UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Women’s Team a Reflection of Campus

You have seen basketball teams that do not look as if they represent the school whose uniforms they wear.

You do not see one of them when the UC Irvine women’s team takes the court.

There are campuses where there are so few blacks that one might assume they are probably basketball players. Too often, that racist assumption is correct.

On California’s campuses, there is another problem. The student bodies are ethnically diverse, but too often the basketball teams remain black and white.

At Irvine, two-thirds of those in the 1990 freshman class identified themselves as minorities, 3.6% of them considering themselves black.

It is a tribute to Irvine and to Coach Dean Andrea that in the women’s box scores you will find a Lizarraga, a Chang, two Yoshiokas and a Gandara. Two of the 12 players are black; at least seven of the 12 classify as minorities.

“We have Hispanic kids, blacks and Orientals,” Andrea said. “We have poor kids, white kids, rich white kids, poor white kids.

“Very honestly, we recruit the players we like best of what’s available.”

When he recruits, Andrea is still taken aback by the attitudes he sees and hears among some coaches. The basketball racism that has accepted blacks still blocks scholarship opportunities for other minorities.

“There are coaches who make, in a sense, racial slurs against certain kids,” Andrea said. “I’ve heard some coaches don’t recruit Mexican-American kids or Spanish-American kids. They laugh at me when I do it.

“A lot of Asian kids, people don’t recruit. People get caught up in size. But Erin Higashi, who played for us six years ago, was a four-year starter.”

When Andrea recruited Kathy Lizarraga, one of his starting guards, he sat at the Lizarraga kitchen table and said his piece while her sister translated the recruiting talk into Spanish for the family.

When he recruited Karie Yoshioka, a freshman from El Toro High School who has the same last name as Kim Yoshioka, a sophomore from Loara High School, he learned something himself.

“I naively asked if they were related. She told me Yoshioka in Japan is like Smith or Jones,” he said.

It is admirable that Irvine’s team is ethnically diverse, but for Andrea, trying to find players who can make Irvine’s team respectable after a 1-27 season, is difficult.

“We recruited Karie Yoshioka because she was the best possible player we could recruit out of El Toro,” he said. “We would have signed her if she was Jane Smith of Nairobi. Same thing with Chrissy Chang.”

What the Doctor Didn’t Order: Andrea was encouraged last weekend after his team won its second game of the season, doubling the victory total of last season. That feeling evaporated Tuesday, when Geanine Hobbs went down with an ankle injury and Lizarraga came down with the flu. Neither player, both starters, will be available for Irvine’s game against San Diego tonight in San Diego. Kari Rasmussen, a freshman center, is also out with a foot injury.

Stat of the week: Scan the box from Irvine’s 97-80 loss to Utah. Mulligan’s eyes fix on the bottom number in the second column from the left: 58.

“We only got 58 shots. That’s what really concerned me,” Mulligan said.

That is the clearest indication that Utah took the Anteaters out of their high-octane, Run-and-Mulligan game.

“I watched the tape and all I kept seeing was (Utah Coach Rick) Majerus shouting, ‘Slow down! Slow down!” Mulligan said.

Irvine was held 15 points below its 95-point scoring goal, and 19 below its average, despite shooting 53%, its best mark of the season.

In its first three games, Irvine attempted 89, 81 and 89 shots.

The Anteaters tried 68 the next game, 72 the next--and then the 58-shot performance, a disaster in the Mulligan scheme.

They recovered somewhat in the loss to Maryland Tuesday, attempting 82 shots. Problem was, they made only 30 of them, a mere 37%.

Stat of the week, runner-up: Gerald McDonald’s 12 assists vs. Utah.

McDonald, the point guard who used to jump center in community college, was averaging more rebounds than assists through Irvine’s first five games.

His rebound-to-assist ration: 5.8 to 5.0.

He remedied that odd statistic against Utah. With Dylan Rigdon, the team’s assist leader, out with an injury, McDonald had 12 assists, the most of any Irvine player or opponent this season. Now he averages 6.3 assists to 5.2 rebounds.

How does a six-foot point guard average five rebounds?

With a vertical leap that has been measured at 36 1/2 inches, he says, and because Irvine sends four players to the boards, including McDonald.

Anteater Notes

Vince O’Boyle, coach of the men’s and women’s cross-country teams, has been chosen for a prestigious position. He has been named head coach of the U.S. senior women’s cross-country team, which will compete in the world championships in March 1992 in Boston. The team is for women 19 and older, so don’t be surprised if senior Buffy Rabbitt is on it, even though it would seem her cross-country career ended with her fourth-place finish at the NCAA championships last month. O’Boyle has been at Irvine nine seasons, but he already has been a Big West coach of the year 13 times--seven times for women, six for men. He also has been a U.S. Olympic Festival coach twice. . . . Three Irvine swimmers qualified for the U.S. senior national championships to be held April 3-6 at Seattle: Freshman Patrick Kennan (500 freestyle), freshman Erik Walton (100 backstroke) and senior John Dorsey (200 freestyle). All three met qualifying standards at the Grand Prix Invitational at Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach.