May Is a Star in Classroom, but He Wants Respect on Court : Basketball: Coach tells UCI center to concentrate on rebounding and defense, and leave scoring to others.

Don May, UC Irvine’s wisecracking senior center, will have a spot in the Anteaters’ starting lineup tonight, and an MBA by the end of June.

He is one of those rare cases: a player who could replace his career scoring average with his undergraduate grade-point average in economics--and look like a better player.

Once, there was a time when May dreamed of becoming an Academic All-American.

“Then,” he said, with his characteristic wry touch, “I found out you have to be distinguished in your sport.”

After three seasons, the 6-foot-9, 235-pound senior has a career scoring average of 1.3 points per game, and a career rebounding average of 1.8. He is a modest player with modest ability. And his chief distinction in his sport so far might have come when he was booed energetically by his own fans after injuries forced him into the starting lineup for eight games during a 5-23 season two years ago.

“My role wasn’t to score, but I would kick the ball out of bounds,” May said. “I know for a fact that one fraternity had a top-10 list, Why Don May Should Never Play Basketball Again.”

He wasn’t the only player the fraternity hounded. Another, Elgin Rogers, will also start in the Anteaters’ season-opening game against San Diego State at 7:30 tonight in the Bren Center. That same fraternity, May recalls, wrote a song about Rogers.

“At least I wasn’t put to music,” May said.

He is the sort of player who deserves to be a fan favorite, not a fan’s favorite target.

On the emotional day last February when former Coach Bill Mulligan announced his resignation, May asked for a moment to speak as tributes were made to the retiring coach.

“I’d just like to say,” May said, pausing, “that I’d like to be the first to throw my hat into the ring.”

It was a tribute of another sort when May’s teammates chose him as their representative on the selection committee to hire the next coach. May said that the prospective coach need meet only one qualification--a willingness to put him in the lineup.

Rod Baker got the job, and look who’s starting.

“That’s the arrangement we made,” Baker said, teasing. “Hire me, and he plays.”

“Apparently,” May said, “it’s worked.”

Actually, May is starting more by necessity than anything else. After Rick Swanwick, a 6-foot-10 but inexperienced sophomore, decided to transfer to Rancho Santiago College and Baker was unable to recruit another big man, Irvine was left with only two players as tall as 6-9. The other, Jeff Von Lutzow, weighs only 195 and operates better as a forward than in the middle.

Baker has told May not to worry about scoring; defense and rebounding are what will be required.

“We need to be able to get minutes out of Don May,” Baker said. “I’d like to be able, between him and (backup center Uzoma Obiekea), to get 40 minutes and 10 fouls.”

That’s fine with May, who has confidence in his defense.

“I think from last year, playing against Larry Johnson, I’ve learned a lot,” he said. “I think I can guard a lot of the post players in our conference very well.”

That would be exactly what Irvine needs.

“Being as bright as he is, Don knew all he had to do was not get hurt and he was going to play,” Baker said. “I’m not going to come in here and tell you he’s a great player. But he’s good enough to play here. He needs to have the opportunity to fail once in a while. That’s the only way he’s going to get better.”

The players who have been around a while know that he already has.

“I’ve seen him improve vastly over the years, and I hope for him that he has a good season,” said Rogers, who will start at small forward tonight. “He used to always get a hard time, from fans being mean to him to players not respecting him. He didn’t give up, and it would have been easy for him to give up. He has a pretty secure future ahead.”

After completing his undergraduate degree in three years, including his redshirt freshman year, May is in his second year in Irvine’s Graduate School of Management and works as an intern for Coca-Cola USA in Irvine.

Last week alone, in addition to classes and daily three-hour practices, he worked four mornings at Coca-Cola, played in an exhibition game, wrote a paper, taught an hour-and-a-half graduate seminar in Micro Organizational Behavior, and took his fiancee, Sandi Lucas, an Irvine junior, to a movie on Friday night.

With a schedule like that, sometimes May has to cut corners. After being up until the wee hours with schoolwork the first three days of the week, on Thursday he called in to work, checked his phone mail, and then took a two-hour nap in the training room before practice.

On the morning he had to teach, May combined a couple of his interests. His topic: “I compared the socialization techniques of Bill Mulligan versus Rod Baker.”

May probably would have played in the Ivy League, where there are no athletic scholarships, except for a hankering to take a trip west of St. Louis for the first time in his life.

A standout at Stagg High School in the Chicago suburb of Palos Hills--he once blocked 18 shots in a game--May visited Cornell, Brown, Davidson College in North Carolina, and had planned a trip to Princeton.

When Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Oregon started calling, May made up his mind that he would agree to visit the first school that asked. It was Irvine, and May became an Anteater.

“He was gonna go to Cornell,” Mulligan said. “He probably saved his family $125,000.”

Even though Mulligan has retired, he and May still have a mutual admiration society.

“A lot of boosters gave Coach Mulligan a hard time my sophomore year, and he stuck up for me a lot,” May said. “I know he really likes me, and I really like him. He always treated me very fairly. I really enjoyed playing for him.”

There was a time when losses or jeering from fans was much harder for May to take.

“In high school, I wouldn’t talk to people for days after we’d lose,” May said. “Sandi’s helped me with that. You can’t take it home with you.

“I used to get really mad. I remember always being upset. I always internalized it. I’d be silent, contemplating how I really did goof up.”

The crowds on the road have never bothered him; that’s something May enjoys. Things were different on the homefront.

“At home, you just don’t expect those things. They’re a little crueler,” he said. “There was one booster who stood up and ripped into me just as the game started. We won five games; we deserved to take heat . . . but it was pretty hard to deal with. So is losing. At least they were coming to the games to boo me.”

On the court, it might sometimes seem as if May is so slow you can see him think. Off it, he’s probably ahead of you.

Before you criticize him for not dunking, analyze the available statistics; May has.

“I’ve figured this out,” he said. “My reach is 8 feet 9 inches. The rim is 10 feet high. The ball is 71/4 inches (in diameter). So I need 23 inches in order to dunk. My vertical leap is 26 inches, on a good day. So that’s a margin of three inches. That’s a pretty small margin. I haven’t dunked in a game since high school.”

Last year was better than the year before. Irvine won 11 games and May played in all 30. Twice last season, Mulligan took the ball out of his guards’ hands in fits of exasperation, and handed it to May, making him play point guard.

He didn’t do half badly, bringing the ball up once before the other team figured out he was playing point. Another time, he kicked it away, but managed to chase it down and avoid a turnover.

“Last year was encouraging,” May said. “They actually cheered me.”