UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Anteaters Must Remember Their Roles

Finals are over, but the men’s basketball team is facing a very important chemistry test this week. The Anteaters are a team of role players, and knowing those roles and putting the team ahead of the individual is a key to their chances for success.

“Everybody on this team plays so hard, man,” forward Jermaine Avie said. “We don’t need nobody trying to do more than they can do. That’s the kind of thing that causes friction. We don’t need that attitude here, and we’re not going to let it happen.”

Avie, a junior transfer from the College of Eastern Utah, is the Anteaters’ top rebounder, with a 7.9 average and is fifth in scoring (9.5). He is the only Anteater to have started all 14 games and leads the team in minutes played (408).

When a team is losing, though, players on the end of the bench tend to start believing they deserve more playing time and an opportunity to see if they can help turn things around.

Coach Rod Baker continues to substitute freely--10 Anteaters are averaging at least 13 minutes--but in three of the last four games, only eight have been in double figures in minutes played.

Guard Zuri Williams and forwards LaDay Smith, Shaun Battle and Elzie Love are among those whose playing time has diminished.

“I’m sure they feel bad about not playing as much,” Baker said. “I certainly hope they do. But LaDay and Shaun are ones who will come back and compete, and that’s what you want.

“When you’re losing, things tend to become fragmented and what we have to do now is get that back together. The question is who will step up and do something to change what’s going on?”

Earlier in the season, the Anteaters’ problems seemed to center on their inability to get the ball through the hoop. They were playing intense defense, rebounding pretty well and running their offense. They got good shots; they just didn’t make them.

But in losses last week to Pacific and San Jose State, Irvine seemed emotionally flat for extended periods.

“I don’t know what happened,” forward Mark Odsather said, “but it was like if there was a loose ball on the floor, I wasn’t sure if we would be the first ones to dive for it.”

Baker, who was so unhappy with his team’s play against San Jose Saturday that he held a 44-minute postgame team meeting, said he spent a good portion of Monday morning’s practice on the same subject.

“It’s something we addressed again,” Baker said. “All of a sudden, we lost some of our focus and it’s something we have to get back. A lot of the time this season, we have dictated the way the game was going. We did that only in spots against Pacific and at no time against San Jose State did we dictate the tempo.”

*

Road warriors? The Anteaters came down out of the Wasatch Mountains last week feeling pretty good about themselves after a victory at Utah State. The season wasn’t even half over and they were one game shy of equaling last season’s victory total.

But after losses at home to Pacific and San Jose, Irvine is 5-9, 2-4 in the Big West, and Baker is talking about “going back to the drawing board.”

Things don’t figure to get better in a hurry, either. The Anteaters are facing four consecutive road games--at Long Beach State, at UC Santa Barbara, at San Jose State and at Pacific--and there’s the distinct possibility that the lost weekend of Jan. 20-22 could be the beginning of another season of discontent.

*

Somebody’s celebrating: Forward Jinelle Williams, who had a season-high 18 points and 12 rebounds during the women’s team’s 59-42 victory over Nevada Saturday night, walked past a group of reporters waiting for Baker to emerge from the locker room.

“Why don’t you guys talk to us, we won,” she said, laughing.

Williams, a junior forward from Brea-Olinda High, can be excused for taking the shot. The women’s team, which has finished 2-24 the last two seasons, ended an 11-game losing streak and a 12-game Big West slide that was almost a year old. The Anteaters’ hadn’t won a conference game since Feb. 11, 1993, when they beat Cal State Fullerton.

Irvine’s defense held Nevada to 17 points and 24% field-goal shooting in the second half.

“Our press started to take its toll,” Coach Colleen Matsuhara said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Hopefully, we can build on this, but we have two tough games (Nevada Las Vegas and New Mexico State) coming up this week.

“The players seemed geared up and ready to let it loose before the (Nevada) game. We had a 12-point lead in the first half, but then we allowed them to get within three at halftime. But I would like to think our defense was the difference in the second half.

“I guess all of our biorhythms were on the upswing.”

*

Ouch patrol: Center DeForrest Boyer, who injured his right leg Jan. 8 against Cal State Fullerton, continues to play with a knee brace and enough tape to make his leg look like something out of a mummy movie. He also suffers from tendinitis in both knees.

“I can play with the pain,” he says, “but you know what hurts the worst? When they pull all that tape off after the game. I’ve shaved my whole leg and everything, but it doesn’t seem to help. Man, that’s pure torture.”

Anteater Notes

A men’s volleyball match that had been scheduled Wednesday at Crawford Hall against Cal State Northridge has been postponed indefinitely due to last week’s earthquake. Thursday, UCI plays host to Princeton at 7 p.m. The Anteaters are 1-1 after losing to Pepperdine, 15-10, 15-8, 15-8, last week. Irvine opposite hitter Leland Quinn had 19 kills in the match. . . . The women’s tennis team, which has only seven players on the roster, opens play today at Long Beach State. Jennifer Wall, who played No. 6 singles last season, is the only returning player. Top newcomers include freshman Janet Johnson, ranked No. 13 in Southern California girls’ 18s, and junior Antje Fritschi, the community college State champion at Grossmont College last year. . . . The men’s tennis team, ranked No. 25 in the nation, plays host to No. 19 New Mexico at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the UCI Tennis Stadium.

The UCI Athletic Foundation is offering bus trips to this week’s men’s basketball games at Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara. Cost is $25 and includes a game ticket. For information, call Scott Wessler at 725-3232. . . . Coach Rod Baker and staff have added an after-school camp in May and a summer overnight camp to their usual summer basketball camp program. The after-school camp, which will focus on offensive skill improvement, is scheduled for May 9-13. Campers at the new overnight camp will be housed in the Mesa Court Residence Hall and dine in the dining commons. Sessions are scheduled Aug. 14-19 and Aug. 21-26. Day camps are set for Aug. 15-19 and Aug. 22-26. For more information, call 856-8536.