UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Sandoz’s First Impression Is Deceiving

When Sherise Sandoz made her first appearance on campus, Coach Colleen Matsuhara worried that it might be her last. And some members of the women’s basketball team were hoping she was right.

Sandoz, who averaged 25 points and 16 rebounds last season at Downey Pius X High and was The Times’ Southeast player of the year, also was considering Long Beach State and Hawaii when she arrived at Irvine for a recruiting visit.

“She was kind of standoffish and we were puzzled,” Matsuhara said. “We couldn’t tell if she was having a good time that weekend. I thought maybe she wanted to go home. She had verbally committed before the recruiting trip and she stuck by her word, but after her visit, I was keeping my fingers crossed that nothing was going to change.”

Sandoz has heard all about her unimpressive first impression and laughs about it now.

“Nobody liked me when I first came here,” she says, giggling. “They said I was so quiet and stuff, but that’s just how I am when I don’t know people. I’m shy.

“But now we get along great and I talk all the time. Now, it’s like, ‘Do you ever stop talking? Shut up sometimes.’ ”

Sandoz, who says she chose Irvine because she thought she could play right away, is making some noise on the court as well. When junior forward Jinelle Williams was sidelined with tendinitis in both knees late last month, Sandoz moved into the starting lineup for games against Drake and No. 5 Colorado and collected 25 points and 14 rebounds. Williams is back and Sandoz is no longer starting, but she has played in every game and is averaging six points and four rebounds.

Matsuhara’s original plan was to convert Sandoz from a post player to a perimeter player, but Williams’ injuries waylaid those intentions for the time being.

“I’ve had to renege on what I promised her when she came here, but it’s been out of necessity that we’ve been having to use her inside,” Matsuhara said. “And she’s been doing a great job playing in the post. She’s been very aggressive going to the basket and she’s been rebounding with reckless abandon.

“We knew we had to find a place for her to play, but she’s only 5-7, so in the post she’s usually up against players who are 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. But she hasn’t backed down at all, so I think that’s a really good sign.”

Sandoz is hardly pouting about a decision that sets her smack in the middle of her comfort zone.

“I want to be able to play both inside and outside,” she said. “But really, I wish I could stay on the post. I like it much better. I guess I can’t play there forever because of my height, but I wish I could. What’s a couple of inches?”

Sandoz, who played for the Cerritos Dynasty club team and has traded elbows with some formidable opponents during her travels, says she really hasn’t been awed by the prowess of Division I college players.

“The biggest adjustment for me has been the workouts,” she said. “In high school, we didn’t really do that much conditioning. Here, we never stop running. And I never lifted weights before this year.

“I think it’s helping my game, though, my strength and my endurance. And, once the workouts are over with, you feel really good about yourself.”

When the games are over, however, there usually aren’t too many women wearing blue and gold feeling very good about themselves. Irvine is 1-10, 0-3 in the Big West.

“I knew we were going to play a lot of really good teams during the nonconference season and I think we’ll be a lot better in conference,” Sandoz said. “If not this year, then next year.

“People take us lightly. Back home, they say, ‘ Irvine? Is that a Division I school?’ But I think we’re getting better. I’m glad I picked this school and I’m going to work as hard as I can to help stop people from taking us lightly.”

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Sandoz is a criminology major who wants to become a parole officer, return to the community where she grew up to try to make a difference.

“It’s sad,” Sandoz said. “When I was growing up in Lynwood, it was so much better. Now, when I go home, we just have to stay inside.”

So Sandoz is trying to apply the tenacity and intensity that makes her a success on the court to the challenges of the classroom.

“It’s hard for me, with basketball and all the studying, because you get really tired,” she said. “But you’ve got to keep working hard at it and I make myself do it because I don’t want people saying, ‘Oh, she’s just here to play. She’s dumb.’

“I want them to know that I’m a student-athlete. Both parts of it.”

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Flat performance: Bombardier Chris Brown, one of those pure shooters whose shots almost always seem to be on target while in flight, made only two of nine three-pointers during Saturday night’s loss to Cal State Northridge.

Brown has no qualms about casting off from NBA three-point territory and usually shoots the ball as effortlessly as he would from 15 feet, but Saturday night some of his shots appeared to have lost their normal trajectory.

“I noticed it earlier and asked if he felt like he had his legs under him,” Coach Rod Baker said after the game. “I don’t think he got a good look at the basket but maybe one or two times, though.”

Nobody’s complaining, however. Since becoming academically eligible Dec. 10, Brown has taken 60 shots from the floor that have netted a total of 66 points.

Anteater Notes

The men’s volleyball team beat University of La Verne, 15-5, 15-10, 15-13, Saturday to open its season. Junior Leland Quinn led Irvine with 15 kills. The Anteaters play three matches Friday in the first round of the two-day Collegiate Classic at UC Santa Barbara. Irvine faces Colorado, Menlo University and the host Gauchos on Friday. . . . Gwen Yoshizumi was the top finisher for the Irvine women’s swimming team in the UCI Invitational, taking sixth place in the 200-yard backstroke. Jeff Hoskinson was the top male, with a fifth-place finish in the same event.