Mike Dunlap

The Cal Lutheran men's basketball team will attempt to take a step into uncharted territory at 3:30 p.m. PST today when the Kingsmen play Greensboro (N.C.) in a semifinal of the NCAA Division III South-West sectional at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

For the second time in three years, Loyola Marymount is looking to Division II Metro State in Denver for its next men's coach. Nearly a month after the university announced the resignation of Charles Bradley, former Loyola Marymount player and current Metro State Coach Mike Dunlap has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Bradley, according to sources close to the situation. Dunlap replaced Bradley at Metro State after Bradley took over the Lions before the 1997 season.

Cal Lutheran, which completed a undefeated nonconference basketball schedule last week, will begin its quest for a third consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title against Occidental at home tonight at 7:30. The Kingsmen (11-0) are in the midst of a school-record winning streak, but they realize those victories do not account for anything in the SCIAC standings. "It's a new season," Coach Mike Dunlap said.

Harvard-Westlake sophomore Jarron Collins scored 12 points and Chatsworth junior Eddie Miller added 10 to lead an American Roundball Corp. traveling team to a 75-68 victory Saturday over an all-star team from Atlanta in the Virginia Invitational tournament at Hampton University. With the victory, the ARC team moved into the semifinals of the tournament.

Mike Penberthy of The Master's College, a two-time NAIA Division I All-American basketball player, is one of 10 college seniors who has earned an invitation to participate in an NBA pre-draft camp in Phoenix, beginning Monday. Penberthy, who averaged 27.5 points a game for the Mustangs this season, was invited to the 36-player camp based on his performance in a scouting camp in Portsmouth, Va., last week.

Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford has drawn interest around the NBA, taking interviews with the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Bobcats. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports , Clifford met with Bucks officials on Monday concerning their opening for a head coach. The Bucks recently let go of interim coach Jim Boylan. The team has also been linked to Jerry Sloan, Kelvin Sampson, Nate McMillan and J.B. Bickerstaff. The Bobcats are expected to meet with Clifford in the coming days.

Cal Lutheran will enter the NCAA Division III men's basketball playoffs as the West region's top-seeded team, but the Kingsmen are scheduled to play on the road in a second-round game Saturday after a first-round bye. The Division III selection committee announced Sunday that Cal Lutheran (24-2) would play at the winner of Thursday's Pomona-Pitzer-UC San Diego game in the second round, but Kingsmen Coach Mike Dunlap was appealing that decision Sunday night.

It's wait-and-see time for the Cal Lutheran men's basketball team. The Kingsmen could have guaranteed themselves an automatic entry into the NCAA Division III tournament with a victory over La Verne in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff game Saturday night at Occidental. But after losing, 83-79, Cal Lutheran will need help from the Division III selection committee to get into the 48-team playoffs, which begin Thursday. The pairings will be announced today.

The nonconference basketball game between host Cal Lutheran and the University of the Redlands was expected to be a run-and-gun affair. But the contest resembled more of a run-and-shoot football affair that should have taken place about 100 yards outside the gym at CLU's Mt. Clef Stadium. The bodies slammed and banged to the floor the entire game but Cal Lutheran slammed and banged more balls through the hoop to claim a 96-91 victory Saturday.