Freedom Bowl Tournament : Irvine Rebounds From Embarrassing Loss to Beat TCU

Bill Mulligan sincerely believed his new hot-rod running game would blow away the competition this season. The UC Irvine coach thought his team would rocket along with a “step aside, our cruise control’s in overdrive” attitude.

But Mulligan has been coaching for 33 years, and it only took him one game--a 25-point loss to Georgia State--to figure out it was time to junk the souped-up model and go with something that doesn’t break down as often.

Saturday night, Irvine all but scrapped its full-court press, ran the offense in a more conventional manner and came away with an 83-75 victory over Texas Christian in the consolation game of the Western Digital Freedom Bowl tournament in front of 1,673 in the Bren Center.

Remember all that hoopla about the Anteaters leading the nation in scoring?

Never mind.

“We changed our philosophy a little,” Mulligan said. “In a few days, we may look like Fresno State.”

Mulligan used to call Fresno’s deliberate style “vomit basketball.”

Guards Rod Palmer and Kevin Floyd led the way for Irvine. Palmer made 9-of-13 field-goal attempts, including 4 of 5 3-pointers, and scored 25 points. Floyd was 7 of 12 from the floor and finished with 18 points.

“Last night was a shocker,” Floyd said. “You’d like to make it to the championship game of your own tourney. A lot of our fans left holding their noses . . . and we surely stunk the place up.

“We came in just wanting to run, run, run. But the bottom line is to win.”

Irvine looked as if it was going to start the season 0-2 as TCU (1-2) jumped out to an 11-point lead (21-10) with 9:43 left in the first half. But Palmer scored seven quick points as the Anteaters outscored the Horned Frogs, 27-19, to close to within three at the half, 40-37.

Palmer, a junior transfer from UCLA, hit a pair of 3-pointers in a 45-second span early in the second half and Irvine finally went ahead for good, 68-66, on two free throws by Palmer with 4:56 remaining.

“I was a lot more focused tonight,” Palmer said. “Last night was my first real game in 2 years and I was a little antsy.”

Even with a less frantic pace and a degree of patience, the Anteaters committed 29 turnovers. They also had trouble stopping the Horned Frogs’ inside game. Reserve center Rich Antee led TCU with 19 points, and forward Craig Sibley scored 15.

But the absence of the Irvine press translated into a drastically reduced number of layups by the opposition.

Mulligan wasn’t overjoyed with everything he saw, though.

“We’re going to practice tomorrow instead of taking the day off,” he said.