UC Irvine Notebook : Mulligan, Anteaters Have Their Latest Sure Shot in Focus

Justin Anderson is the quintessential Bill Mulligan recruit: a 100% pure and natural shooter. No added ingredients.

Mulligan, the UC Irvine basketball coach, often talks about recruiting all-around athletes, but he just can’t resist players with sweet jumpers.

Watch Anderson at practice. He’s a bit tentative on defense and unsure of himself when dribbling. But when he shoots a jumper, his face has a look of confidence. Train your video camera on him, then go home and hold a shooting clinic.

Anderson, a 6-foot 5-inch freshman guard, doesn’t just look pretty shooting. He also scores with uncanny consistency.

The Anteaters run a shooting drill called “lane shooting,” in which players run down the court and then stop and shoot, first from about 16 feet from the basket, then again from beyond the 19-foot 9-inch three-point stripe.

In the first two weeks of practice, Anderson was shooting 68% from three-point range, 84% from two-point range and 76% overall in the drill.

“He’s the best shooter I’ve ever seen,” said Tim Murphy, a UCI assistant coach.

But not many people have seen Anderson. During Wednesday night’s open practice/controlled scrimmage, many Anteater boosters and fans got their first look at Anderson, who was the North Dakota Player of the Year last season. He averaged 22 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists for Valley City High School in Valley City, N.D.

“We know Justin Anderson is a great shooter . . . hopefully, he’ll be able to do other things, too,” Mulligan said.

The “other things” often decide basketball games, but Anderson probably wouldn’t have gone to UCI were it not for Mulligan’s reputation as a shooter’s coach.

“The coaches here really let you play offensively,” Anderson said. “And they didn’t want to redshirt me. Both of those things were important to me.”

Anderson knows he can score. He wants to play right away, but after two months in Irvine, he has come to realize that the step from North Dakota prep ball to Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. play is a huge one indeed.

“We play every day here, and obviously it’s different than in North Dakota,” he said. “These guys can really run and jump. I’m learning so much every day . . . what I can do and what I can’t do. I love that feeling, that feeling like I’m learning so much.

“It’s probably unrealistic to want to start. I’ll have to see what my chances are after we practice for a while. Starting on the Division I level as a freshman is more like a dream.”

If his education on the basketball court has been a bit difficult on his ego at times, he’s quite pleased with what he has learned about fall in the Southland.

“I talked to my mom the other day and she told me it was 18 degrees there,” Anderson said. “She couldn’t believe it when I told her we had just played down at Laguna Beach and it was sunny and hot.”

College basketball fans have a hard time buying tickets to the Final Four. College football fans have to fight over bowl game tickets and then hope for a good matchup.

But college water polo fans--and there are some out there--can see the five best teams in the nation all in one place this weekend during the 49er Invitational in Belmont Plaza Pool at Long Beach.

The tournament, which used to be billed as the PCAA vs. the Pacific 10, is still basically just that, featuring top-ranked California, second-ranked UCLA, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 USC and No. 5 UCI.

“In some ways, a tournament like this is more important than our conference games,” UCI Coach Ted Newland said. “It’s very important, because when it comes time to do the seeding for the NCAA tournament, they always look at how you’ve fared against the the top teams.

“You get an automatic berth for winning the conference, but a team like Long Beach might finish third in conference and still win an at-large berth with a great showing at this tourney.”

Irvine, 10-5 overall and 5-1 in the PCAA, has lost twice to both Cal and Stanford this season, but all four were close games. The Anteaters lost once in overtime--and both times by one goal--to Stanford, and twice by two goals (once in overtime) to Cal.

On Saturday, Irvine will play Stanford at 10:30 a.m. and then will face Cal at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday, the Anteaters will play UCLA at 10:30 a.m. and USC at 6:30.

“The schedule is very hard on everyone,” Newland said. “You get very tired, both mentally and physically, and depth becomes a big factor. None of these teams has walked through us, though, so we’ve got a good chance to move up in the rankings.”

Anteater Notes No score was kept in Wednesday’s basketball scrimmage, but Coach Bill Mulligan was more than a little impressed with Justin Anderson’s shooting performance. “The kid has a chance to be a superstar,” Mulligan said afterward. . . . Although they weren’t keeping score, they were playing for keeps. Senior Frank Woods, a 6-foot 5-inch forward, caught an elbow over his left eye during a battle for a rebound. The injury required nine stitches, but he is expected to practice today. . . . Sophomore Ali Wood recorded a school-record 30 kills and junior Ann Warmus set a school record with 66 set-assists as the women’s volleyball team rallied to beat Fresno State in a two-hour, 45-minute, five-game marathon Saturday. The Anteaters (8-9, 3-7) will play host to Fresno State at 7:30 p.m. Friday and to two-time defending NCAA champion University of the Pacific at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.