COLLEGE BASKETBALL ‘86-87 : UC Irvine’s Compact Model Is Reduced to Running for Its Life

Tradition didn’t make the cut at UC Irvine this basketball season. Certain things we’ve all come to know and love about the Anteaters will be left on the bench in 1986-87.

Remember the days of BMOC, when Coach Bill Mulligan took the biggest man on campus, posted him down low and told everybody else to keep feeding him the ball until the basket was gorged? Remember what happened last season when the Anteaters had not one, but two BMOCs? They beat Nevada-Las Vegas twice and UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

Remember all the wild colors Mulligan’s face used to turn when his guards--i.e. the Irvine foot soldiers--failed to pass the ball inside? Remember Mulligan’s old cry--”My kingdom for a point guard.”?

Remember tiny, quaint, cramped Crawford Hall, which used to uncomfortably seat 1,200 and send visiting teams away cursing? Remember the insults--crackerbox, bandbox, matchbox, a pox on it?

Well, soon all will be fodder for the archives. This season, the key newcomer at UC Irvine is change.

The long line of big men of influence has apparently reached its end. The torch that was passed from Kevin Magee to Ben McDonald to Bob Thornton to Tod Murphy and Johnny Rogers has been extinguished. This season’s Anteater center, Wayne Engelstad, fits the physical bill (6-feet 8-inches, 240 pounds), but so far, he has made a bigger impact on the scale than on the court.

This season, the emphasis at Irvine has shifted to the backcourt. After all the lean years, Mulligan suddenly finds himself with--of all things-- too many point guards. He has three good ones--Joe Buchanan, Scott Brooks and Mike Hess--and wants to play them all. To accomplish this, Mulligan will have one, the 6-1 Hess, open the season at small forward. Or, as the position has been reclassified at Irvine, very small forward.

And, after Jan. 8, we will no longer have Crawford Hall to kick around. A slick new 5,000-seat on-campus arena is scheduled for its grand opening then. The facility will be called the Donald Bren Events Center, named after the project’s primary financial backer, although Mulligan had a suggestion of his own.

“It should be named the Magee Center,” Mulligan said, referring to the two-time All-American who formally introduced Irvine hoops to the nation. “But, he didn’t give us a million bucks, either.”

As Mulligan puts it, “Magee made our program” back in the early 1980s, when the 6-8 center made 66% of his shots and laid the blueprint for future Anteater offenses.

Mulligan stuck to it with McDonald and Thornton, two players who recently guarded one another when the Golden State Warriors played the New York Knicks. Then last season, behind the double-post combination of Murphy and Rogers, Irvine beat UCLA in the first round of the NIT and became the first Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. team to sweep Nevada-Las Vegas.

Now, Rogers has joined McDonald and Thornton in the NBA and Murphy was set to play for pay in Italy before he injured a knee. With the main remnants from last season’s 17-13 club being three players listed at 6-1 or less, Mulligan has suddenly been forced to think small.

“We’ve gone from big slow players to small slow players,” Mulligan said.

That, of course, is a joke. One thing that hasn’t changed around Irvine is the Mulligan one-liner. But the truth is if the Anteaters are to survive in the bigger, better PCAA this season, they’ll have to run for their lives.

Mulligan tipped his hand in last week’s 113-101 exhibition victory over the Norwegian National Team. The Norwegians never knew what hit them. The Anteaters ran more fast breaks in 40 minutes than Fresno State has this decade.

“We’ve always run before, but this is different,” Mulligan said. “Not only are we going to run like hell, but we’re going to have to play pressure defense--stick-your-nose-in-his-navel defense. We’ll shoot the three-pointer off the break. We have to.

“If we do anything at all this year, it’ll be, hopefully, with our defense and our break.”

The Irvine relay team is in the blocks. A look at the anchormen:

--Buchanan: A 6-1 senior, Buchanan started 17 games as a sophomore at Notre Dame before transferring to Irvine in 1984. After a redshirt season, Buchanan averaged 8.2 points and 3.5 assists in 1985-86.

“That’s the only guy’s house I’ve ever been in that had a McDonald’s prep All-America plaque on the wall,” Mulligan said. “Out of high school, he was one of the top two or three point guards in the nation. He’s a big-time player.”

He also handles the basketball better than a kitchen knife. After the Norway exhibition, Buchanan was cutting some potatoes at home when the knife slipped and cut his right hand, severing a nerve. Seven stitches were required to close the wound, but because Buchanan shoots with his left hand, he is expected to play in Irvine’s season opener against Nebraska Friday night.

However, Buchanan has since been advised to try his potatoes mashed. And around the Irvine athletic department, he has picked up a new nickname: Irving Fryar.

--Brooks: At 5-11, Brooks is the smallest Anteater, but from outside 19-9, he’s king of the three-point play. Last season, with the three-point shot in effect in the PCAA, Brooks hit 30 of 80 attempts from the outer limits.

Other 1985-86 numbers: 10.3 scoring average, best among Irvine returnees; 95 assists, second on the club; .886 free-throw percentage, 13th best in the nation.

Against Norway, Brooks scored 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting--many of them coming on length-of-court breaks. Brooks, who had 57 steals last season, triggers many of those breaks.

“There aren’t too many people around quicker than Scott Brooks,” said Engelstad.

--Hess: Mulligan stews over his inability to recruit Orange County talent--he was beaten by UCLA to Brea-Olinda’s Kevin Walker and lost Tom Lewis after an aborted redshirt try--but Hess owns a high school diploma from Corona del Mar.

Of course, he first went to Texas for a freshman season before turning up at Crawford Hall.

A junior, Hess will start as the Anteaters’ third guard/small forward for at least four games, until Kevin Floyd, a redshirt from Georgetown, becomes eligible. After that, Mulligan plans to rotate Hess with Buchanan and Brooks in a three-guard platoon designed to keep the pace setters as fresh as possible.

Last season, Hess averaged 5.3 points a game but shot 53% from the field.

“Hess is the best shooter of the three,” Mulligan says, “but his problem is, he never shoots enough. Against UCLA, he only missed one shot. We’re trying to get him to put it up more.”

That’s leaves two more spots in the lineup, which brings us to sophomore Rob Doktorczyk, a 6-8 1/2 forward, and Engelstad.

Especially Engelstad.

Few players have come to Irvine with better credentials than Engelstad, who was a high-school All-America at Bosco Tech. “He was really something in high school,” Mulligan said. “He turned down all the big-time schools to come here. Lute Olson (Arizona coach) could not believe we beat them out for Wayne. I told him, ‘Hey, Wayne digs the ocean more than the desert.’ ”

But in two seasons at Irvine, Engelstad has averaged just six points a game. Last season, as a small forward, he shot only 44%.

“Part of it isn’t Wayne’s fault,” Mulligan said. “We expected too much from him. A lot was placed on Wayne’s shoulders and he kind of got lost in the shuffle with Murphy and Rogers.

“But the weight is Wayne’s fault. When he came in heavy this year, it really bothered me.”

See, on a team of Anteaters, Engelstad is known as an all-eater. Last season, he played at about 230 pounds, but four months later, he reported for fall practice a bloated 250.

Incensed, Mulligan immediately moved Engelstad inside. “Fat people play center,” Mulligan said.

Engelstad has since dropped about 10 pounds and Mulligan is hoping for a loss of 10 more.

“We still want to get the ball in to the big guy, and Wayne is pretty good down there,” Mulligan said. “And he has quick feet. Last year, he was the guy who guarded Reggie Miller when we played UCLA.”

By mid-December, Irvine’s front line figures to feature Engelstad, Doktorczyk and Floyd, a 6-5 redshirt who played in 29 games as a freshman on Pat Ewing’s last team at Georgetown. “He’s a big-time get,” Mulligan says of Floyd.

Assistance off the bench will come from 6-5 forward Frank Woods, who averaged 24 points a game at Seward County Community College in Kansas; 6-8 forward Mark Warren, a redshirt sophomore; 6-9 forward Mike Doktorczyk, Rob’s younger brother; and 6-10 freshman center Arthur Phillips.

“For us to do what we want to do,” Mulligan said, “we need to be about nine deep.”

What the Anteaters want to do is run, run, run. But because Irvine is small, small, small, the media and the coaches have forecast the Anteaters for an eighth-place finish in the PCAA.

Mulligan believes that is too low, that the upper division is attainable. But can last season’s record of 17-13 be repeated?

With a schedule that includes six 1986 NCAA Tournament teams (Nebraska, Bradley, Tulsa, Pepperdine, Iowa and Las Vegas), probably not.

“Seventeen-and-thirteen?,” Mulligan says. “I’d take that right now.”

UC IRVINE FACTS & FIGURES

1986-87 ROSTER

Lettermen Returning (5)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr FG% FT% Ast Reb Pts 12 Scott Brooks G 5-11 165 Sr .448 .886 3.2 2.3 10.3 23 Joe Buchanan G 6-1 185 Sr .461 .800 3.6 2.6 8.2 22 Rob Doktorczyk F 6-9 190 So .538 .600 0.1 0.8 0.9 30 Wayne Engelstad F-C 6-8 235 Jr .480 .613 0.9 3.5 6.4 10 Mike Hess G 6-1 178 Jr .531 .787 3.0 1.1 5.3

No Hometown (High School) 12 Lathrop, Calif. (East Union) 23 Seattle (Bishop of O’Dea) 22 San Pedro (Mary Star of Sea) 30 Rosemead (Don Bosco Tech) 10 Newport Beach (Corona del Mar)

Other Players Returning (3)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr 1985-86 Status 33 Mike Doktorczyk F 6-8 215 So Sophomore redshirt 25 Peter Strauss G-F 6-5 185 So Saw limited action 24 Mark Warren F 6-8 207 So Redshirt

No Hometown (High School) 33 San Pedro (Mary Starof Sea) 25 Hilton Head, S.C. (Hilton Head) 24 Pasadena (Rim of the World)

Newcomers (5)

No Player Po Hgt Wgt Yr 40 Steve Florentine F 6-7 195 Fr 32 Kevin Floyd G F 6-5 200 So 43 Arthur Phillips C 6-10 210 Fr 11 Jason Turner G 6-0 165 Fr 41 Frank Woods F 6-5 204 Jr

No Hometown (High School); Previous School 40 Hermosa Beach (Redondo Union) 32 Los Angeles (Westchester); Transfer from Georgetown 43 Los Angeles (Daniel Murphy) 11 Woodland Hills (Crespi) 41 Indianapolis (Northwest); Transfer from Seward County JC

1985-86 RESULTS

Result H/A Record New Orleans 88, UCI 76 A L, 0-1 UCI 87, Nebraska 80 A W, 1-1 Pepperdine 81, UCI 72 A L, 1-2 UCI 85, Montana 72 H W, 2-2 UCI 87, Boise St. 74 H W, 3-2 Loyola Marymount 122, UCI 100 A L, 3-3 Oral Roberts 69, UCI 63 H L, 3-4 UCI 99, Loyola Marymount 75 A W, 4-4 Nevada Reno 89, UCI 86 A L, 4-5 UCI 72, San Jose St. 67 H W, 5-5 UCI 96, Utah State 82 H W, 6-5 Fresno State 53, UCI 48 A L, 6-6 UCI 83, Pacific 75 H W, 7-6 Fullerton 66, UCI 54 A L, 7-7 UCI 99, UC Santa Barbara 88 H W, 8-7 UCI 85, CS Long Beach 63 H W, 9-7 New Mexico St. 83, UCI 71 H L, 9-8 UCI 89, Utah State 79 A W, 10-8 San Jose St. 71, UCI 55 A L, 10-9 UCI 60, Fresno State 58 H W, 11-9 UCI 80, Pacific 76 H L, 12-9 New Mexico St. 95, UCI 75 A L, 12-10 UCI 99, UNLV 92 A W, 13-10 UCI 95, CS Long Beach 80 A W, 14-10 UCI 87, UC Santa Barbara 79 A W, 15-10 UCI 95, UNLV 88 H L, 16-10 CS Fullerton 78, UCI 68 H L, 16-11 CS Fullerton 66, UCI 58 A L, 16-12 UCI 80, UCLA 74 A W, 17-12 BYU 93, UCI 80 A W, 17-13

Home: 9-3

Away: 8-10

PCAA: 12-6