Irvine’s McDonald Is Accustomed to His Place

Gerald McDonald will go through the usual routines today, before what could be the last college basketball game of his career. There will be a shoot-around, the team meal--and McDonald’s pregame dose of Pepto-Bismol.

Even though he is the only player who has been in UC Irvine’s starting lineup for every game this season and has started 38 consecutive games over two seasons, that is one routine that hasn’t changed.

“I don’t know why, but after games my stomach hurts,” McDonald said. “Everybody’s a little nervous, but I don’t think that’s it. I think I try to play hard, and I figure that’s what it is. I’ve taken Pepto-Bismol before games since the 12th grade in high school.”

McDonald is a quick, earnest player, but he is not a particularly good shooter and not a particularly good passer. But game after game, through two coaches and a challenge from Keith Stewart, a player whose offensive skills are more refined, McDonald has remained Irvine’s starting point guard. He has kept his spot because he plays hard, he plays defense and he turns the ball over less than his challengers do. That, and he has a knack for working his way into coaches’ hearts.

“He listens and does exactly what you ask him to do,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to yell at Gerald. That’s what you want in a point guard.

“I don’t believe there’s a selfish bone in his body. That’s the one thing you like about a guy who’s going to have the ball in his hands most of the game.”

McDonald has had to work harder than most players do to keep up with the rigors of playing college basketball and being a student. He and his wife, LaShawnda, have two children, Jhakia, 2, and Gerald, 11 months.

The conflicts between basketball and family life were never illustrated more clearly or frighteningly than at the end of Irvine’s game against New Mexico State on Jan. 2 in the Bren Center.

With less than a minute left in a close game, there was a sudden commotion below the stands near the end of the Irvine bench. McDonald rushed to the middle of it, where Jhakia was crying on the floor after falling from a 12-foot ledge. McDonald, out of the game at the time, stayed with Jhakia as the Anteaters’ finished out a 75-71 loss.

“I don’t know how, but I just knew it was her,” McDonald said. “I didn’t see it happen, but she and her cousin were playing up there. She likes to wander.”

McDonald went to the hospital with Jhakia after the game, but she proved to be all right.

Baker, who has two children not much older than McDonald’s, understands when McDonald occasionally is late because of his family.

“He’s had times he’s had to call,” Baker said. “You know, when the baby got hurt after falling out of the stands that time, I think that night, Gerald spent half the night at the hospital. We had practice that day, and he was late to practice.

“He always calls. I never stand around saying, ‘Where’s Gerald?’ He has responsibilities, so in turn, he is responsible, too. He understands about calling ahead.”

McDonald was the leading returning scorer for Irvine this season, after averaging 8.4 points last season. This year, he is averaging 11.6 points and is the second-leading scorer behind Jeff Von Lutzow.

He hasn’t always gotten his points the pretty way.

Earlier this season, he had some games that were exasperating just to watch. He was four for 19 in a double-overtime loss to Colorado, and missed a three-footer in the second overtime that might have helped win the game. He finished with 18 points in that game, but only because he was nine for 11 at the line.

In a loss to Utah State in Logan, Utah, he was four for 16 and finished with eight points.

For much of the early part of the season, he was shooting only 28% from the field.

But by the final eight games, McDonald finally seemed to find his range. Instead of trying to drive all the way to the basket or flinging up 22-footers, he started driving and pulling up for shorter jumpers. Then, even the three-pointers were falling for a while.

In a loss to Cal State Fullerton at Irvine, he scored 15 points, making five of eight three-pointers. In a home loss to UC Santa Barbara--tonight’s opponent in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament at the Long Beach Arena--he scored 17, going six for 11. And in a victory over Fresno State, in the best game of his career, he didn’t miss in seven shots and finished with 28 points.

“I always could play offense, but I like to play defense,” McDonald said. “I really applied most of my energy to defense, and when it came to offense I was really kind of tired.”

He worked on his offense, he said, and although he is shooting 35.9% for the season, he has made 47.8% of his shots over the past eight games.

Even so, he still falls back into old habits sometimes.

“You can change certain spots on a leopard, but you can’t get ‘em all off,” Baker said. “A lot of the things he’s been doing in this nine-month period are not the same as he’s done the last 20 years.”

Irvine hasn’t won many games during the two seasons since McDonald transferred from Compton College, but he did help the Anteaters win one of their more emotional games.

Last season, as the seconds ticked off of Bill Mulligan’s 11-season Irvine coaching career, McDonald saved him from going out a loser. The Anteaters had blown a 17-point lead over New Mexico State, but with one second left, McDonald drove the lane and pulled up for a jumper to give Mulligan a 109-107 victory.

If Irvine hadn’t gone 17-40 during the two regular seasons he has played there, you would call McDonald a winner.

“My college career, we lost a lot,” McDonald said. “It made it not as enjoyable as it could have been.”