UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Simmons Might Miss a Game; Injury Not as Serious as Suspected

Kevin Simmons slumped in a chair in the Portland airport Sunday morning, mulling over his ill fortune.

The newspaper he was reading reminded him that the no-expectations Oregon State Beavers had deflated the high hopes of his UC Irvine team Saturday and the throbbing pain in his right calf wouldn’t allow him to take his mind off the injury he suffered during the loss.

It was a clearly a bad news/bad news scenario.

Irvine’s victory over St. John’s on Nov. 25 was now only a memory and the Anteaters’ future--tied very tightly to his own--was in doubt because his leg didn’t feel much better than it had when he collapsed on Ralph Miller Court in Gill Coliseum an afternoon earlier.

“I still can’t really put any weight on it and the swelling hasn’t gone down hardly at all,” he said, softly. “Hurts about the same, too.”

Simmons, last season’s Big West freshman of the year, was on crutches Monday but he finally got some good news in the afternoon after a visit to the doctor. The injury was diagnosed as a deep contusion--not a torn muscle as was previously thought--and he is expected to miss only one game. The Anteaters play host to Eastern Washington Saturday and don’t play again until Dec. 16 at USC.

Tape replays showed that Simmons was posting up when an Oregon State player jumped in to defend and hit Simmons in the calf with his knee. The injury will be treated with ice and anti-inflammatory medication. Irvine trainer Jeff Landskov isn’t ruling out that Simmons could be ready for Saturday’s game, but said it was “doubtful.”

“When the medical people say he can play, then he’ll play,” Coach Rod Baker said, “but I’m not an optimistic person about things like this. The swelling has gone down some, but he can’t put his foot flat on the ground. That may be helpful if you’re in the ballet, but it’s no good in this sport.”

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De-Warhol-ized: Fifteen minutes of fame? How about 15 seconds. So far, that’s about the extent of starting center Dan Augulis’ run at glory.

Augulis, a 6-foot-10 junior from Leawood, Kan., continues to jog out on the court when the starting lineups are announced, but he hasn’t been too effective after that.

During Saturday’s loss at Oregon State, he played 14 minutes, scored two points, had two rebounds and picked up three fouls. In three games, he has made two of seven shots, scored six points, grabbed six rebounds and committed 10 fouls in 39 minutes of playing time. Augulis played in only 10 games last season and was on the floor for a total of 34 minutes.

But there was a flash of potential Saturday at Oregon State. With 12 minutes 4 seconds remaining in the second half, Augulis blocked Beaver center Sonny Benjamin’s shot, snatched the ball out of midair, passed it to point guard Raimonds Miglinieks and then got it back on the other end of the court for a flying fast-break dunk.

And Baker is convinced there are more good things ahead for Augulis, who was a redshirt in 1990-91 and then spent two years in Bucharest, Romania, on a Mormon mission after averaging 11 points and eight rebounds as a senior at Shawnee Mission South High in Overland Park, Kan.

“Having to go without [injured Shaun] Battle and [Paul] Foster when we started practice forced us as a staff to view Dan as a contributor,” Baker said. “And he has responded to the opportunity.

“The big thing with Dan is that the game has been very recreational for him. He hasn’t looked at it from a business standpoint. This has to become more serious for him and I think it has.”

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Stepping up: Sophomore Leticia Oseguera has played a key role in the women’s basketball team’s 4-0 jump-start this season. Oseguera, who was named to the all-tournament team as the Anteaters won the UCI Marriott Classic with a 66-52 victory over Texas El Paso Saturday, leads the team with 10 rebounds per game and is second in scoring (15.8).

“Leticia has done an outstanding job on the boards, taking up the slack for Jinelle [Williams, who was a senior last year],” Coach Colleen Matsuhara said. “She really dedicated herself last spring and summer, spent a lot of time in the weight room and she’s twice as strong as she was last year.”

Oseguera, a 6-foot forward who was voted the team’s best newcomer last season after she averaged six points and four rebounds, has improved her quickness and also increased her vertical jump by two inches.

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Goodwill games: Many of the state’s best club youth soccer teams competed in the Harvest Cup tournament over Thanksgiving weekend at Irvine, but there was more than charity in the hearts of the Anteater athletic administration when they decided to play host to the tournament.

“The more of these kinds of players that come to the campus, the better it is for us,” Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said. “We had a number of kids here that Marine [Cano, Irvine’s director of soccer] is looking at and talking to.”

The success of the Irvine’s women’s team, which had a 12-4-3 record--the school’s all-time best--last season, is also opening doors.

“Marine’s looking at some players that we never would have even gotten a sniff at in the past,” Guerrero said.

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School daze: Tchaka Shipp, who was in a coma nine days after a near-fatal car accident three weeks after transferring to Irvine from Seton Hall in the summer of 1994, admits he sometimes wonders if his head injuries had any lasting effect on his mental capacities.

Especially during finals week.

“If I lost any brain power, or any kind of brain tissue or fluids or whatever, I figure drinking milk and eating good, it’ll all come back,” he said, smiling. “But school sure seems a lot harder here than it was at Seton Hall.

“At Seton Hall, there was a little time to enjoy life. Here, there ain’t no room for partying or nothing else but studying and basketball. They say it’s an academically oriented school and I can tell you, yeah, big-time. Here, it’s strictly school, there’s no room for a good time.”

Anteater Notes

The public is invited to have “Breakfast in the Bren” Saturday before the Anteaters’ noon game against Eastern Washington. A $4 pancake breakfast will be served in the Bren Center Terrace, beginning at 10 a.m. The women’s team will play host to UCLA in a 2:30 game after the men’s game. . . . Senior Gabby Garcia trimmed .07 seconds off of her own school record with a 24.40 in the 50-yard freestyle during the Speedo Cup, which was held last weekend at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza. Garcia and junior Gwen Yoshizumi, sophomore Shelly Wright and senior Danielle Bries set a school record in the 400-freestyle relay (1:39.71). . . . Sophomore guard Brian Keefe is shooting 30% from three-point range so far this season, but he’s much more accurate after he gets warmed up. He has made only two of 12 first-half three-point attempts, but has hit four of eight after intermission.