UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Things Looking Up for Men’s Basketball

Their five-game, season-opening road swing is over and the Anteaters have emerged with reason to be optimistic about the rest of the 1994-95 men’s basketball season.

Assistant Greg Vetrone walked into a Phoenix delicatessen after Saturday night’s loss to 13th-ranked Arizona State sporting a wide grin. Vetrone spent most of last season sitting on the Irvine bench with his head buried in his hands. After games, he tended to swear a lot.

“I’m smiling,” he said, sounding genuinely surprised. “Look at me, I’m smiling.”

Irvine, which staggered to a humiliating 4-14 regular-season Big West record before a run to the final of the conference tournament, figures to have a 50-50 chance of winning most nights.

The Anteaters are 2-3, but have lost twice to teams ranked among the top 15 nationally and lost at Oklahoma when the Sooners’ best player scored 25 points before he missed a shot.

“It’s different this season,” said Coach Rod Baker. “Before, as long as we got out without embarrassing ourselves, it was a victory.

“The fact is that we’re better. The fact is you notice. And we’re going to be even better. But this isn’t the time to be encouraged about anything. This is the time to play.”

The potential for improvement is there. Irvine has three new starters and the Anteaters are clearly in an adjustment period. But their depth and ability to make plays even when their set offensive schemes break down bodes well for the upcoming conference season.

Here’s a quick look at the new guys and how they’ve played so far:

* Point guard Raimonds Miglinieks is a bit of an enigma. He went into the Arizona State game as the team’s leading scorer, then failed to take a shot simply because he either found a teammate open or didn’t get a good look at the basket.

Miglinieks can handle the ball in traffic with incredible aplomb and continues to surprise opponents--and sometimes teammates--with his uncanny ability to thread Dan Marino-like passes through defenders.

Saturday night, he fired an assist to Mark Odsather that passed within inches of three Sun Devils, all of whom were stunned and failed to do so much as raise a hand.

Miglinieks, a Latvian native and former Red Army conscript, is averaging six assists, but that number could easily be in double figures if startled teammates had not missed shots or failed to see the pass coming and missed it altogether.

“A lot more of those passes are being caught than they were two months ago,” Baker said. “And even more will be caught in the future.”

* Freshman forward Kevin Simmons had been a consistent force inside until he went scoreless against Arizona State. Simmons appeared to be a bit intimidated after his first couple of shots were blocked, but he has good instincts, a nice shooting touch and four years to improve.

Simmons, an all-state selection at Brooklyn’s Tilden High, is third on the team in playing time. He had no fewer than eight rebounds in each of the Anteaters’ first four games, but came down with only three against the Sun Devils.

* Forward Michael Tate is only 6 feet 4--if that--but he plays with such passion and abandon that he already has earned the respect of a number of opposing coaches.

The junior transfer from Ventura College has been dominating as a defender and rebounder at times. He leads the Anteaters with an average of nine rebounds.

Tate is shooting 30% from the field, but he takes mostly high-percentage inside shots that often draw fouls and should start to fall. He made his first three shots--a driving baseline bank shot, a short jump hook and a layup--Saturday night as the Anteaters grabbed a 15-7 lead over the Sun Devils.

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Uplifting experiences: The women’s basketball team had a two-week layoff after its Dec. 3 victory over Colorado State and the Anteaters still were able to maintain some momentum.

Irvine beat Texas Christian, 74-67, Sunday when junior center Allah-mi Basheer scored 12 second-half points to lead the Anteaters back from a four-point halftime deficit.

Irvine is 2-3 this year, but only six points shy of being 4-1. Last season, the Anteaters were 5-23.

“This year, we just seem to have a lot more pride and more confidence in our ability,” Basheer said. “I think we have more heart, too. And that win over Colorado State was really a confidence booster for us.”

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Newlywed game: Basheer was married last month to Sgt. Mateen Sabir, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton.

“But nobody knows,” she said. “It’s kind of a secret.”

Not anymore. Anteater Notes

The men’s tennis team is ranked 37th in the nation and No. 9 in Region VIII. Sophomore Marc-Andre Tardif is the 28th-ranked singles player in the country and No. 6 in the region. Senior Chris Tontz is ranked No. 13 in the region. Tardif and Tontz are the region’s No. 9 doubles team. . . . The sailing team, which is ranked No. 7 nationally, will compete Jan. 7-8 in the Rose Bowl Intersectional at Alamitos Bay.