CSUN NOTEBOOK : MATADORS WON'T MISS CHILL FACTOR.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

Longfellow School Principal Lori McCollim reported a motorist driving too fast by the school. Police later contacted the suspect, who agreed to slow down.

From Thursday's Bozeman (Mont.) Daily Chronicle.

A place still exists where the preceding qualifies as the lead item in the local paper's police blotter.

The Cal State Northridge basketball team just played there.

The Matadors' games this past week at Montana State and Montana constituted the ultimate Big Sky Conference road trip - remote and cold, not at all like Los Angeles. Funny, that it was their first-ever trip in the Big Sky.

``It's good to have this as the first road trip,'' said Northridge coach Bobby Braswell, whose team lost Thursday at Montana State and again Saturday at Montana.

Quiet as it is and friendly as the locals are, the Matadors were happy to be heading home this morning.

``They can have this place,'' Braswell said.

He did not mean at all to disparage the lovely countryside. But the wind chill was 25-below zero Saturday afternoon and made everyone in the traveling party long for the Valley.

It is likely the other Big Sky teams will not encounter the difficulties flying into LAX that Braswell did at Missoula County Airport.

Braswell, flying in late Friday to join the team after attending his brother's funeral, thought he might not make it. His plane circled the airport three times, unable to land because of runway conditions. Once, the pilot attempted to land but pulled up just before touching down.

``I was thinking, `No, this isn't happening,' '' Braswell said.

And this was only the start to a conference season that will require lots of thermal underwear.

While the Montana towns might be the most remote and coldest of the stops, the Matadors' swing through the Big Sky State this weekend underscored the difference between Northridge and almost every other town in the conference.

The basketball teams at UCLA and USC have to visit Pullman, Wash., once a year. Northridge will break out the winter coats every other week from now until March.

They will visit four more towns - Pocatello, Idaho; Cheney, Wash.; Ogden, Utah; and Flagstaff, Ariz. - that will likely be covered in snow. The rain they will encounter in Portland, Ore., should be welcome.

``What are we doing in this conference? We don't fit,'' joked Northridge junior Kevin Taylor, who deemed Bozeman a small town because there was no McDonald's within walking distance of the team hotel.

The Northridge players experienced another phenomenon the visitors to their gym will not - big crowds.

``We're the Lakers here,'' said Montana coach Blaine Taylor, whose team entered Saturday's game averaging 4,370 fans a game at home, despite a disappointing start.

In Missoula they spoke this week of 4,000 being a bad crowd, that the locals are front-runners. But the noise in Dahlberg Arena on Saturday was unlike anything heard in Northridge in a long time.

Taylor and Montana State coach Mick Durham have statewide television shows.

The Matadors, everything considered, will take Northridge.

``It's nice to visit,'' said point guard Trenton Cross. ``But I wouldn't want to live here.''

Morse ineligible: Pitcher Derek Morse, the City Section 4-A Player of the Year from Kennedy High, is academically ineligible until he improves on his first-semester grades. Morse, a freshman, has been trying to re-take a final exam he missed.