UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / ROBYN NORWOOD : Williams Offers a Helping Hand, or Two

There was a time when Jinelle Williams could count the losses she had known on one hand. Without using all her fingers.

“I think it was 99-3,” said Williams, who won two State championships while playing in Brea-Olinda High School’s dominant basketball program.

The record books show Brea-Olinda actually was 97-4 over those three years--31-2, 33-1, 33-1.

To count the losses so far during her freshman and sophomore seasons at UC Irvine, Williams would need all of her fingers, all of her toes, and she’d still have to borrow 17 digits from her teammates.

The Anteaters are 6-37 since the beginning of last season, 1-15 this season.

Williams didn’t walk into this blind. She chose Irvine even though the Anteaters were 5-22 during her senior season in high school. The losses are “embarrassing,” she says with a smile and a little wince. But she doesn’t second-guess herself for picking Irvine.

“I’m still happy with my decision, even though our record is how it is,” Williams said. “It was more the school. A lot of people go where the team is already winning. I feel I can help start a program.”

Williams’ statistics alone make her a core player for Irvine. She has three double-doubles this season and averages 11.4 points and 8.3 rebounds, second on the team to senior Yvonne Catala in both categories.

But her brightness and her experience at winning might be her biggest contributions to the team. Coach Colleen Matsuhara kept waiting for an upperclassman to show some leadership. Instead, it has come from a sophomore.

“This year is completely different from last year,” Williams said. “I know we should be winning games that we’re losing. There are no excuses, no reason we shouldn’t be winning with the athletes, the talent and the coaching staff we have now.

“A lot (of the other Irvine players) weren’t from winning high school teams. I think they’re already used to it, and don’t really know to win. Maybe that’s what makes me a leader. I know how it is on the other side, and I want to get back.

“In high school, if we were down at the half or something--which wasn’t too often--we’d all go in the locker room and say, ‘OK, in the second half we’ll kick a little butt and go home happy.’ Even now, I go in at the half and think, ‘It’s just a little thing, go turn it around.’ ”

Irvine’s ballhandling, a terrible problem earlier in the season, is improving behind freshmen Davette Williams and Shannon James, and Jinelle Williams complements both.

“I’m hoping we can turn the corner in the second half of this season,” she said. “I’m not one for waiting. I’m very impatient.

“It’s slowly but surely,” she said, then paused. “Just slowly .”

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More injuries: Troubled by injuries all season, the women’s team has two ailing starters right now. Karie Yoshioka, a junior guard, injured her back and neck when she went down hard on a layup attempt three games ago against Hawaii. Freshman center Allah-Mi Basheer has been sidelined by Achilles’ tendinitis.

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On the road: When the men’s team let an eight-point second-half lead get away against UC Santa Barbara in the Bren Center Monday, they lost one of their best opportunities for a second Big West Conference victory.

They are 3-12 overall and 1-7 in conference with only three home games left--against Big West leaders New Mexico State, Nevada Las Vegas and Cal State Long Beach. Their other seven are on the road, starting this week with a trip to Nevada and Utah State, two high-altitude arenas with enthusiastic crowds.

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Elisma update: Much to the amazement of the New York Times, New York City prep star Ed Elisma is still considering Irvine.

Apparently unshaken by the Anteaters’ 3-12 record, Elisma--a slender 6-foot-9 center--told the newspaper he will choose between Irvine and Georgia Tech after the season. He has eliminated Seton Hall and Pittsburgh.

The paper reported the news under the sub-head “A Startling Move.”

Wrote the Times:

”. . . Passing on the likes of Seton Hall and Pittsburgh for California-Irvine is a move that boggled the minds of even the most casual hoop observers.

“ ‘It goes beyond basketball,’ said Elisma. ‘Cal-Irvine is a beautiful place and the people are real friendly. I’ve got to decide what’s right for me as a person, not just as a basketball player.’

“Although (LaSalle Academy Coach Ed) Aberer will support Elisma’s final decision 100%, he knows what’s best for his star pupil in terms of basketball education.

“ ‘Georgia Tech, of course,’ said Aberer. ‘They have (Coach Bobby) Cremins, they play a top-notch schedule and they’re on television all the time.’ ”

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M-O-N-E-Y: Perhaps the most crucial hire new Athletic Director Dan Guerrero will make is his associate A.D. for fund raising.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Horace Mitchell, who was decidedly unsatisfied with the amount of money raised under former A.D. Tom Ford, says university regulations dictate that the department must generate the money to fund athletic scholarships.

That bill stands at about $500,000, and is about to jump dramatically for two reasons.

One is that tuition for next year already has been raised, and Mitchell says it could be going up again, with the total increase over this year perhaps reaching $1,000. Whatever the final increase is, multiply it by the approximately 50 scholarships Irvine offers to find the department’s additional costs.

The other reason is a coming NCAA requirement for standard minimum levels of funding in Division I programs, effective in September, 1994. One estimate was that meeting that requirement alone could cost Irvine $250,000. And if you don’t meet the requirement, you don’t play in D-I.

By a worst-case scenario, Irvine’s scholarship costs might increase by $300,000, or approximately 100% of Irvine’s 1992 fund drive. Mitchell says the money has to be found.

“It’s something we’re all committed to, something we have to achieve,” he said. “There’s not a choice.”