Mumford Gets a Handle on His Game : Basketball: UCI guard has a sense of humor, but he’s serious about cutting down on turnovers.

It’s not always easy to tell what Lloyd Mumford is going to do with the basketball next--as any teammate who has been hit in the face with a pass can tell you.

UC Irvine’s point guard can slip through the lane, past one man, around another, until he’s almost to the rim. And though his teammates think Mumford is going to shoot, he might zing the ball their way, without so much as a glance.

As hard as it is to predict what Mumford will dream up next, it can be harder to predict what he’s going to say next, especially on the court.

He has a kind of creativity, confidence and playfulness about him that doesn’t stop with his hands and feet.

Last week against Nevada, one of the Wolf Pack assistant coaches leaned over during a break in the play.

“How do you like Irvine?” the assistant asked Mumford, a junior in his first season with the Anteaters after transferring from Villanova.

“I don’t know,” Mumford told him, setting him up. “I want to transfer again.”

The assistant laughed. Mumford’s NCAA eligibility expires after next season, so he couldn’t transfer again and play. But the coach couldn’t resist teasing Mumford.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you my card after the game,’ ” Mumford said.

During that same game, Mumford had an exchange with his own coach, Rod Baker, that left them laughing.

“We called a timeout, and I said, ‘If we lose this game, I quit,’ ” Mumford said. “(Baker) said, ‘If we lose this game, I might quit, too.’

“Then I said, ‘No, if we lose this game, you’re getting fired.’ ”

Baker, who confirms the gist of the story, could laugh with him. Irvine won by three points.

That game was one of the few the Anteaters have won.

Mumford is averaging 13.9 points and 5.9 assists and has controlled turnovers recently, lowering his average to 3.9. And with 100 assists already, he is on a pace to break the school record of 150 in a season, set by George Turner in 1982-83.

But the Anteaters, picked to finish fifth in the Big West Conference, are 4-13 and have won only two Big West games going into their game against Cal State Fullerton Saturday night in Titan Gym.

It was during the Anteaters’ first game against Fullerton this season, a 61-59 Titan victory, that Mumford and Fullerton point guard Aaron Sunderland battled in one of the best matchups on the court. Mumford would drive past Sunderland, then Sunderland would drive past Mumford, words being exchanged all the while.

But when a fight broke out after the game near the Irvine bench, Mumford and Sunderland were off to the side, embracing and congratulating each other on a well-played game. From that pose, they watched their teammates go at each other in an ugly scuffle that resulted in the suspensions of two Irvine players.

Mumford and Sunderland had gone at each other on the court for most of 40 minutes and exchanged plenty of words, but when it was over, it was over.

“We just congratulated each other,” Mumford said. “He just let me know he thought I was a good guard and said, ‘If you keep working, maybe you’ll go somewhere.’ After you talk so much, you get to know each other. That was something good. I get to know people better when I talk to them.”

Baker isn’t surprised the tension-filled matchup ended up in a hug, not a shove.

“That’s what competitors do,” Baker said. “At the end of it, win, lose, whatever, if you’ve competed as hard as you possibly can, well-adjusted athletes have a good feeling about the person they just played against. That person is responsible for bringing their game to a certain level.

“Lloyd will mess with you just to mess with you and not have one malicious thought about it,” Baker said. “If you look at him and smile, he’ll laugh back with you. But if you fall into it, then he’s got a piece of you.”

Mumford arrived at Irvine accompanied by high expectations. He had been good enough to go to Villanova, and Baker had known him since Mumford was a boy.

It was easy to overlook the fact that Mumford really hadn’t played much college basketball. He sat out his freshman season at Villanova because of a stress fracture in his right leg, then appeared in 24 games as a sophomore, starting two and averaging 3.2 points. Last year, he was a transfer redshirt at Irvine.

His debut this season came in front of the folks in his hometown of Boston, in a loss to Boston University. Mumford went 0 for 5 from three-point range and scored only seven points.

Through four games, Mumford made only six of 20 three-point shots. Soon, he was having trouble with turnovers, too. In a loss at Tulane, he had eight turnovers and only three assists. The next game, at Houston, he flirted with a rare triple-double: 11 points, 10 assists, eight turnovers.

Since then, he has begun to get a better handle on his game--and the ball. Against Utah State, he had 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two turnovers.

In a victory over San Jose State, he played his best game--21 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and three turnovers.

“I think’s it’s interesting to look at maybe 10 games ago before he got into the conference, and the difference between then and now,” Baker said. “I look at the games, and I think he has more assists than turnovers. There was a time when it was close.”

Over the last nine games, Mumford has had more assists than turnovers in every one but one, when he had five turnovers and four assists in the loss to Fullerton.

Baker sees Mumford getting a better feel for his teammates, a feel for who can handle which passes, and for the opposition as well. He would like to see Mumford’s 40% field-goal percentage rise.

“I think he’s become a better shooter,” Baker said. “He’s learning to take more makeable shots.”

By that, he means fewer threes and fewer desperate layup attempts in a crowd of big men after driving the lane.

“I think there are so many obstacles to go around, over and through, that when I get to the easiest part, making the shot, I’ve already worked too hard getting there,” Mumford said.

“I would really like him to get in the habit of pulling up after he gets past the first line of defense,” Baker said. “He takes things to the second line of defense.”

Mumford and Baker are so close that Mumford says he knows with one look from his coach what he has done wrong. But it doesn’t mean Baker doesn’t sometimes get exasperated with the way Mumford plays.

“I get (mad) at him when he has exchanges like the one he had in front of the Fullerton bench with Sunderland,” Baker said. “Then they inbound the ball and Sunderland is bringing the ball up the floor and Lloyd tries to pick him. He tried to make a pick on a guy, not having in mind that the referee just watched the exchange (and is likely to call a foul). You need to wait two or three possessions. Whether it was a foul or not, the referee has a responsibility to get control.

“That (situation) happens probably once a game.”

Mumford isn’t satisfied with his own play either.

“I still think I’m rusty. I still haven’t played to my potential, as far as the things I want to accomplish,” Mumford said. “I feel I’m not up to par with what I’m accustomed to doing.”

Even so, he has never lost his conversational edge.

“You have to have a cockiness, a conceited side when you play,” Mumford said. “But the people who run into problems are the ones who take that off the court. Off the court, I get along with people well.

“The way I act on and off the court are different, but that is part of my game. I play with confidence, as if no one can stop me.”

Still, a challenge is a challenge. Baker and Mumford were guests on an Orange Country News Channel sports talk show with host Dave Feldman, who by coincidence played for Baker at Tufts University.

Feldman tossed out a big, fat pitch. Who’s better, Feldman or Mumford? Baker left no doubt that it was Mumford. But Feldman went back for more, turning to Mumford, a film major and aspiring sports broadcaster who hopes to do an internship with Feldman. Mumford didn’t let his job aspirations get in the way.

“He asked me, and I just said, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Mumford said.