COLLEGE BASKETBALL ‘88-89 : UC Irvine : Mulligan’s Anteaters Hit the Ground Running After the NCAA Scoring Record

“I’ve taken every crazy thing I’ve ever done and put it in this season. I’m more excited than I’ve ever been because I’m finally playing the way I want and I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.”

--Bill Mulligan, UC Irvine basketball coach

UC Irvine’s basketball team has averaged 126 points in two exhibition games this season. If the Anteaters can maintain that hyperspace pace, they’ll bury the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record for scoring average by 15 1/2 points a game.

And that would make Bill Mulligan a very happy man.

A scoring record might result in some coveted national recognition and possibly help fill Irvine’s Bren Center, but Mulligan also would like to win a few games along the way.

So hang on to that ticket for Bullet-Train basketball, but you might have to settle for the Express. Mulligan, after watching videotapes of the Anteaters’ exhibitions, has decided some of those “crazy things” might be just plain insane, so he’s already backing off the throttle a bit.

“We need to refine this a little,” he said of his newly installed full-court press/full-tilt running game. “If a team will run with us, we’re not going to gamble quite so much (on defense).

“I’m getting squeamish about giving up so many layups. I no longer think we can successfully deny the inbounds pass and still stop the long pass for the easy layup.”

Mulligan knows his team must press to dictate the tempo and that means Irvine will be giving up a lot of gimmies. But he isn’t prepared to watch opponents throw baseball passes for uncontested lay-ins all night, either.

The middle ground will certainly mean a reduced scoring average, so Nevada Las Vegas’ record average of 110.5 set in 1976 might be safe for another year.

So the defense has undergone a minor overhaul before Friday night’s opener against Georgia State in the first round of Irvine’s Freedom Bowl Tournament.

It appears the offense needs some work, too.

Mulligan, never one to discourage a player from shooting, thinks his players might have mistaken his fast-break offense for a license to free-lance.

“So far, we’ve had some guys who were selfish,” he said. “Maybe they thought we want them to be selfish. We don’t.”

Irvine led the Czech National Team, 77-63, at the half, but then the Anteaters lost whatever shreds of discipline go with this style of play and had to hang on for a 121-119 victory.

“Maybe we got selfish, but I don’t think anyone was consciously being selfish,” senior guard Kevin Floyd said. “I think we thought it was a blowout, though, and maybe subconsciously people were thinking about getting some points.”

Despite the alterations, the Anteaters will be runnin’ and gunnin’ in 1988-89, in an attempt to improve upon last season’s 16-14 mark overall and 9-9 conference record, good for fifth place. Whether they will sprint to glory or be shot down and end up near the bottom of the Big West Conference standings remains to be seen.

But Mulligan is convinced that he finally has the athletes to play the game the way he believes it’s meant to be played.

Here’s a look at the Anteaters:

AT THE POINT

There’s no questioning transfer Rod Palmer’s skills as a point guard. He’s 6-foot 4-inches tall, quick-on-quick, a deft ballhandler, a sharp passer, drives to the basket well and is an accurate shooter.

But the most important attribute for a point guard in this scheme might be judgment. In a single game, Palmer is faced with hundreds of split-second decisions, any one of which could be the difference in the game.

So far, he has earned about a C grade from Mulligan. Palmer has tried to make things happen by himself too often.

“One guy I’ve got to get to is Palmer,” Mulligan said, during his sermon on selfishness. “He’s not worse than anyone else, he just has the ball so much. But he’s a bright guy and he’s willing to listen.”

Palmer is one of three players--Floyd and Mike Labat are the others--who Mulligan says will play 32 minutes.

Brett Pagett, a 6-0 freshman from Los Alamitos High, probably will get most of the other 8 minutes at the point. Floyd could see action here, too.

ON THE WINGS

Floyd, a 6-5 swingman who is Irvine’s top returning scorer after averaging 13 points in 1987-88, already has made some spectacular moves to the basket this year.

He could be a deciding factor in whether the full-speed-ahead style works. If Floyd stays in control and his teammates follow suit, Irvine might be running after Nevada Las Vegas and away from the rest of the Big West pack.

The Anteaters certainly don’t lose any firepower while Floyd catches a breather. Freshman Etop Udo-Ema (his parents are from Nigeria, but he was raised in Phoenix) took 13 shots from the floor and scored 17 points in 10 minutes of the Czech game.

“He’s got no conscience,” Mulligan said. “It’s a good thing he’s such a great shooter.”

Jeff Herdman, a 6-6 sophomore from Mission Viejo High, will start at the other wing spot. Mulligan calls Herdman “an all-time pleasant surprise for me” and the “most improved player in our program.”

Justin Anderson, a 6-5 pure shooter who almost talked Mulligan into letting him redshirt this season, will back up Herdman. Anderson made 38 of 92 shots from 3-point range last season.

Junior transfer Troy Whiteto, at 6-2, is Irvine’s best leaper. He won the dunking contest during Irvine’s season-opening midnight practice. He sometimes looks outmatched underneath . . . until he jumps up and snatches a rebound away from a player who’s more than half a foot taller.

UP FRONT

Ricky Butler, a highly touted 6-foot 7-inch center from Ocean View High School who sat out last season because of Proposition 48, spent the year getting his grades up. Unfortunately, his weight went in the same direction.

Butler, whose weight ballooned toward the 300 mark, says he’s dieting, but it’s obvious he’s not in shape to play Irvine’s brand of speed ball. It didn’t take either exhibition opponent long to figure out the best way to beat the press was to send Butler’s man long.

And it didn’t take Mulligan long to react. Butler is now listed third on the depth chart at center.

Fortunately for Irvine, Brian McCloskey has been a pleasant surprise. McCloskey, a 6-7 freshman from Sunny Hills, is on the other end of the body style spectrum--if Butler looks like a weightlifter, McCloskey, at 175 pounds, looks like a marathoner. But because the Anteaters are playing fast and loose, McCloskey doesn’t have to stand in one place long enough to get shoved around.

Freshman Elgin Rogers (6-6), another player who was considering redshirting, is No. 3 at the post. Don May, a 6-9 redshirt freshman, will see limited time.

Mike Labat, a 6-5 junior, will start at the other inside spot (power forward, maybe), although in Irvine’s scheme of things, the position is almost like a third wing.

Labat, who wasn’t much of a factor last season (5 points and 3 rebounds a game) has blossomed in the new game plan. He averaged 18 points and 6 rebounds in the exhibitions.

Mike Doktorczyk, a 6-9 senior who averaged 5 points and 3 rebounds last season, and his brother, Rob, a 6-9 junior who redshirted last year, will back up Labat.