UC Irvine Notebook / John Weyler : Doktorczyk Is the Latest Hulk to Endure Mulligan’s Way With Words

Bill Mulligan is not as physically intimidating as San Jose State Coach Bill Berry, but the UC Irvine basketball coach can deal out “mental cruelty” with the best of them. He’s made many a 6-foot 9-inch hulk feel pretty small.

This is not to say that the Anteaters are on the verge of boycotting unless the coach is fired, as is the case with 10 of Berry’s players at San Jose State. Most of his players over the years have perceived Mulligan as a demanding guardian who expects a lot and screams a lot. But when he cuts loose with a particularly cutting tirade, the reverberations can be felt for quite some time.

So, assistant Bob Thate quietly suggested that Mulligan be a bit less vociferous in his criticism of a certain player during a recent practice.

Mulligan’s response?

“I yelled at (Wayne) Engelstad and (Bob) Thornton and they made it to the NBA . . . so why can’t I yell at him.”

Senior center Mike Doktorczyk, the “him” in question, laughed about it later. “I don’t know why Coach Thate thinks I can’t take it,” he said. “I can take it.”

Obviously. Doktorczyk came out of the coach’s doghouse to make 12 of 12 shots--including 4 of 4 3-pointers--in Irvine’s 90-88 victory over University of the Pacific Saturday night. He is second in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (61%) after making 25 of 41 this season.

There was a time, however, when he couldn’t handle Mulligan’s verbal abuse.

Doktorczyk transferred from L.A. Harbor College and started 13 games for the Anteaters as a sophomore in the 1986-87 season. He scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the second game of that season, a 121-111 victory over Bradley.

Nine games later, however, Doktorczyk was vividly experiencing the other end of the emotional spectrum.

With Irvine holding a 1-point lead in the waning seconds at Fresno State, Doktorczyk threw away an inbounds pass and the Bulldogs scored. Then, with 13 seconds left, he took an ill-advised, off-balance jump shot that didn’t go in and Irvine lost.

“In the timeout, I told Mike to call a timeout if he had to, but to make sure he didn’t throw it away,” Mulligan recalled. “Then, when we’ve still got plenty of time to get a good shot, he takes this horrible shot while he’s falling off to his left.”

All of which proves that even a guy on his way to an MBA can do some really stupid things in the heat of a game. But Mulligan had never won a game at Fresno--he still hasn’t--and he made his displeasure known.

“He came down really hard on me,” Doktorczyk said, managing a nervous smile. “Wayne (Engelstad) said it was the worst he’d ever seen. I should have called timeout. And I guess I forced the shot because I was trying to make amends.

“I really started to lose my confidence after that. I felt like if I missed a couple of shots, he’d take me out. I was afraid to do anything. And, the fact was, people on the bench were producing more than I was and so I put even more pressure on myself.”

Doktorczyk buckled under the pressure. He played in all 30 games as a junior, but started just twice. His average fell from 8 points a game to 5 and, even though he seldom missed in practice, he shot an uncharacteristic 38% from the floor.

Doktorczyk worked hard on his game last summer and fancied himself a starter when practice began before this season. He was more than a bit surprised to discover he had fallen to third string on the depth chart.

His brother, Rob, a redshirt junior, had been penciled in as a starter.

“I wasn’t jealous of Rob, I was just frustrated because I apparently wasn’t in their plans,” Doktorczyk said. “I had gotten in the best shape of my life because we were supposed to play run-and-gun. I’d lifted weights and was stronger. And I played in a pro summer league against top-notch Division I players and was confident I could score.”

When the season began, Mulligan saw something in Doktorczyk he hadn’t seen since the first month of his sophomore year.

“Mike is finally shooting in games like he always has in practice,” Mulligan said. “Right now, he’s almost as valuable to us as Wayne Engelstad was last year. The only difference is he doesn’t have the foot speed or quick first step that Wayne had. But he can play inside or outside and that’s a pretty good guy to have.”

So Doktorczyk--with a 57% shooting percentage, a 72% free-throw percentage, a 14-point-per-game average and an 8-rebound-per-game average in hand--has moved into Mulligan’s penthouse. For now.

But he probably won’t forget what life in the basement was like. So the next time he makes a mistake, maybe he’ll be able to keep it in perspective . . . even if Mulligan can’t.

Doktorczyk was held scoreless in the final 15:57 of Saturday’s game. He scored 28 points in the first 24 minutes. Had he maintained the pace, he would have been right on Kevin Magee’s school record of 46.

But there were a number of factors contributing to the 16-minute drought:

--Pacific Coach Bob Thomason put Ron Tabron on Doktorczyk and the junior forward did a marvelous job of denying Doktorczyk the ball. “He was never more than a foot behind me,” Doktorczyk said. “We even ran a couple special plays for me, but I couldn’t get open enough and I didn’t want to force anything.”

--After viewing the tape, Mulligan said Doktorczyk had posted up and was open underneath a number of times late in the game, but his teammates just failed to get the ball to him.

--Doktorczyk gets a good portion of his 3-pointers after inbounding the ball and trailing the fast break. If there’s no open route to the basket, the Irvine guards pass back to Doktorczyk, who often pulls up and shoots a yard or more behind the 19-foot 9-inch 3-point stripe. Pacific employed a full-court press much of the second half, negating that shot altogether.

“The second half of the (conference) season, we’re not going to get that trailing shot too often,” Mulligan said. “Especially if people see this tape. Mike’s going to have to work a little harder to get open 3-pointers from now on.”

Anteater Notes

Coach Bill Mulligan, on the 10 San Jose State players who are boycotting and demanding the dismissal of Coach Bill Berry: “There’s a lot of pressure on the administration up there. If they let (Berry) go, they’re making a big mistake. It could happen tomorrow at 100 more schools if they do. I don’t think (Fullerton Coach George) McQuarn should have quit before the season and I don’t think kids should quit in the middle of the year.” Mulligan is not a Berry fan, however. He recently has gained a bizarre form of respect for him, though. “He knows I hate him and I know he hates me and he doesn’t even pretend to be my friend,” Mulligan said. . . . Senior middle blocker Kris Roberts was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. Southwest Region All-District team. She is the first Anteater to be selected to the team. . . . Speaking of firsts, the men’s swimming team beat Cal State Northridge Saturday, the first victory over Northridge in Irvine’s 24-year swimming history.

Injury Report: Freshman Etop Udo-Ema, who injured his knee in a pickup game at Irvine while the team was in Utah, underwent surgery Monday to repair torn cartilage. Udo-Ema, who had 7 points and was 2 for 18 from the field in 3 games, will be out for the remainder of the season. . . . Baltimore Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson headlines the Irvine graduates who will return to Anteater Field to face the 1988 varsity squad in the annual alumni game Saturday at 1 p.m. . . . The U.S. National soccer team is working out this week at Irvine.