As for the men: Smelser, meanwhile, learned again to have so much height doesn't guarantee victory. Cerritos proved that Saturday.

``We didn't play with any intensity, and they're pretty good,'' Smelser said. ``You can't go through the motions against Cerritos. That was disappointing.''

Next up is the Antelope Valley tournament, on Thursday. The Cougars open with Mira Costa and could play Antelope Valley in the second round.

COC and AV will meet in a nonleague game on Tuesday.

``There's not going to be any secrets between the two teams,'' Smelser said.

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PHOTO Men's coach Lee Smelser will send the Cougars against Mira Costa in the Antelope Valley tournament.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News