UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Biology Brought Her to Anteaters

Princess Hatcher had been accepted at UCLA and was going to try to make the basketball team as a walk-on. Then she got the proverbial offer she couldn’t refuse.

How about a basketball scholarship to UC Irvine, Coach Colleen Matsuhara suggested, and a top-notch biological sciences program thrown in for good measure?

Hatcher visited the Irvine campus, talked to the faculty and immediately knew she had found the place to realize her dream . . . not a dream to play Division I basketball, her dream of becoming a pediatrician.

Hatcher says she has wanted to be a doctor since she was 3 and has never considered another profession.

“Science is the only thing that interests me,” she said. “I always knew I was going to major in bio and this is a great school for bio, so that was a very big factor for me.”

Matsuhara smiles and says, “It’s worked out well for both parties.”

No argument there. Hatcher, a three-time All-Sierra League selection who had a 3.93 grade-point average at Diamond Bar High, is starting at the shooting guard spot for the 4-1 Anteaters and is averaging four points and one steal.

Matsuhara wasn’t projecting her as an immediate starter when she recruited her, but she got a real good feeling about Hatcher’s potential during preseason conditioning workouts when all the players had to run a timed mile.

“Princess couldn’t run with the group because she had class, so [assistant] Mark [Adams] took her out later and she ran it by herself,” Matsuhara said. “When he told me her time, I laughed and said, ‘No, really. What was her time?’ ”

Adams wasn’t kidding. Hatcher had put her teammates to shame with a time of 6 minutes 5 seconds. Matsuhara knew Hatcher had been a sprinter at Diamond Bar High, but was unaware that she also ran on the cross-country team.

“I played basketball and did cross-country and track all four years in high school, so I’m used to going from sport to sport and showing up for basketball in good shape,” Hatcher said. “My mom wants me to run track here and I know I’m going to be bored during the spring quarter, but I’m going to concentrate on basketball.”

Apparently, she’s already doing a good job of that. Despite her freshman status, she has had a calming, steadying effect on the team when she’s in the game.

“Princess has been a very pleasant surprise,” Matsuhara said. “She works hard, has a great attitude and plays within herself. She doesn’t try to do anything too fancy. And she has great poise for a freshman.”

Hatcher says her ability to stay calm under pressure is simply a matter of accepting her inexperience and understanding her limitations.

“I never expected to be a starter this soon,” she said. “I guess I didn’t know what to expect. But I realize I’m a freshman and I’m going to make mistakes. I try to remember that and I guess it relaxes me. So when I do make a mistake, I just forget it and go on to the next play. And I always try to make sure I concentrate on my defense.”

The only problem--and this is a problem a lot of coaches would love to have--is that Matsuhara finds herself in a position where she is encouraging a freshman to shoot more.

“She’s got the ability to play some great defense, but we want her to focus on her offense a little more,” Matsuhara said. “I’d like to see her become more of an offensive threat.

“And I’d like to see her take charge out there a little more, be more verbal. By nature, she’s a very quiet person, but we’re working on it.”

Hatcher admits that being a freshman has made it tough for her to feel comfortable being a leader, but she’s determined to please.

“For the first few games, it was really hard, but I’m getting more comfortable with it,” she said. “I’m getting a little more used to calling out plays and stuff.”

Matsuhara says Hatcher’s success has raised the competition in practice because the freshman is “proof to the rest of the team that nothing is set in stone.”

“The other freshmen now know that it’s not just lip service,” Matsuhara says. “If they deserve to start, they’ll start.”

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Who’s who? He was Lamarr Parker-Butler when Irvine recruited him out of Archbishop Molloy High in Briarwood, N.Y., but he decided to drop the hyphen and his mother’s maiden name and simplify it to Lamarr Parker after he became an Anteater.

So, on the roster, the freshman guard is listed as Lamarr Parker.

There’s a hitch, though. The company that made the Anteaters’ new uniforms had an old roster and they decided to drop the Parker and just put Butler on the back of his uniform.

It’s causing a bit of confusion. A reporter who covers Oregon State saw Parker come into the game against the Beavers, looked at his program, then at the roster in Irvine’s media guide and finally turned to a writer who covers the Anteaters.

“OK, I give up,” he said. “Who is that guy?”

And Mark Heller, the play-by-play announcer for a South County cable company that broadcasts Irvine games, asked the same writer the same question--on the air--during the Anteaters’ victory over Eastern Washington. Still, Heller called the Irvine guard “Butler” most of the afternoon.

Parker, however, is quietly making a name for himself. He has been a solid back-up for all-conference point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, playing an average of 10 minutes per game. He has a team-leading five steals, four rebounds and only two turnovers.

“I’ve had confidence in Lamarr since the first day,” Coach Rod Baker said, “and after the first exhibition game, I lost any reluctance to put him in the game.”

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Add name game: She got her name because her mother was so glad to have a girl after three sons, but if Hatcher were to change her first name, could we call her “The player formerly known as Princess”?

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Come on without: Junior transfer Paul Foster, a 6-8 center who had been hampered by an ankle injury much of the early season, is healthy and beginning to impress.

Foster grabbed four rebounds, made four of four shots from the floor and both free throws in 16 minutes of playing time Saturday against Eastern Washington. He’s averaging five points and five rebounds.

Foster, who shot 57% from the field at Moorpark College, appears to be a steady performer who stays within his game.

“Yeah, he’s still feeling out what he can do,” Baker said. “We’d like to see him come out of himself a little.”

Anteater Notes

Cross-country runners Ryan Gauss, Laura Monson, Kay Nekota, Carrie Burman and Wendy Krieger and volleyball player Amy Pimentel were named to the Big West Fall All-Academic team. . . . Water polo players Omar Amr, Robert Allaire and Kevin Kerber were named to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Academic first team. J.P. Mathot was named to the second team and Ofer Horn was an honorable-mention selection.