UC Irvine Notebook / John Weyler : He’s Tipping the Scales in His Favor : As Butler’s Weight Drops, His Playing Time Increases

Anyone who saw Ricky Butler play basketball at Ocean View High School knew he was going to be good a college player. There just weren’t any doubts.

At 17, Butler already looked like a man playing with boys. Surely he was one of those athletes destined to make the transition from high school All-American to freshman impact player in one easy step.

But for Ricky Butler, nothing seems to come easily anymore . . . except maybe gaining weight.

Butler, a 6-foot 7-inch center with long arms that allow him to play as if he were much taller, signed with Kansas. But after realizing his academic deficiencies would cost him a year of eligibility under Proposition 48, he decided to attend UC Irvine.

Because Prop. 48 players can’t even practice with the team, Butler spent the last year studying, watching the Anteaters run instead of running himself, and, well, eating a lot. When his chance to play finally came this season, he was in no shape to make an impact, except maybe on anyone foolish enough to try to run over him en route to the basket.

Butler says he doesn’t know how much he weighed at his heaviest, but it had to be close to 280. His first concession to dieting was “to cut down to just three meals a day.”

When Butler first announced that he had decided to enroll at Irvine, Coach Bill Mulligan envisioned a sophomore standout. When the season began, however, Butler was the third-string center.

“He’s too damn fat and in no condition to do us any good,” Mulligan groused as he watched Butler labor up and down in the floor in one of the final practices before the season began.

But Butler says he’s determined to change that line of thinking, and he’s making some inroads. He spends nearly an hour a day on a stationary bike, burning calories with burning leg muscles.

Oh, he’s had his weak moments--an Irvine assistant called Butler at 11 p.m. recently and his girlfriend said he was “out getting a pizza”--but he’s making progress. He’s down to about 260.

He has made some progress on the court as well as on the scales. He’s playing more and beginning to show the flashes of brilliance that made him a 3-time all-Southern Section selection and a 3-time Sunset League most valuable player in high school.

In the two games before Wednesday night’s contest at Virginia, Butler averaged 16 minutes, grabbed 20 rebounds, scored 14 points, blocked a shot and earned his first college start.In 22 minutes against the Cavaliers, Butler had 8 rebounds, 7 points, blocked a shot and fouled out with 8:07 left.

Loyola of Chicago Coach Gene Sullivan thought Butler’s play in the second half Sunday was a key factor in Irvine’s rally from an 8-point deficit at halftime.

“Butler beat us up on the boards and turned that part of the game around for them,” Sullivan said. “We were beating them pretty good in the rebounding department, but when he was in there, they started to compete with us on the boards.”

After the Anteaters let the game slip away in the final minutes, Mulligan admitted that Butler’s performance was one of the few bright spots. And he wasn’t exactly in the mood to hand out compliments.

“Ricky played better,” he allowed. “It’s too bad he came in so heavy . . . “

Butler realizes he ate his way to the bottom of the depth chart, but now he’s concentrating on climbing back up.

“I’m starting to get back into the game, get a feel for playing again,” he said. “I’m finally starting to get in shape, too. I’m still about 20 pounds from where I’d like to be, which is between 235 and 240, but I’m starting to feel more comfortable out there.

“Practice and pick-up games just don’t get you ready for the real thing. When the lights are on and there’s people in the stands, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

So Butler is trying to work back into a position to make the kind of impact Mulligan originally envisioned.

“Right now, my goal is to improve a little bit every game,” he said. “I need to work on my free throws, my jump shot, my ballhandling, everything . . . my whole game.”

Butler’s game is physical. He likes to throw his weight around. And he’ll gladly trade elbows with anyone.

“Yeah, bumping, pushing, shoving . . . that’s the way I like to play. That’s fun. It gets me into the game.”

Their most grueling trip of the season is over, but the Anteaters still have a tough schedule ahead. They play host to UCLA next Wednesday before going back on the road for Big West Conference games at UC Santa Barbara, San Jose State and Utah State.

“Yeah, now all we’ve got is UCLA at home and three easy conference road games,” Mulligan said, with sarcasm so thick you could spread it with a knife.

“Somebody in the conference office must hate my guts.”

Anteater Notes

Here’s a first: An advertisement in a local paper offers eight general admission tickets, which go for $6, for the UCLA-Irvine game at the Bren Center Wednesday night for $25. “People have scalped tickets to a Las Vegas or Fullerton game in (1,500-seat)) Crawford Hall in the past,” said Rob Halvaks, Irvine’s senior associate athletic director. “But I don’t think anyone’s ever taken out an ad to do it before.” It’s especially odd when you consider that a handful of tickets for the game that weren’t purchased by students are on sale to the general public at the Bren box office. . . . Irvine swimmer Brian Pajer finished third in the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday at the U.S. Open Championships in Indianapolis with a time of 1 minute 4.57 seconds. He came back on Tuesday and took another third place in the 200 breaststroke, finishing in 2:19.59. Olympian Mike Barrowman, who finished fourth in Seoul, won the event in a meet-record time of 2:15.72, almost 2 seconds slower than his American record time set in the U.S Olympic Trials last August. . . . Halvaks, who also does the play by play on Irvine radio broadcasts, has had laryngitis all week. Athletic Director John Caine has offered a helping voice and did color commentary on the Loyola and Virginia games.