Ex-Anteater Spoils UCI’s Season Opener

UC Irvine came here for a fresh start after a 1984-85 season in which failures (17 losses) outnumbered successes (13 wins).

Ronnie Grandison came here to start over.

Saturday, the paths of Grandison and UC Irvine crossed, as they had once before. Playing against the team with which he began his collegiate career in 1983, Grandison scored a team-high 17 points to help the University of New Orleans spoil Irvine’s season opener, 88-76, in front of 1,851 spectators in Lakefront Arena.

Grandison is one of four transfers from the disbanded program at Tulane. The players, along with assistant coach Kirk Saulny, came to New Orleans to help a good ol’ boy from Mt. Vernon, Ga., have big fun on the Bayou in his first year as New Orleans head coach.

Benny Dees is a former Alabama assistant who uses phrases like “dadgummit” and “them guys,” and he openly admits that when Tulane’s troubled program folded, New Orleans “got everything but their uniforms.”

Grandison was included in that package. The former St. Bernard High School star left Irvine for Tulane after becoming unhappy over a lack of playing time his freshman season. With UCI’s Bill Mulligan--the coach who recruited him out of high school--looking on, Grandison hit 7 of 11 shots from the field and helped the Privateers (2-0) take UCI out of its offense with some aggressive defense.

The obvious conclusion to draw from Grandison’s performance is that he was out to prove it was a mistake for Mulligan and his staff to let him get away from Irvine. But the 6-8 junior forward, who sat out the scandal at Tulane last season, says it isn’t so.

“I really wish I was still at Irvine because that’s where I wanted to be,” Grandison said. “I just had a little adversity there. I thought I needed a chance to develop, and I couldn’t see myself playing much at Irvine.

“I needed to come to a place where I could play 30 minutes and develop.”

Grandison played 31 minutes against UCI, and Mulligan admitted he saw some signs of that development.

“It seemed as if Grandison got 100 points,” Mulligan said. “I thought he completely dominated.

“I still question his shot. He does all the things he did (at Irvine), only more aggressively. He’s bigger, stronger and more mature.”

Grandison and his teammates saw UCI take a 10-4 lead before succumbing to the Privateers’ high-pressured, man-to-man defense late in the first half. Irvine held a 33-32 lead with 2:46 left in the half but was outscored, 15-4, before intermission.

The Anteaters committed 12 turnovers in the first half, 21 in all. New Orleans had built a 70-51 lead midway through the second half, and the Anteaters couldn’t recover. They closed to within nine, 84-75, with less than a minute to play. It was too late.

Mulligan said the Privateers’ pressure defense was something of a surprise, and that it took his team out of its offense. “Most teams don’t play that way,” he said. “Most teams don’t have the quickness.”

New Orleans showed a little offense, too. Eleven players scored for Dees, whose substitution patterns resemble those of the Edmonton Oilers. “We’ve got so many good players, I just don’t know who to play,” Dees said. “I just run ‘em all in and out and try to keep ‘em all happy.”

There weren’t many happy faces in the UCI dressing room. Besides the troubles the Anteaters had solving New Orleans’ defense, they had some defensive breakdowns that led to some easy baskets for the Privateers. New Orleans shot 57% (37 of 65) from the field to UCI’ 48% (30 of 63).

Senior forward Johnny Rogers, the Anteaters’ leading scorer last season, suffered a 6-of-16 shooting performance. Junior guard Scott Brooks, who had 14 points and was 5 of 5 shooting in the Anteaters’ exhibition victory over Club Bosnia of Yugoslavia, missed all five of his shot attempts against New Orleans and finished with two points. Senior center Tod Murphy led UCI with 21 points, but he had only 4 rebounds and committed 6 turnovers.

This wasn’t the way the Anteaters had hoped to start things this season.

“I think there were some first-game jitters,” Murphy said. “But we won’t be able to use that excuse any more. The first game’s over.”

For Grandison, Dees and New Orleans, good times may be just beginning.