Cal State Northridge vs. Utah Valley State

I just posted my first Big West Conference Report for the college basketball blog Storming The Floor. After seeing Cal State Northridge handle Utah Valley State, I had to name the Matadors the Team of the First Month...

Team of the First Month: Cal State Northridge
UC Santa Barbara was picked to win the Big West by the media and they have lived up to the billing by going 9-1 in the first month. No surprise there. Cal State Northridge didn't get a lot of preseason love but the Matadors have taken care of business against lesser opponents. Led by senior forward Calvin Chitwood (13.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) and senior guard Jonathan Heard (12.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and complemented by junior three point specialist Deon Tresvant (11.4 ppg) and junior rebounding force Tremaine Townesend (10.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg), Northridge has only been beaten by Duquesne and Gonzaga. Both were thumpings and their biggest win so far was against Cleveland State, so it's hard to get too excited. But it's better than expected and better than any other non-Gaucho Big West squads.

Here are a handful of pictures from the game...


Welcome to the Matadome, all 1,600 seats of it. What a dump. It's an embarrassment of a Division I facility. But it is home to the hardest working cheerleaders in the NCAA...



Seriously, I've never seen cheerleaders lead more cheers. They performed during every single timeout and did a solid job. Not bad for what is essentially a glorified community college. Oh yeah...don't forget the basketball...



Too bad the students have forgotten. Despite a good team, students don't turn out that for games in any meaningful way and the ones that do sit on their hands. The loudest group of students was a bunch of deaf kids. Seriously.

Now, about that logo. It's a solid logo when you just quickly glance at it or see it in a much smaller form. But now that I've found a larger version and really looked at it, it's a bit rough. What is with the big thick black line on the nose and chin? I suppose it's supposed to be a shadow, but it's really unnecessary. And how big can one man's hands be?

Team: Cal State Northridge Matadors
Conference: Big West
Location: Northridge, California
Arena: The Matadome