USIU Doesn’t Mind That Its Foes Run It Up

U.S. International University is college basketball’s answer to football’s run-and-shoot.

Whether they’re on the road or playing in the downtown community center that is their home away from home, the Gulls’ frenzied offense never rests.

Defense seems to be an afterthought to the players and Coach Gary Zarecky, who relishes the thought of his team being involved in the first major college 200-point game even if he’s on the short end of the score.

“It’s going to happen ... “ Zarecky said. “I would like to be a part of that game and I would like my team to be part of it because if somebody scores 200 on us, I’m convinced we’ll score a 180 or more and that’s a phenomenal thought.”

This small, private school (enrollment 3,500) has been at the center of a points explosion in NCAA Division I basketball.

“What we try to do is get up and down the floor and teach the kids where the best shots are,” Zarecky said. “But there’s structure to it. There’s a method to our madness. If kids in our program take bad shots and continue to do that ... you’re out of control. You try to teach them (to play) in a very fundamental manner (but) you don’t handcuff them.”

Two teams, though, can play the offensive game. The Gulls were reminded of that Nov. 29 at Oklahoma, where the Sooners, also a running team, pressed them mercilessly, forcing 42 turnovers en route to a 173-101 win. Oklahoma set two NCAA records -- 97 points in the first half and total field goal attempts (147).

Last season, in two meetings against Loyola Marymount, the Gulls and the Lions combined for 637 points.

Their second meeting Jan. 31, 1989, ended up with Loyola winning, 181-150, the highest scoring Division I game ever. A shot went up every seven seconds during the shootout.

“It (the Oklahoma game) doesn’t shake the belief in what I’m trying to accomplish,” said Zarecky, 42-75 in five years at U.S. International. “We’re not going to back away.”

But why are the Gulls bringing out all these points and flying in the face of college basketball’s defensive, low-scoring tradition?

The answer lies in the Gulls’ past and their hope for the future.

“There’s two things that I hope happen,” Zarecky said. “I hope we gain respect. ... That will come with winning. Number two, I hope I can continue to coach and teach offensive basketball because I think that’s the ball of the future. The game is changing. You’ve heard people say our defense is our offense. I reverse it. Our offense is our defense.”

Zarecky came to U.S. International in 1985 after 25 years as a high school coach. He inherited a downtrodden program that was 1-27 in the 1984-85 season.

Zarecky: “We thought we found a way that would allow us to compete. And that was to put up points -- points are cheap.”

In the first year of Zarecky’s free-wheeling offense (1985-86), the Gulls led the nation in scoring, averaging 90.3 points per game, a jump of nearly 40 points over the previous season.

But they gave up an average of 99 points and finished that season 8-20. “I sat down and I figured there was no worst (defensive) team list,” Zarecky said. “All there was was the best (offensive team). There we were leading the entire nation with North Carolina, UNLV and Syracuse below. We cut that out, and boy, did that become a recruiting tool.”

Last season, the Gulls averaged 89.3, second in scoring among major independents.

The liberated playing style, Zarecky said, became a selling point out of necessity.

The school has no arena on its northern San Diego campus. The Gulls play their home games 15 miles away at 4,100-seat Golden Hall in the downtown Community Concourse.

Players do some of their conditioning by running over the hills and fields on campus but they have no practice facility at the school.

They use a leased warehouse in a Poway industrial park to practice.

The bottom line, Zarecky said, is that while his style of offense may be offensive to college basketball purists, it is entertaining. And, he says, basketball is played to entertain people and give players an outlet for their talent. “You’ve got this team coming out of San Diego with drawing power because it’s being hyped as this phenomenal offensive machine,” Zarecky said. “We’ve been packing arenas all over the country.”