UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : After Early Practices, Baker’s Optimism Level Borders on Giddy

Well, they do call it Midnight Madness .

Maybe the effects of four grueling practices in two days had left him groggy. Or maybe he just doesn’t think very clearly in the middle of the night. Or maybe it was a Halloween night possession by Casper the Friendly Ghost. (You know what an optimistic little ghoul he is.)

Whatever the reason, Rod Baker stood in the spotlight on the Bren Center floor after his team had been introduced very early Monday and told the 1,000 or so Anteater fans on hand: “If you don’t have your tickets yet, you better get them now because halfway through the season, there won’t be any available.”

Honest. That’s what he said.

Baker, who says his feelings about his teams this early in a season are almost always “guarded,” is leaning more toward giddy these days.

Why the happy face? It’s a chemistry thing and Baker feels like a guy in the lab who’s close to finding just the right formula.

“I know it’s early, but I really do believe this team has a chance to do something, to be something special,” he said. “I like the way they react to each other. They’re very sympathetic and encouraging to each other.

“Maybe it’s just because we’re all in the same bucket together. We’ve had to fight through some hard times and, as a result, I think this team has more than a little bit of character.”

Baker also promised the gathering--mostly students who showed up for free burritos and T-shirts--that the 1993-94 Anteaters will “work harder, work longer and work better than any team you’ve seen here before.”

And he said that twice. The work ethic had been established during the conditioning period and this longest of weekends for the Irvine players.

“We’re in as good, if not better, shape as any team I’ve had, so we didn’t have to ease into practice,” Baker said. “I tried to run their little legs off Saturday. My goal was to make sure none of them left the house Saturday night and I think I accomplished that.”

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Chemistry test: Baker doesn’t want to dwell on past failures, but he’s acutely aware that togetherness was not one of the Anteaters’ strengths last season, especially down the stretch when they lost eight of their last nine games to finish 4-14 in the Big West.

He says it will be a different story this time around, however, and he’s looking to senior guard Lloyd (Fudge) Mumford to lead the way.

“I think it’s going to be a really good year for him (as a leader) because now there are no reluctant followers,” Baker said. “I’m not going to say anything beyond that, but it’s always easier to lead when there are no reluctant followers.”

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Ouch Patrol: With the NCAA District 8 cross-country championships in Portland, Pre., less than two weeks away, Traci Goodrich is trying to get her mind off her aching knee. She dislocated it two years ago during a freak accident when she fell off a couch, but it still bothers her, mentally as much as physically.

“Coming down the hill on the cement was the worst,” she said after finishing second in Saturday’s Big West championships at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. “The doctors keep telling me I can’t dislocate it again by running, but I can’t stop thinking about it.

“It’s just a psychological thing I have to get over, but it hurts and I seem to focus on that.”

Goodrich, who finished a distant second to Utah State’s two-time champion Alisa Nicodemus, was clearly depressed after the race.

“Traci’s a little too hard on herself,” Coach Vince O’Boyle said. “Alisa is a three-time All-American who ran really, really well. I’m not disappointed in Traci’s performance at all.”

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Nothing changes: Former Anteater Coach Bill Mulligan, now coach at Irvine Valley College, dropped by to watch Midnight Madness and, not surprisingly, won Quip ‘o the Night honors.

Mulligan, on attempting to recruit a point guard who admitted to having gang ties: “He told me he was a Crip and I said, ‘That’s OK, our uniforms are blue.’ ”

Notes

Sophomore roommates Todd Whitehead and Shaun Battle were in street clothes and did not play in the blue-gold scrimmage during Midnight Madness. “They were late, their punishment was that they didn’t get to participate and that’s it,” Anteater Coach Rod Baker said. “It’s over. This was a free one.” . . . Irvine is playing host to the Southern California Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. championships this week. Qualifying rounds begin Wednesday morning with main-draw play starting Thursday. The No. 1-seeded doubles team in the nation--Pepperdine’s Cary Lothringer and Ari Nathan--is scheduled to play. The top-seeded singles player is Sargis Sargasian of Arizona State. The singles finals will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. “The event always features the best players in the southwest U.S.,” Irvine Coach Steve Clark said. “It’s a really good indicator of where your guys fit in nationally, and guys who do well here have to beat some high-ranked players, which means a good showing is really good for your ranking.”

The women’s volleyball team is tied for sixth in the NCAA’s Northwest Regional rankings with Sacramento State. It equals the highest ranking for the Anteaters (13-10, 6-7 in the Big West), who ended up No. 6 in the final 1988 poll.

Marsha Sharp, coach of Texas Tech’s 1992-93 national championship women’s basketball team, will be one of the featured speakers at the UCI Coaches Corner Basketball Clinic Nov. 13 at the Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club in Newport Beach. Sharp will discuss the Lady Raiders’ match-up zone and the Texas Tech 1-4 offense. Irvine Coach Colleen Matsuhara and USC associate head coach Fred Williams also will speak. For more information, call 856-6890.

Former Irvine goalie Chris Duplanty has been named U.S. Water Polo’s 1993 athlete of the year. The two-time Olympian is in his first season as a starter for the U.S. national team. . . . How impressive was Cal State Fullerton’s Mike Tansley in winning the Big West cross-country title Saturday? “Strong, are you kidding me?” said Irvine’s Dan Galindo, who finished fourth. “Just before the fourth mile, I could see Mike and the two guys from Zimbabwe (Utah State’s Muchapiwa Mazano and Gray Mavhera) ahead of me. He had about 50 meters on them and then he turned it into 100 just like that. He just ran away from them.”