UCI Didn’t Live Up to Von Lutzow

As a college freshman, Jeff Von Lutzow was party to the worst basketball season in UC Irvine history--five victories overwhelmed by 23 defeats--but was able to console himself with the thought then that there was nowhere to go but up.

He was right.

As a senior, Von Lutzow went 6-21.

“I never visualized this,” Von Lutzow said Friday afternoon after closing his college career with--what else?--a defeat.

Who could, without immediately sprinting for the nearest exit?

Successive seasons of 5-23, 11-19, 7-22 and 6-21.

Eighty-five losses in 114 games.

A winning percentage of .254, or one point less than the career batting average of Gary Gaetti.

The three poorest finishes in 28 years of UC Irvine basketball--all occurring during his watch.

Once it was done, Von Lutzow scarcely could bear to look.

“I had high hopes coming to Irvine,” Von Lutzow said, remembering the halcyon days of 1988-89, when he was the thinnest but sturdiest piece of timber at Charter Oaks High, scoring more than 24 points a game and opening doors he never imagined available.

“I was recruited by a lot of schools. Fresno State. Loyola Marymount. Creighton. Washington State. I was recruited by a lot of the West Coast schools.”

But he chose Irvine, ignoring Rule 1 in every freshman orientation handbook across the country:

Do your homework.

“At that time,” Von Lutzow said, “I didn’t follow college basketball much. I loved to play it, but I never really followed the colleges.

“I just figured a Division I school is a Division I school.”

Von Lutzow was drawn to Irvine largely by the fact it was close to home, and his parents could watch him play. And although Irvine was coming off a 12-17 season, it never occurred to Von Lutzow that there might come a time when his parents would gain greater peace of mind by flicking on the family TV Thursday and Saturday nights.

“I thought, ‘Hell, I’ll go to Irvine and do the same thing I did in high school,’ ” Von Lutzow said. “My sophomore year in high school, we were terrible. My junior year, we were pretty good. My senior year, we didn’t lose a game.

“I figured the same thing would happen here.”

It pays to note that Von Lutzow is majoring in Social Ecology at Irvine--with a minor in Eternal Optimism. When inspecting this season’s schedule and this season’s Anteater roster, Von Lutzow predicted “we’d win 19 games. At least.”

“Jeff Von Lutzow never saw a game he didn’t think he could win,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “Or a shot he didn’t like.

“That’s probably what’s gotten him this far. Look at him. He’s a skinny 6-9 kid. He probably had to think that way to achieve the amount of success he has.”

Baker intends this as a compliment. And, individually speaking, Von Lutzow had some success at Irvine--making the Big West all-freshman team in 1990, leading the Anteaters in scoring and rebounding as a junior and a senior. He leaves as the sixth-leading scorer in Irvine history, behind Kevin Magee and ahead of Johnny Rogers, and the ninth-leading rebounder.

But there will always be that ugly, unwanted and indelible tattoo--29-85--to forever taint an otherwise decent career.

Friday’s finale was typical Von Lutzow. He shoots 50% from the field, he hits a couple three-pointers, he blocks three shots, he scores 16 points--and he loses by 11.

“I was really confident we would win this game,” Von Lutzow said, and there he goes again. Friday, Irvine, the eighth-place team in the Big West, played New Mexico State, the first-place team in the Big West. New Mexico State went to the Sweet 16 last year. Irvine went to Bradley last year. New Mexico State is ranked 24th this year. Irvine is ranked 210th this year.

The only way Irvine was going to win this game was to rent Rider, as in a truck named J.R.

Yet, Von Lutzow accurately notes, “we were only down by four with two minutes left.” Then, the weight of a tournament-record 32 turnovers collapsed on Irvine.

Twenty-seven games under their belt, the Anteaters still pass the ball as if they met in the parking lot five minutes ago.

Von Lutzow shakes his head.

“Mental lapses,” he said sadly. “There are times when I swear we’re the best team in the Big West. Then we have lapses like that, and we’re the worst.”

Von Lutzow rewound the past four years in his head and occasionally pressed the pause button, scanning for the good parts.

“I dunked on Larry Johnson. As a freshman,” he said, brightening.

“The first game I played, against Bucknell in the Disneyland Freedom Bowl Classic, I blocked a shot, dribbled in and dunked. All in the first minute.

“We beat UC Santa Barbara here, in the first round, last year. That was a highlight.”

And?

And?

“I met my girlfriend at Irvine,” he said, smiling. “That was the brightest thing to come out of my four years here.”

Von Lutzow wished his first coach at Irvine, Bill Mulligan, hadn’t taken off his redshirt and thrown him into the fray as a freshman. “I wish I could come back and play one more year,” he said. “This team is going to do well next year . . . Coach Baker has the right system. His system will work.”

But Von Lutzow won’t be around to find out. This time next year, he’ll probably be casting three-pointers in Italy or southern France. “He’s a lock to play overseas,” Baker said. “A 6-9 kid who can shoot the way he does?”

For the present, it was a dripping ice bag, a dank hallway underneath the Long Beach Arena bleachers and one final question.

Could Von Lutzow sum up his Irvine experience in a single word?

Yes, he could.

“Damn.”