Earl, McIntosh lead top-ranked Fullerton

Fullerton College has started the season winning its first dozen games, including a dominating 77-57 effort against Mount San Jacinto in its most recent outing. The hot start has come in large part thanks to a very talented duo who will end up playing D1 basketball next season.

6-foot-9 forward Michael Earl doesn't even start for Fullerton, but he's averaging 21 points and 8.5 rebounds a night to go with three blocks a game. This after a freshman season in which Earl put up 18 and eight boards per game.

"His numbers are ridiculous," said head coach Dieter Horton. "The issue at hand probably is the fact that his only knock is he's kind of a quiet, passive kid and my standard is a lot higher than most, I don't start him because of that."

But when Earl's on the floor, he's electric.

"If he plays really hard, a couple guys think he could be a pro," Horton said. "He plays a lot of times to the level of his competition. If we're gonna play a big time heavy hitter school, he's unbelievable."

Earl has garnered offers from Utah State, San Jose State and most of the schools in the Big West Conference.

"He's a higher level than that," Horton said. "I'd say he's probably a really good Mountain West, WAC, Missouri Valley, Conference USA kid, come in and probably start at that level. If a bigger school comes in, he'd probably have to come off the bench or redshirt him."

Illinois-Chicago came in to see Earl play this week and walked away impressed according to Horton. Utah State stopped by to check in as well.

The straw that stirs the drink at Fullerton is point guard Cory McIntosh.

"I'll go ahead and make this statement: He's the best point guard in California and he's been offered by a ton of people," Horton said. "Point guards, it's about their winning percentage. We're 12 and 0 and he's responsible for it."

McIntosh has been offered by Idaho, Utah State, Loyola-Marymount, Riverside, Irvine and a number of other West Coast programs. Purdue came to see him on Thursday. He is the all-around package. In one game last week, he posted 12 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and five steals. For the season, he's averaging 14 points, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals a night.

"People have figured out he's a big time guy," Horton said.

Look for both Fullerton stars to draw plenty of attention in the next few months.