Teacher, Former Protege Become Adversaries for One Night : Basketball: Loyola’s first-year coach, John Olive, faces his mentor, Rollie Massimino of UNLV, on Saturday night.

For a few hours Saturday night, old friends will become foes when Loyola Marymount meets 23rd-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas at Gersten Pavilion.

The game pits John Olive, the first-year Loyola coach, against Rollie Massimino, who will be making his regular-season debut as UNLV’s coach. Olive was the top assistant under Massimino the last seven years at Villanova. When Massimino began coaching at Villanova in 1973, Olive was his first recruit.

The close relationship between the two men has been described as that of father and son.

With that in mind, how will Olive react when he looks across the court Saturday night and sees Massimino as an opponent for the first time?

“I really don’t know yet,” Olive said. “I don’t have any feeling of anxiety or excitement. I’m so in tune with getting our team ready to play.

“But one thing has hit me: ‘How can you be competitive against someone who’s like your father?’ You don’t want to beat up on your father. I’ve been contending with that. We’re going to do everything within our power to win the game, but it is an unusual situation.”

Olive said Massimino called him Thursday morning.

“He was teasing me,” Olive said. “He was telling me to take it easy on him, that it was his first game. He was just having fun with me.”

UNLV, featuring explosive forward J. R. Rider, is a heavy favorite against Loyola, which struggled to defeat Division II College of Notre Dame, 80-77, in its season opener Tuesday night.

Massimino said he is looking forward to watching Olive, his former protege, coach his own team for the first time.

“It’s going to be kind of spectacular for me,” Massimino said. “It’s like graduating a son. I’m so proud of him. We’re going to laugh about what goes on, because a lot of the things we’re going to do are very similar.”

Olive said mutual friends are flying in from around the country to attend Saturday’s game. The UNLV and Loyola coaching staffs, along with many friends, will get together tonight at Olive’s home in Westchester.

On Saturday night, though, it will be strictly business.

Olive realizes Loyola isn’t given much of a chance against UNLV, especially if point guard Bill Mazurie and forward Christian Scott are unable to play. Mazurie, bothered by a sprained right ankle, played only 15 minutes against College of Notre Dame, and Scott did not play because of illness. Olive said both players are questionable for the UNLV game.

“Obviously the chances of us winning aren’t real good, but our kids are going to be excited about playing,” Olive said. “We’re going to continue with our game plan, as it has been since we started practice.”

Junior forward Zan Mason, a transfer from UCLA, led Loyola in Tuesday’s victory with a career-best 21 points and eight rebounds playing in his first game since the 1990-91 season. But Olive said the former Westchester High standout is capable of producing better numbers.

“He’s an athlete,” Olive said of Mason. “I think he could have had 12, 13, 14 rebounds the other night, and maybe he should have scored 30 points. He still has some game rustiness.”

Two areas of concern for Olive are ballhandling and rebounding. The Lions committed 24 turnovers against College of Notre Dame and allowed the Argonauts to take 15 offensive rebounds. On a positive note, Loyola’s man-to-man defense limited College of Notre Dame to 41.7% shooting from the field.

“We played pretty darned good defense,” Olive said. “We have to work on the other fundamental things that distort that good defensive effort.”

Bruce Meyers, Loyola’s sports information director, said Thursday that about 3,000 tickets have been sold for the game. With strong walk-up sales, Meyers said the school could have its first sell-out at 4,156-seat Gersten Pavilion since the 1989-90 season.

The game is being televised back to Las Vegas, and all three of Las Vegas’ network affiliates are expected to be represented. Locally, the game will broadcast live by KXLU-FM (88.9), Loyola’s campus radio station.