UCI Hopes to Rebound : Anteaters Are Counting on a Mixture of Transfers and Veterans to Help Bounce Back From Last Year’s Miserable 13-17 Season

If UC Irvine basketball Coach Bill Mulligan ever decides to erect a statue outside Crawford Hall, the inscription beneath it might read: “Give me your tall, your homesick, your disgruntled power forwards and point guards yearning to make a fast break West.”

Mulligan has made Irvine a home for players who--for various reasons--became unhappy with the college choice they made out of high school. And he’s hoping that a few of those players, mixed with a dash of traditional recruits, will help him forget the most forgettable season of his 29-year coaching career.

Four of the five players who are likely to take the court when UC Irvine begins its regular season Saturday against the University of New Orleans began their collegiate careers elsewhere. Only forward Tod Murphy--who is the Anteaters’ best all-around player--came to Irvine directly from high school.

How much impact will transfers have on the Anteaters’ attempt to improve upon last season’s 13-17 record? Well, let’s start with the backcourt, an alleged weak spot for Mulligan last season. Joe Buchanon will start at the off guard. Scott Brooks and Mike Hess will alternate at point guard. All will see substantial playing time. All are transfers.

Buchanon, a 6-foot, 1-inch junior, reshirted last year after starting 17 games for Notre Dame two years ago. Brooks, a 5-11 junior, played at San Joaquin Delta College last year after spending his freshman season at Texas Christian. Hess, a 6-1 sophomore from Corona del Mar High School, sat out last season after playing in five games as a freshman at the University of Texas.

Irvine’s leading scorer last season was a red-haired redshirt who played two seasons at Stanford, where he was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1982. Johnny Rogers, all 6-10 of him, is back for his senior season after averaging 21.7 points per game as a junior. Rogers’ shooting ability combine with Murphy’s strong inside game to give Irvine one of the premiere front court combinations in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. Murphy was a first-team, all-conference selection last season, averaging 17 points and 8.9 rebounds per game and is considered by some to have a future in the National Basketball Assn.

Troy Carmon, yet another transfer, will start at the small forward spot. Carmon was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA because he missed his freshman season at Colorado State because of a shoulder injury. He averaged 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Anteaters last season.

All of this is cause for optimism at Mulligan’s Transfer Tech. NCAA regulations stipulate that a player must sit out a year after transferring from one four-year school to another. The gamble a transfer takes is that the wait will be worthwhile. So far, Crawford Hall appears to be filled with happy wanderers.

“Once practice got going last year, I found this was the program I should have been in in the first place,” Hess said. “Once you’ve been to the wrong place and you find the right place, it’s worth it.”

Buchanon, a prep All-American at O’Dea High School in Seattle, doesn’t elaborate when asked his reasons for leaving Notre Dame. He doesn’t hesitate to explain what brought him to Irvine, though.

“The weather out here is definitely better than what I had to deal with in South Bend,” he said. “I fell in love with the area, and with Coach Mulligan’s philosophy. Everything just kind of sold itself.”

Mulligan, the head salesman, is entering his sixth season at Irvine. Number Five was one for the memoirs, in the chapter entitled, “Nightmares Realized.”

It began in poor health. Last Oct. 19, Mulligan suffered a mild stroke while attending a coaches’ clinic in Billings, Mont. He lost the feeling in his right arm and hand. On Nov. 21, he underwent surgery to clear a clogged artery in his neck, which doctors believed to be the cause of his stroke.

The medical problems forced Mulligan to stay home when Irvine opened its season in Boulder, Colo., against the University of Colorado. The Anteaters lost that game, 80-73. And although Mulligan’s health gradually improved, the condition of his team did not.

The 13-17 record was the worst at Irvine since 1979-80, Tim Tift’s last season as coach. It was also the first losing season of Mulligan’s coaching career.

Mulligan was relying heavily on a group of inexperienced players. He started the season with two freshmen in the starting lineup and seven on his roster. He responded to charges that his team was too inexperienced to win by repeatedly saying he’d “rather have good young players than experienced ones who can’t play.” The problem was, the good young ones weren’t that good.

Mulligan’s two prize recruits were forward Wayne Engelstad and guard Rodney Scott. Engelstad was a disappointment, although it would have been difficult for him to have lived up to some ambitious preseason expectations. Scott suffered an ankle injury early in the season and averaged only 3.4 points per game. He has since left Irvine, after becoming academically ineligible.

Other departures include Jerome Lee, who used up his eligibility but will serve as a part-time assistant coach, and Boris King. King was unable to get out of his pro baseball contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates and therefore unable to accept an athletic scholarship. He has transfered to College of the Desert to escape high tuition fees and be closer to his family in Palm Springs.

Those players were part of a team that went 8-10 in the PCAA and lost to Fullerton in the first round of the tournament. Five conference losses came by six points or less. Four of those came by a total of 10 points. For the Anteaters to contend with Nevada Las Vegas, San Jose State and Fresno State for the PCAA title, as some believe they can, the trend of losing close games will have to be reversed.

Much will depend on whether Rogers can make the transition from a liability to an asset on defense.

Mulligan has said that he would like the Anteaters to lead the nation in scoring, but may have said that out of the fear that they will need all the points they can get. Irvine gave up 2,366 points last season, the most in the school’s history. At season’s end, Mulligan vowed that his team would improve defensively.

Offense doesn’t appear to be a problem. In Rogers, Murphy and Carmon, the Anteaters have players who combined to average almost 50 points per game last season. Murphy had 33 points in Irvine’s 100-86 exhibition win over Club Bosnia of Yugoslavia on Nov. 12, including four rim-shaking dunks on a lob play designed to take advantage of his leaping ability.

Clearly, the nucleus of this team has been built on players who have fled other programs; players who, in some cases, got away from Mulligan when he recruited them out of high school.

Some, like Rogers and Carmon, have already made themselves quite comfortable at Irvine. How others--like Buchanon, Hess and Brooks--adapt to their new surroundings may determine how well the Anteaters rid Mulligan of some bad memories of a year ago.