UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / ROBYN NORWOOD : Baker Says His 1992-93 Anteaters Will Emphasize Offense Too

Rod Baker introduced a novelty at UC Irvine last season--the art of defense.

But with all the hours that went into working on the defensive stance and fighting over picks, it sometimes seemed as if something else got lost.

Anybody remember to bring an offense?

Baker replaced Bill Mulligan’s porous defenses with noses-to-their-sternums intensity. But his first team also produced some of the lowest Irvine scoring totals in memory.

One year after Mulligan’s teams aimed for triple figures, Baker’s first team had eight games in the 50s. You can’t win if you don’t score more points than the other guy, and Irvine finished with a 7-22 record.

Baker promises this year’s team will be better offensively almost from the moment it steps onto the court for its first exhibition game Nov. 23 against the Lafayette Hustlers.

“We’re more talented,” he says, simply.

Among the players stepping on the court will be an honest-to-goodness point guard, Lloyd Mumford, a transfer from Villanova who was a redshirt last season. He’s only one of a handful of talented new players that includes Keith Walker, a transfer from California who was an Orange County scoring champion at Brea-Olinda High School.

The players are better from top to bottom. Gerald McDonald was a Baker favorite, but he was a point guard who went entire games with only one assist. Elgin Rogers had a good season for the Anteaters, but he was a skinny guy who had to be Irvine’s big man. Don May was a starting center who shouldn’t have been a starting center.

And Baker takes some of the blame, too, for an offense he now says wasn’t suited to the Anteaters’ personnel.

The complex offense he installed last fall was meant for players who could set good screens and knew how to use them. It was for players who could create something on their own. Not many of last year’s Anteaters could, and the result, at times, was a stagnant offense and seemingly endless passes around the perimeter.

“It was like we said, ‘This is a nice offense, let’s see if we can run it,’ as opposed to deciding what these guys can do and what we’re comfortable as a staff teaching,” Baker said. “It was just wrong. It was the wrong thing to do. Then we tried something else and tried something else and got away from the things we were trying to do.”

Irvine was in flux almost until the end of the season, when things came together in an upset of UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Conference tournament.

“Offensively, we made too many changes throughout the year,” Baker said. “We didn’t get comfortable with what we were doing offensively until the last five or six games.”

Baker calls his handling of the offense last season “stupid”--but he might have the players this year to make him look smart.

Elisma Down to Two? As the fall signing period opens today, Irvine remains in the running for Ed Elisma, a 6-foot-10 player from New York City who has been rated by Hoop Scoop magazine as one of the top five senior centers in the country.

Elisma, who attended the A.B.C.D. invitation-only basketball camp at the Bren Center this past summer, reportedly has narrowed his choices to an unusual tandem--Irvine and Georgia Tech.

That much could be considered a coup in itself for Irvine, since the Anteaters appear to have outlasted Pitt and Seton Hall.

Elisma--who might not sign early--made an official visit to Irvine over Halloween weekend and was at the Anteaters’ opening practice in the Bren Center. His visit to Georgia Tech is upcoming.

Irvine is expected to sign Riverside City College player Daniel Lyton during the next week. Lyton, who enrolled at Missouri as a freshman and transferred to Detroit before landing at Riverside, orally committed to Irvine earlier.

One That Got Away: Dylan Rigdon, who transferred to Arizona before last season, is eligible to play for the Wildcats this season, and Dick Vitale’s Basketball magazine says Rigdon “might be Arizona’s best outside shooter since Steve Kerr.”

Rigdon, a three-point specialist, had a 31-point game for Irvine during the 1990-91 season but was often benched by Mulligan during Mulligan’s final season as coach. Baker was unable to persuade Rigdon to stay at Irvine.

Women’s Rolex Tennis: A week after the men’s regional title was decided at UC Irvine, the Rolex Intercollegiate Southern California women’s title will be decided at the UCI Tennis Stadium.

The top-seeded player is Julie McKeon of the University of San Diego, who is ranked 18th in the country. Petra Schmitt of USC is ranked 11th, but is seeded second. UCLA’s Keri Phebus, who played at Corona del Mar High, is seeded third.

The tournament begins today, with singles and doubles finals on Sunday.

Cross-Country Regionals: The Irvine men’s and women’s teams will try to qualify for the NCAA championships in the regionals Saturday at Tucson.

The women, who recently won their fourth consecutive Big West title and have a good chance of advancing, are led by Traci Goodrich, Rayna Cervantes and Jade Preato.

The top two teams at the regional automatically qualify for the NCAA championships Nov. 23 at Bloomington, Ind. There also are six at-large berths, and invitations for individuals whose teams do not qualify.

Mail Bag: Tom Ford resigned as athletic director in July to become assistant executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches. But a piece of mail from the NABC recently arrived at the Irvine athletic department--addressed to Tom Ford, Athletic Director.

Quipped Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell: Do you mark that ‘Please Forward’ or ‘Return to Sender?’ ”

Anteater Notes

A water polo showdown Saturday between fourth-ranked Irvine and fifth-ranked Pepperdine is scheduled to be taped and televised by Prime Ticket at 6 p.m. Monday. . . . Kevin Smith, Irvine’s all-time scoring leader in men’s soccer, finished his career with 22 goals, 26 assists and 70 points, all Irvine records.