Sports fans: let’s bask in that Golden Gator glory, if just for a moment.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Yep, both of SF State’s basketball teams made the conference playoffs for the first time in well over a decade, meaning they have a shot at a California Collegiate Athletic Association championship.

Though the women fell to UC San Diego in the first round Wednesday, the men knocked off third-seeded Cal State L.A. to book a semifinal date for Friday.

Heck, the Gators may even stun the field and take home the big prize, and that would mean athletics director Michael Simpson will have to go find that long-lost key to the trophy cabinet and dust off some space on the shelf.

But before we get too carried away, let’s remember this is the first year the CCAA has hosted a basketball tourney, which is open to the top eight of 12 teams. The men finished in a five-way tie for third (they are seeded sixth), while the women scraped through in sixth place.

“We’re starting to catch up [with the rest of the CCAA],” Simpson said.

He’s right. This year’s winning records show a huge improvement in Gator hoops. Last year the men, for example, won just two games — and at this season’s start, nobody expected them to finish much better than last.

And this school’s history in this conference, regardless of what sport is being played, is hardly glowing: since joining the CCAA in 1998, the Gators have not won a single conference championship.

(Let’s set aside the terrific wrestlers for a moment — they compete in a separate conference.)

Before now, the women’s basketball team had never finished with a winning CCAA record. The men did once, in 2005. As for soccer, neither the men’s nor women’s teams have made the CCAA postseason — ever. The same goes for baseball.

(Like the wrestlers, the softballers get a hall pass on this one. Though they didn’t win the conference in 2005, they were regional champs and did make the quarterfinals of the national tournament.)

So are this year’s hoopsters part of a new breed of winning Gators? If so, what spawned them? What’s different?

“I would suspect that this year will be awfully good, and next year even better,” Simpson said. “But that’s providing we can give them all the tools we need to achieve that.”

Perhaps those “tools” are scholarship dollars, and that a cash shortfall at SF State means Gator handouts pale in comparison to some of the bigger schools in the conference, which makes recruiting a challenge.

But Simpson said this year’s successes are likely down to basketball coaches Joaquin Wallace and Bill Treseler both being in their third years.

They’ve had a chance to grow young teams into what they perceive as winning products by doing it their way, and right now we’re starting to see these teams blossom. Take a look at the rosters — there are few seniors.

“It starts with the players,” Simpson said. “You’ve got to have the right type of talent, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the best talent. You have to have the right kinds of kids who can take instruction.”

Simpson knows all about playoffs and championships. He coached SF State’s baseball team back in the glory years—the 1980s—when athletes wore mullet haircuts and tight uniforms, and Gator teams won stuff.

Back then, the school competed in the Northern California Athletic Conference and won championships in gymnastics (1983), soccer (1988), baseball (1986) and softball (1983). Gator baseball also dominated at the regional level, winning the Far West Conference title in 1981, 1982 and 1989. Men’s basketball most recently won a conference championship in 1994.

Now take a look back to the tumultuous year of 1967, and you’ll see a Gator football team—led by star quarterback and current Tulane head coach Bob Toledo — lose the Division II national title game to San Diego State. Whoa.

So does this mean that back in those days, Gator athletics didn’t suffer from what Simpson called the “less tangible” obstacles, like injuries and bad team chemistry?

Last year the men’s soccer team fell victim to injuries. After losing it’s two star players, the seemingly playoff-bound Gators won just one of their last 10 games.

So there it is, it’s that simple: lots of luck and some good ol’ fashioned coaching seem to be the keys to success.

Now we know the big secret, there can be no more excuses. Let’s win some trophies.

David Agrell is a senior staff writer for the Golden Gate [X]press.