UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Reluctant Lee Adapting to New Role With Women’s Basketball Team
Jenny Lee, a basketball player at UC Irvine, says she approaches her sport in fairly simple terms.
“The reason I play is that I want to have fun,” Lee, a junior guard, said. “And to have fun is to play to your total ability. I don’t try to be Magic Johnson.”
Lee rarely tries to be anyone but herself, though sometimes that has caused problems for Irvine Coach Dean Andrea.
“I respect her work ethic; it’s tremendous,” Andrea said. “The problem is sometimes we have a difficult time communicating. She can be hard-headed and stubborn.”
Lee came to Irvine three years ago from South Eugene (Ore.) High School, where she was a four-year starter, the most valuable player in her league and a USA Today honorable mention All-American.
Although she had to redshirt her freshman year at Irvine--swollen disks in her back forced her to take a year off--she came back quickly, and last year was the teams’ second-leading scorer, averaging 11.1 points a game.
But that alone was not enough for Andrea. He wanted Lee to take more of a leadership role on the court--as well as shoot a bit more. Lee said she wasn’t comfortable with either role.
“My favorite thing to do is passing, but coach has told me to shoot more,” she said. “But I just love to pass, I don’t know why. (Now) I guess I have to shoot.
“Sometimes you have a different opinion than the coach. You have to accept the role you’re put in. Sometimes you’re not ready. I just wanted to play, (but) he wanted a leadership role. I guess when you’re on a team you need that . . . It’s not like pick-up ball.
“He wanted me to live up to my potential. He didn’t think I was playing as hard as I could. When someone says that, you’re thinking, ‘I’m already playing up to my potential.’ I feel I’m self-driven, so I don’t need someone else to tell me that.”
Last week, in an exhibition game against the English National Team, Lee scored 17 points to lead Irvine to a 64-60 victory. Andrea said that performance proved to him that Lee has made big strides in both her game and her attitude since last year.
“She came out of the gate real well,” he said. “I think she understands her role real well now. . . . She has come around. She still has her moments where she wants to get her two cents in, but I think she’s learning it’s not worth getting her two cents in.”
In addition, Andrea said Lee has become more confident in her abilities, another big improvement from last year.
“In high school, I never thought what I did was good enough,” Lee said. “After a game it was like, ‘Why didn’t I do this or do that?’ It (that feeling) is still there, but now I know when I’m playing well I need to accept that. I play better when I feel better about myself.”
Irvine plays host to the University of San Diego at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Bren Center in its season opener. The following weekend, Dec. 1-2, Irvine joins Boise State, Oklahoma State and Brigham Young in the Disneyland/Freedom Bowl Classic, also at the Bren Center.
Irvine’s water polo team, which enters the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship at Indianapolis Friday with a 24-6 record and the No. 2 seeding, had seniors Tom Warde, Julian Harvey and Chris Duplanty named to the all-Big West first team.
Warde, from Marina High School, is the team’s top scorer with 92 goals, with Harvey, from Laguna Hills High, second at 75. Duplanty, from Punahou High School in Honolulu, has 245 saves.
Senior Dan Smoot, formerly of Tustin High, was named to the second team, and sophomore Skylar Putman, formerly of Newport Harbor, received honorable mention.
Anteater Notes
The men’s basketball team opens its season at the University of San Francisco Saturday. Coach Bill Mulligan said Monday that he still wasn’t sure who would travel, but that “strange things happen in a week. . . . We might have nine new guys by Friday.” In last year’s season opener, USF defeated Irvine, 82-80. Monday, Irvine plays host to Stanford, featuring sophomore forward Adam Keefe, a former standout at Woodbridge High School. The game will be televised live on Prime Ticket. . . . The women’s volleyball team will have to wait until Sunday to find out if it received a wild-card berth to the NCAA tournament.