Matsuhara Is Named UCI’s Women’s Basketball Coach

Colleen Matsuhara, a Cal State Long Beach assistant and a respected recruiter, was named UC Irvine women’s basketball coach Monday.

Matsuhara, formerly a head coach at Nebraska, had been one of three coaches being considered for the still-vacant Cal State Long Beach job, and was also being sought as an assistant at Arizona by former Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini.

Matsuhara said she chose Irvine because of the program’s potential--the Anteaters have won only six games over the the past two seasons--and the attractiveness of Irvine’s campus and its arena, the Bren Center. Having spent the past season as a coach at another Big West Conference school, she has few illusions about the state of the Irvine program, which is not yet two years removed from a 1-27 record in 1989-90, the worst season in school history.

“I see it as a building job,” said Matsuhara, who saw the Anteaters play once last season. “They weren’t real big. I thought they were small, but they still played hard.”

Tom Ford, Irvine athletic director, said the school has moved to increase support for the women’s program by about $30,000 a year, increasing salaries, adding a second assistant coaching position, and making a commitment to increase the recruiting budget.

Matsuhara had been mulling an offer from Irvine since last week, seeking advice from a mentor by the name of John Wooden, and decided Friday evening she would accept the job.

“She brings immediate recognition on the national scene,” said Barbara Camp, assistant athletic director and chair of Irvine’s search committee. “I’m thankful she’s with us.”

Matsuhara met with the Irvine team Monday afternoon, introducing herself and announcing she would have individual meetings with each player soon.

“I think it’s a very positive step,” said Yvonne Catala, a sophomore forward.

Matsuhara, who agreed to a three-year contract with an annual base salary of $50,000, was selected from among more than 200 applicants, and was one of three coaches who were interviewed. Jean Ashen, a UC Irvine assistant, and Kathy Olivier, a UCLA assistant, also were interviewed.

Matsuhara replaces Dean Andrea, who was fired following the season after 13 years as coach.

Matsuhara, who met Wooden when she worked as an instructor at his girls’ basketball camps, began her career as an assistant at Cal State Fullerton in 1974 after graduating from Cal State Sacramento. From there, she went on to work as an assistant at UCLA.

She was named head coach at Nebraska in 1980, compiling a record of 46-44 in three seasons.

Unable to contend with the Nebraska winters, Matsuhara resigned and returned to California, taking a job as an assistant athletic director at UCLA.

“When I interviewed at Nebraska, it was spring, it was very nice and sunny,” Matsuhara said. “But then the snow falls and sticks and stays on the ground for three months. I fell down in a gutter one day. You know, I’m not very tall. I fell in waist deep.”

She was an administrator at UCLA from 1983-85, flirting with a life outside coaching.

“I wanted to see that part of it. That cured me for a while,” Matsuhara said.

From there, she went to Texas, where she helped coach an NCAA championship team in 1986. She left to become an assistant at Notre Dame in 1989, and after one year accepted a job at Long Beach.

Matsuhara also has extensive international coaching experience, and served as Secretariat of Competition in basketball for the 1984 Olympics, helping organize the women’s competition.

Bonvicini praised Matsuhara, calling her “very knowledgeable and very personable.”

“I have never seen anyone recruit like her,” Bonvicini said.

Matsuhara called basketball a lifelong passion that began when she used to follow her father to church-league games in Sacramento.

Recruiting and scouting talent have long been a staple of her life.

“It’s something I love to do, pick up the paper and try to find a game,” she said. “Sometimes I make it a personal challenge to see how many games I can see in one night.”

Her personal record, Matsuhara said, is 3 1/2 games in one day.

Because Irvine already had a successful recruiting period, Matsuhara is unlikely to recruit more than one additional player. One of her first concerns is hiring two assistants, and Matsuhara said she plans to consider Ashen, who was a player at Fullerton when Matsuhara coached there.

In hiring Matsuhara, Irvine added a second woman to its head coaching staff, which previously counted women’s tennis coach Doreen Irish as its only female head coach. Matsuhara, who is of Japanese-American descent, also becomes the only head coach of Asian heritage on the coaching staff of a school that has a large minority enrollment.

“We do have an Asian population of 35% to 40%, and we feel very fortunate to have Colleen on our staff to represent a significant segment of our student body,” Ford said. “More important, she can coach.”