Nelson pivotal for Anteaters

UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Russell Turner enters his seventh season with one returning full-time starter, nine freshmen, three sophomores and only four upperclassmen.

The Anteaters, who play host to Sonoma State on Saturday at 2 p.m. in an exhibition game, will be led by senior guard Luke Nelson, a four-year starter who earned first-team All-Big West Conference honors last season.

Nelson, an import from Great Britain, led the regular-season conference co-champions in scoring (13.7 per game) and added 3.9 assists per contest last season, when the ‘Eaters won a program-record 28 games and reached the final of the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.

Nelson, sidelined by a hamstring issue, is not expected to play in the exhibition and may not be ready for the season opener on Nov. 11 at home against Utah State.

His return will be critical for success with a schedule that Turner said has a lot of 50-50 games.

I asked Turner Wednesday what he believed gave his team the best chance to win those 50-50 games this season.

“I think it’s that we’re likely to have the best player on the floor [Nelson],” Turner said. “And that we have three seniors [along with guard Jaron Martin and 7-foot-2 center Ioannes Dimakopoulous] who have won a lot of those close games, like we did last year.

“Conversely,” Turner said, “The fact that we lost five seniors [and 7-6 junior Mamadou Ndiaye, who opted to pursue professional opportunities] from last year’s team makes me worried about how we’re going to win those close games. We’re young and our identity is different, both on offense and defense, because we don’t have the same veterans.”

D-League prospects

Ndiaye, and former Anteater Will Davis both landed on NBA Development League teams, for which Turner was pleased.

Ndiaye, who was not selected in the NBA Draft in June, landed with the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Drive, an affiliate of the Detroit Pistons.

Davis, the Big West Tournament MVP in 2015, when he led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance as a Division I program, will play for the Reno Bighorns, an affiliate of the Sacramento Kings.

“I spoke to both of them and I’m happy for both of them,” Turner said.

“I’m interested to see what type of performance Will can have in that league, because I think he’s pretty well-suited to it with his athleticism, shot blocking and rebounding.”

Turner said Ndiaye, who played three games and did not score for Golden State in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, is also in a good situation.

“Detroit looked at [Ndiaye] closely and I have the sense that they are viewing him as a prospect that they want to evaluate over a fair period of time,” Turner said. “That’s important with Mamadou, because you kind of have to figure him out a little bit and get to know him before you start to see the different ways he can have a real positive impact in a lot of games.”

“And it’s also beneficial that the [Drive] head coach is Rex Walters, who was a college coach the last eight years [at San Francisco],” Turner said. “All those things are important because [Ndiaye] is a player that requires some adaptation by the team he is part of. He’s not someone who can just quickly mold himself to what a team otherwise does. That was some of why he didn’t have success in the summer league.”

OCC lacks height, experience

The Orange Coast College men’s basketball team opened its season Thursday afternoon against Antelope Valley in the Ventura Tournament at Ventura College.

Steve Spencer, entering his 16th season at the Pirates helm, has just three returners from last year’s 9-16 unit that went 4-8 in the Orange Empire Conference and lost seven of its last nine games.

Sophomore guard Josh Mendoza, an Estancia High product, averaged 12.3 points per game as a freshman, while Ibrahim Gerlach, a 6-4 sophomore forward, averaged 9.2 points last season.

Spencer said the team, with its two tallest players both 6-4, is the smallest he has ever had, placing added importance on the all-out-defensive pressure Spencer favors.

Spencer said DeAndre Hawkins, a 6-3 freshman from Palm Springs, has been his best all-around player in practice.

The Pirates play their only preconference home game Nov. 11 against San Diego Miramar at 5 p.m.

OCC opens Orange Empire Conference play on Jan. 4 at home against Saddleback.

Allen reaps reward

The road to an Orange Empire Conference individual women’s cross-country title for OCC sophomore Alyssa Allen was paved with dedication said her coach, Marco Ochoa.

“Not only has she worked on her mental toughness, but she really put in the work,” Ochoa said of Allen, who completed the 5,000-meter course at Huntington Beach Central Park on Friday in 19 minutes, 2.9 seconds, nearly 23 seconds ahead of the runner-up. “She has run twice a day and, when school started, she would get her first workout in at 4:30 or 5 a.m.”

Allen, who was third at OEC finals as a freshman, is considering a four-year future at UC Davis and Adams State in Colorado, Ochoa said.

She competes in the Southern California Regional Finals at Irvine Park in Orange on Friday at 10 a.m.