Last summer, just weeks before the fall semester at Sacramento State began, E.J. Harris strolled through the Sac State campus, deliberating if a Hornet uniform would change his previous disappointments in collegiate basketball.

His tour guide that day was good friend, former teammate and the pitch man himself — Jameel Pugh.

“Basically he helped sell (Sac State) to me,” said Harris, a former point guard at Washington State.

As members of the AAU basketball team, “Short Express,” it had only been three summers prior that the two became teammates and good friends while traveling across the country showcasing their talents.

After graduation in the summer of 2000, Pugh, a Grant High alum and bearer of a 1999-00 NorCal championship ring with the Pacers, packed his bags for the 3,031 mile flight to the University of Massachusetts. Harris, who earned a 1997 state championship at Crossroads High School in Southern Calif. alongside current NBA player Baron Davis, chose a northern excursion of his own. But unlike Pugh, he confound himself to the West Coast as a Washington State Cougar.

Fast forward two years to 2002. Pugh, unsatisfied at Umass, decided that transferring would be his best option, while Harris, with the yearning of being an impact player, decided Washington State had nothing left to offer.

“With this being my last two years of college I feel an urgency to accomplish something,” Pugh said. “To leave some type of mark on where I’ve played or leave something behind. With only four years to play I don’t feel like I accomplished much in the first two. Although I’ve set some minor milestones in my own personal achievements the greater accomplishment for me would be to win a championship of some kind.”

A Big Sky Championship is what the whispers pronounce.In search of a ring to compliment his 1999-00 championship hardware, Pugh decided that head coach Jerome Jenkins and Sac State would be the paramount location for him to resurrect his collegiate career.

So in April, Pugh swore the rest of his two-year eligibility to the Hornets, and when the opportunity arose to bring in his favorite point guard, Pugh sold Harris on Sac State like a car salesman sells Cadillacs to the elderly.

“It took me about an hour to convince him,” Pugh said of his feat. Pugh’s pitch to Harris put the Crenshaw High graduate and premier point guard’s signature on the dotted line. “Every accomplishment we have at this school will be a first,” Pugh added. “Why not be the pioneers of a program instead of just another person in the history of a program.”

Since NCAA regulations prevent the two from suiting up this season, the pioneers foresee their opportunity to join their teammates on the court in eight months. Relegated to the bench, they’ve turned in basketballs for megaphones on the sidelines. And on occasion are courteous enough to lend their spare eyes to the referees, if a call needs to be addressed.

“When you see the coach walking down the bench, sometimes you forget you’re not dressed and ready to play,” Pugh said. “You’re just waiting for him to call your number.”

There isn’t a question of whether Pugh’s number will be called next season. Both Harris and Pugh will be juniors and they have extravagant blueprints for their final two years of collegiate basketball. They don’t plan on settling for anything less than a championship.

“It’s good to play with Jameel again,” Harris said. “I think it’ll make it a lot easier on me because I’ll have someone who understands the way I play and I understand the way he plays. So it’ll be a good chemistry.”

With Harris at the point and with Pugh beside him as the shooting guard, the two are in a comfort zone that dates back to basketball summer leagues.

“It’s just one of those things where you’re off-the-court relationship transcends into an on-the-court relationship,” Pugh said, “where you don’t have to say something to a person; they already know what you’re thinking.”

Amidst a season of only two Big Sky Conference wins in eight games thus far, by this time next year the Sac State faithful are predicting that the Hornets’ record may be completely reversed. Joseth Dawson and David Joiner are also sitting out this season due to academic ineligibility, while 2001-02 All-Big Sky Honorable Mention Joel Jones is redshirting after being ineligible in the fall semester.

Jones and Dawson will return next season as seniors, while Joiner will be a junior.

It hasn’t been easy for the trio to have to forgo a year of basketball, but the extra time has been lent to their studies, so that next season they will be able to run on all cylinders.

Away from the team almost all the time, except for being on the sidelines at basketball games, has given them additional time to correct the flaws in the academic portion of their student-athlete obligation, as well as take time in the gym to get healthier, stronger and better.

“I feel sorry for whoever is going to guard me next year,” Jones said. “I’ve gotten better and I know I have. I’m more confident.”Along with Pugh and Harris, Jones, Joiner and Dawson share the same dreams of eclipsing any of the previous records held by the Hornets.

Anything short of a Big Sky Championship and NCAA tournament berth would fall short of the goals the quintet have set out for themselves.

“I look at our team next season and we look like one of the best teams in Sac State history,” Joiner said.

The Hornets hold lofty goals for a program that has done no better than a 3-13 record since joining the Big Sky in the 1996-97 season.

All five contend that the current team on the court has the ability to set marks of their own this season that will lay the foundation for the five who intend to bring Hornet basketball to a level of Div. I prominence.

But maybe the biggest hurdle to overcome next season will not be on the floor.

After 12 consecutive losing seasons, the Sac State fan base has dwindled, and although the players wish supporters would make an attempt to attend games this season, they have already begun to make their pleas to the students and the surrounding community to make an effort to support Hornet basketball next season.

And although the 2003-04 season may seem like it will never arrive, they are doing their best to stay patient for what they hope is a winning season consisting of a Big Sky Tournament berth and the first of many Big Sky Championships to come.

The consensus among the ambitious five is that a championship, or lack thereof, is no longer the basis for some columnist’s weekly rant.

“Two years from now I want us to be starting a tradition and I want us to be a national contender,” Harris said. “Every time they mention Sac State I want them to think this team has a chance to be successful.”

There’s about 28,000-plus students that want that too.