Simmons Struggles in Return to New York

It wasn’t exactly the homecoming Kevin Simmons had in mind, but his second-half resuscitation and UC Irvine’s 87-70 victory over Siena allowed him to smile Friday as he greeted a crowd of friends in the stands of St. John’s Alumni Hall.

Simmons, the Big West freshman of the year and the Anteaters’ leading scorer and rebounder last season, is a Brooklyn native. He was all-state, all-city and a McDonald’s All-American at Brooklyn’s Tilden High as well as a star on a standout-studded New York Riverside Church AAU team.

But in the first half Friday, he wilted under the pressure of performing for friends and family.

“He started pretty slowly,” point guard Raimonds Miglinieks said of his favorite target, who had only two points and one rebound in the first half. “But he had half of New York here watching him.”

Simmons also is trying to adjust to the switch from post player to a perimeter position, and he found himself on the outside looking in for much of the second half as well. He finally got into the flow during garbage time after the Anteaters pulled out to a double-digit lead late in the game.

He finished with 14 points and six rebounds, but scored eight of his points in the last seven minutes.

“I was just over-hyped,” Simmons said. “I was trying to block it all out, but all the people and everything, I just was too pumped up. Thankfully, my teammates stepped up and we won or I’d be feeling really bad right now.”

Coach Rod Baker said he couldn’t begin to estimate how many of Simmons’ admirers had come to see the game and he wasn’t surprised his prize sophomore buckled a bit.

“It’s hard enough to come here and play the first game,” Baker said, “and then you add in the new position. I think he elected to go outside of what he does best and then he was holding [the ball] a little too long. And when you hold it too long, then everyone is standing still and when that happens, we’re not a very good team.”

Miglinieks, who set a UCI record with 245 assists last season, probably connected with Simmons for almost half of them. The two weren’t hooking up early in the game, but they began to click near the end.

Simmons scored a pair of fast-break layups when Miglinieks parted a sea of Saint defenders and put the ball in his hands.

“That’s our game,” Simmons said, smiling. “If we can get a team to run up and down with us, that’s definitely to our advantage.”