UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : These Bosom Buddies Get Along Swimmingly

Coach Charlie Schober calls them “Two Davids from Texas,” which sounds like a great name for a ribs and steak restaurant venture after college.

Freshman distance swimmers David Durden and David McGlynn made it to Irvine from Houston, where they were friends, rivals and standouts on the Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club.

But Durden, an electrical engineering major who is on academic scholarship, attended Jersey Village High. And McGlynn swam at nearby Cy Fair High.

“We were in the same district, but our (high school) teams weren’t that great,” Durden said. “Our senior year, I was the only swimmer from my team to go to the state meet and (McGlynn) and one girl were the only ones from his team.”

Now they are teammates, dorm mates and 5-o’-clock-in-the-morn soul mates.

“Most of the guys we knew went to University of Texas or Texas A&M;,” McGlynn said. “We were both looking to get out, and it’s cool that we both ended up at the same place.

“It’s hard work, but we’ve handled it pretty well. We haven’t freaked out yet. Rooming together helps. Our schedules are the same, so you don’t have a roommate who’s coming in at 3 a.m.”

McGlynn, whose father lives in Laguna Beach, visited a number of UC schools before deciding on Irvine. Then he encouraged Durden to check it out. Durden made a visit and says it came down to a choice between Irvine and the University of Cincinnati.

“I started thinking about how I would handle four-degree weather,” Durden said. “I mean look at this. It’s November and I’m wearing shorts and sandals to class. Man, it’s so nice, I could go naked.”

Neither swimmer is on the verge of breaking records, but Schober likes what he sees in the water for a couple hours every morning and afternoon.

“These guys are very strong team people who will help us in a lot of ways,” he said. “They have a lot of talent and I think they’re really going to develop. There’s a lot to learn about racing at this level when you’re a freshman, but I think they’ll sort through that fine and be team leaders in the future.

“And they’re positive. They like swimming. They’re the type of kids who make coaching very enjoyable.”

Durden, who started swimming year-round as an 8-year-old and quit because of burnout when he was 12, returned to the pool for his junior year of high school. His best events are the 200- and 500-yard freestyles and the 100- and 200-yard butterfly.

“I like to say I’m a ‘mid-distance’ guy,” he said, smiling, “but Charlie thinks I’m a distance swimmer. I never swam the 1,000 . . . until I came here.”

Although they swim nearly identical workouts, McGlynn is more distance oriented. “I can sprint a little bit,” he says, “a very little bit.”

McGlynn also dabbles in the backstroke.

“It isn’t pretty, but he swims it,” Durden says, laughing.

Everyone is smiling, but sometimes the good-natured jabs give way to hostile behavior.

“The other night we had a great penny war, you know, flicking pennies at each other,” Durden said. “It relieves a little tension. And I think I took him.”

McGlynn was bug-eyed in disbelief.

“Are you kidding?” he said. “I absolutely shredded him. Don’t even talk to him. He’s dead.”

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Choppy waters: Irvine’s house of Davids will be two of about 700 swimmers competing Thursday through Saturday when Irvine plays host to the Speedo Cup at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Twenty-four women’s teams, 18 men’s teams and a number of individual entries--including Olympic gold medalist Tom Jager--will compete.

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Lofty hopes: Senior guard Chris Brown says the Anteaters have grandiose expectations in men’s basketball this season.

“We all feel like this is the year we can make Irvine history and go to the NCAAs,” Brown said. “And everyone’s excited about going to the tournament, but we don’t just want to go, we want to win at least one game.

“We want to be around long enough to get the real feel of the NCAAs.”

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On the defensive: Coach Rod Baker likes the array of offensive weapons he has at his disposal this season and he feels comfortable going pretty deep into his bench.

“You can have some success when all five of your guys on the floor have to be guarded,” he said. “It keeps people from cheating, doubling people or playing the play.”

Baker believes the Anteaters’ chances of winning most nights will hinge on their ability to play effective defense and keep opponents from scoring on easy follow shots.

“We have to control opponents’ field-goal percentage,” he said. “If they’re getting too many easy shots, then we’re doing a bad job of rebounding and we’re going to foul a lot, which will limit how much time guys can play.

“If we can box out and guard people well enough to keep scores in the 70s, we’ll be OK.”

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Junior Popi Edwards, who led the women’s volleyball team with 398 kills, was named to the All-Big West first team for the second consecutive year. Senior Stacy Mitchell, who had 333 kills, was a second-team selection. Setter Meredith Fletcher and Amy Pimentel were named to the conference all-freshman team.

Anteater Notes

The women’s basketball team, 3-11 in the previous seven UCI/Newport Marriott Classics, plays host to Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Friday night in the first round of this year’s tournament. No. 8 Alabama and Colorado State play at 6. Saturday night’s consolation game is at 6 and the championship game is at 8. The Anteaters lost their opener Friday to Pepperdine, 59-56. . . . Swim Coach Charlie Schober, on his recruiting budget: “It’s a very high investment for me to give a scholarship, since I don’t have any.” . . . Coach Rod Baker is still marveling at the intensity of junior power forward Michael Tate and the maturity of freshman guard Brian Keefe. On Tate: “He’s a warrior, and then some. It will be nice to have him bounce around some different people for a change.” On Keefe: “Inevitably, there’s going to be a day when he doesn’t look good. But I haven’t seen it yet.”