Mulligan Finds It’s Time to Get Back to the Bench

Cut the mike.

Hold the anchovies.

Bill Mulligan has found a real job.

This may be bad news for patrons of Joe Rubino’s pizza shop (no more slices of pepperoni, great Kevin Magee story on the side) and Mater Dei High School’s basketball cable-casts (no more run-and-gum commentary, great Gary McKnight story on the side), but the best of all possible news for the Mulligan family--wife and mother Dorothy, in particular.

“She just wanted him out of the house,” says son and new assistant coach Brian.

Bill Mulligan is a basketball coach again. An Irvine basketball coach again. From UCI to IVC--only the initials have changed . . . unless you want to include personal happiness, job satisfaction, camaraderie with one’s peers and a full schedule of restful nights of sleep.

So what’s an IVC? Irvine Valley College. Is that a real school? Yes, it is; it’s the one with the orange trees on the corner of Jeffrey and Irvine Center Drive. Does it have a basketball team? Before Tuesday, it didn’t. Did they build it just to get Mulligan off the streets? No, it’s been around since 1979, although Mulligan is the one who will put it on the map.

Much was learned at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the hiring of Mulligan as IVC’s first men’s basketball coach. For instance, school nickname: The Lasers. School colors: Midnight blue and silver. School of thought: To make IVC a winner on the basketball court as quickly as possible and to make one 62-year-old coach very, very happy.

“It seems like we have one of these every 13 months,” Mulligan said from behind the podium microphone. Well, yes and no. Thirteen months ago, Mulligan met the press, but it was nothing like this.

Then, on the day Mulligan resigned as basketball coach at UC Irvine, the announcement was made through grinding teeth and bitter tears. Tuesday, the old Mulligan resurfaced--for maybe the first time since Scott Brooks ran out of eligibility. Mulligan laughed. Mulligan jibed. Mulligan virtually bounced as he moved from cluster of writers to cluster of friends, holding court the way he used to before the 5-23s and 11-19s drained him of his will to grin.

“We’re gonna play the way I like to play,” Mulligan declared. “We’re gonna run, we’re gonna shoot and we’re gonna play defense.”

Defense?

Was that in the press release?

“That’s why I brought in Brian,” Mulligan said. “I didn’t hire him because he’s my son. I hired him because he’s the best defensive coach I have seen coaching basketball. I don’t know where he got it, but he’s really got it.”

Brian’s also got connections, which wasn’t lost on Bill by any means.

“He’s one of the coaches at the very successful program at Capistrano Valley,” Bill said. “We hope to get about three kids from there, don’t we, Brian?”

Both Mulligans smiled.

“And if we don’t,” Bill interjected, “it’s going to be his ass.”

Mulligan cackled and rolled back on his heels. The strut was back, and if that’s nothing new to the rest of the county, it is to Irvine Valley. This alliance, on both ends, still has some breaking in to do.

Aracely Mora, IVC’s prim and properly attired athletic director, was fielding a question about her school’s recruiting boundaries. “We recruit from Tustin to San Clemente,” Mora said. “It’s an incredible recruiting area and we have been very successful there. Ninety percent of our athletes come from within our district.”

Piping in, Mulligan cracked, “We also have a district in Mississippi, too, that nobody knows about.”

The audience convulsed into laughter, but Mora’s eyes tripled in size. “That’s not true, that’s not true,” she stammered before finally assessing the situation as friendly and joining in with the group.

Irvine Valley, you wanted Bill Mulligan, you got him.

As imperfect fits go, this is as perfect as it gets. IVC gets its basketball program off on a headline-grabbing start, and for a bare pittance--as a part-time coach, Mulligan will receive a stipend of about $7,000 for the first season. Money, Mulligan doesn’t need. A reason to get out of bed? That is what he needs--and that is what IVC offers.

“Gary McKnight and Joe Rubino saved my life,” Mulligan said, “because I was really bored. Joe got me involved in the pizza place and Gary got me involved with the TV for Mater Dei. They gave me something to do.”

And now, a year into retirement, Mulligan has finally found a hobby to his liking. Some guys build miniature clipper ships inside glass bottles. Mulligan gets to build a basketball program, literally, from the ground up.

“That’s where the gym is going to be,” said Mora as she pointed to a large swatch of mud on the south end of campus. Come 1993-94, the gym will be ready and will seat 1,500. As for 1992-93, the IVC Lasers will probably play their home games at Saddleback College and practice at either the boys club across the street or Laguna Hills High.

There are no players yet, but that’s merely a temporary condition. “This morning, I already started talking to players,” Mulligan said. “We’re going to get it done. Don’t worry about that. We’ll get it done.”

Thirteen months ago, Mulligan stood at a podium a few miles away and second-guessed his decision to leave Saddleback College for UC Irvine in 1980. Coaching at Saddleback was “probably the most fun I ever had,” he said then and again Tuesday. Community College basketball is a lower level, all right--a lower level of grief. “I see so many Division I coaches who are unhappy,” Mulligan said. “Even Tarkanian’s unhappy. Then I see the JC guys and they’re all smiling.”

And why not? There’s less pressure, fewer headcases, more job security. And one other thing, Mulligan points out.

“Vegas isn’t in the conference.”

It’s a wonderful life. Bill Mulligan, JC guy again for half a day, wonders why he ever left.