CS Long Beach on Verge of Hiring Braswell as Assistant

Joe Harrington on Thursday confirmed reports that Cleveland High basketball Coach Bob Braswell has been interviewed for an assistant coaching position on his staff at Cal State Long Beach.

Harrington, 43, the Long Beach coach for the past two years, said Braswell is the leading candidate for the job, which opened when assistant Butch Carter accepted a similar position at Dayton University earlier this year.

“He’s probably the guy I’m going to recommend we hire,” Harrington said of Braswell. “But it all has to go through specific channels before anything becomes official.”

Harrington said that a decision will probably be made in the next two or three days.

“He’s just stuck out in my mind ever since I came out from the East Coast three years ago,” said Harrington, who coached at George Mason University from 1980-87. “Bob’s an outstanding high school coach who wants to move up to the college ranks. He’s from Southern California so he knows the area and is well-respected. I feel he’d be a big shot in the arm to our program.”

Braswell, who has guided Cleveland to a 76-18 record and two berths in the City Section 4-A Division title game during his four years at the Reseda school, could not be reached for comment.

If Braswell is hired by Long Beach, he will be reunited with two former Cleveland players, including freshman Lucious Harris, who averaged 20.9 points and more than 10 rebounds a game for the Cavaliers this past season.

Guard Tyrone Mitchell, a 1985 graduate of Cleveland, will be a senior next season.

Braswell, 27, was a contender for a similar position at Long Beach last year before withdrawing his name from consideration.

He has coached several Division I players at Cleveland, including UCLA standout Trevor Wilson.

Four players from the 1988-89 Cleveland team--Harris, Adonis Jordan (Kansas), Warren Harrell (New Mexico State) and Tim Bowen (Butler)--signed letters of intent with Division I schools.

The only mark against Braswell has been the inability of his Cleveland teams to win a City title. The Cavaliers were beaten by Crenshaw, 95-79, in the 1986 final and lost to Fairfax, 86-58, a year later.

Cleveland was upset by Fremont (69-64) in the first round of the 1988 playoffs and lost to Fairfax (53-51) in the quarterfinals this year.