CAL STATE EAST BAY men's basketball player Jawaan Rubin is an artist at heart. The senior guard plays the drums and played the role of Benvolio in the school's production of "Romeo and Juliet" last summer.

But he doesn't want to be a "starving" artist, so he's majoring in accounting, he said last week with a chuckle.

On the basketball stage, Rubin played a key supporting role in the Pioneers' drive to the 2008-09 Cal Pac Conference championship. After suffering what was later diagnosed as a fractured femur in the middle of the season, Rubin soldiered on as the team's sixth man, trying to rebound and defend as much as possible.

"It wasn't so bad where I had to sit out the rest of the season," said Rubin, a San Leandro High graduate and transfer from Fresno City. "I played through the pain. Even though it was hurting every day, I was playing through it, then I finally had surgery in May."

Cal State coach Will Biggs had a great view of Rubin's take-one-for-the-team season.

"He played incredibly well, despite his injury," Biggs said. "He is a very tough kid."

With eight players back this season, the Pioneers have made the big jump to NCAA Division II and the California Collegiate Athletic Association. They open with exhibition games at UC Davis on Wednesday and at the University of the Pacific on Nov. 7. The Pioneers begin nonconference play at home against San Diego Christian on Nov.

Rubin and Will Freedman, a 6-foot-5 junior forward from Santa Monica who averaged 10.9 points a game last season, are key returners, but the squad will "face a huge learning curve in every way (in Division II)," Biggs said. The Pioneers have been picked to finish last in the CCAA preseason coaches poll.

The Rubin family isn't lacking for basketball talent. Jawaan's older brother Janou played at UCLA after setting the career scoring record at James Logan, and his little sister Jasmine is a standout scoring threat at Ohlone.

There's a mutual respect between Rubin and Biggs, who was a team leader and hard-nosed player at Amador Valley High in the early 1970s. Rubin admires the fact that Biggs is unafraid to alter his game plan to suit his players.

"He is a philosopher," Rubin said. "I've had a lot of coaches who are dictators. They say from day one, 'Do it my way or the highway' ... It's almost like the Army, you know, a drill sergeant. Very high strung.

"Whereas Coach Biggs is a little more laid back. He pays attention to the big picture; more of a guy who leads you to water but you have to drink type of a thing."

Rubin remembers a Pioneers game against Dominican University two years ago when Biggs started only guards. They won the game.

"That's the type of guy he is, very abstract," Rubin said. "I kind of dig that, being an artist myself."

Biggs knows that Rubin hasn't exactly had a smooth ride at Cal State East Bay, but he'll attest that he is turning out just fine.

"It's nice having a leader like Jawaan, who has experienced many things in his career and understands the journey is way more valuable than the destination," Biggs said.

RUNNING MAN: Diablo Valley's Wyatt Landrum, a Liberty graduate, won the Big 8 cross country championship individual title on Oct. 30 with a time of 20 minutes, 12 seconds for the 4-mile course at Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa. He led the Vikings to a second-place finish with a score of 54.

TIDBITS: Holy Names University sophomore Monique Reyes was the Cal Pac Conference Women's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 19-26). The Fontana native had four goals in a 2-0 week for the Hawks. ... College of San Mateo's football game against Butte in Oroville on Saturday in the NorCal Conference will pit two of the state's top-rated quarterbacks, Butte's Jordan Rodgers, the younger brother of Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, and CSM's Matt Pelesasa (Woodside).

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