UC IRVINE NOTES / JOHN WEYLER : Vetrone Moves On to UNLV

The rave reviews on the recruiting class of 1994-95 are in. But the top recruiter is out.

Greg Vetrone, the assistant basketball coach who was instrumental in recruiting Big West freshman of the year Kevin Simmons and record-setting point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, has accepted a similar position at UNLV.

An official announcement is expected this week, but Vetrone was in Las Vegas over the weekend to meet with players, and new Rebel Coach Bill Bayno confirmed he has hired Vetrone, a longtime friend, to join his staff.

Bayno, a former assistant at UMass, has known Vetrone since they were both point guards in college. Bayno attended Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn., and Vetrone played at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University.

Vetrone, an Irvine assistant for four seasons, previously was an assistant for three years at Fairleigh Dickinson, where he also was recruiting coordinator.

Bayno, 32, says Vetrone, 33, will be a key to helping UNLV return to its former status as one of the country’s top programs.

“The best recruiters are the ones at the mid-major (schools), who don’t have a lot to sell,” Bayno told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “You have to be really good to get players to come to Fairleigh Dickinson and Irvine.”

Vetrone, who was home in Newport Beach on Monday, declined to comment. He has been the point man for Irvine’s recruiting efforts under Coach Rod Baker and had double-whammy recruiting coups last year when he played a pivotal role in landing Simmons and Miglinieks.

Simmons, a highly sought 6-foot-8 forward from Brooklyn, chose Irvine over UMass, Maryland and Cincinnati. Miglinieks was being recruited by Arkansas, Seton Hall and Cal.

“Greg did a super job on Kevin,” Brooklyn Tilden High Coach Eric Eisenberg said. “Irvine went after him the way UNLV used to go after a McDonald’s All-American. Greg stayed with him through (Simmons’) prep school experience and they got him because they really worked hard to help the kid. They were loyal and Kevin is loyal.”

Miglinieks had 828 assists in two seasons at Riverside College and Vetrone saw most of them. He helped convince the native of Riga, Latvia, that Irvine was the right place to finish his college career and Miglinieks set a school record for assists (245) in his first season as an Anteater.

He finished third in the nation with an 8.2-assist average and became the first Irvine player to be named to the All-Big West first team since Wayne Engelstad in 1985.

Simmons, who led the Anteaters in scoring, with a 14.9 points average, and rebounding (7.7), was an honorable-mention all-conference pick as well as freshman of the year.

Baker, who was attending his mother’s funeral in Philadelphia, was unavailable for comment.

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Court smarts: Well, it ain’t the Ivy League.

Irvine forward Khalid Channell, a biological sciences major who is trying to decide on where to go to medical school, was one of two--count ‘em, two --players to be named to the academic All-Big West men’s basketball team.

The requirements were a minimum 3.2 cumulative grade-point average, a sophomore standing academically and participation in half of the team’s games.

Utah State junior Eric Franson, a civil and environmental engineering major, joins Channell on the two-man team.

Other Anteaters who made academic All-Big West teams were Michelle Kahler (women’s basketball), Bryan Dove (men’s swimming) and Dena Amr, April Gibbs and Maureen Marks (women’s swimming).

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But it wasn’t enough: The Anteater men’s and women’s track teams recorded 43 season-best marks last week, but the women finished third and the men fourth in a five-way meet with Stanford, Air Force, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Los Angeles.

Freshman Borya Orloff won the pole vault (16-8 3/4), his fourth consecutive victory in the event, and Toby Brannon had a season-best in the 400 meters.

Hurdlers Skye Green, Carla Veltman and Sarah Kaminskis all had season bests and five distance runners--Jo Jo Yaba and Katie Clark in the 1,500 meters and Laura Monson, Tanja Brix, Wendy Krieger and Clark in the 3,000--also improved on their best times this season.

Notes

Sophomore tennis player Marc-Andre Tardif, ranked 72nd in the nation in singles, should be moving up. He won all three of his matches during the UCI/Marriott Classic last week and has won five in a row, raising his season record to 16-8. Senior Chris Tontz, ranked No. 29 in singles, is probably headed in the other direction. He lost all three tournament matches to players with lower rankings. . . . Senior opposite hitter Leland Quinn led Irvine with 20 kills during a loss to fifth-ranked UC Santa Barbara Saturday night. Quinn ranks sixth in the nation in kills with an average of 6.97 per game.