Anteaters Enjoying Glory Days
For long-suffering Anteater fans, it’s a time to savor, a time to stop and smell the standings.
UC Irvine won its conference opener in 1994, the only other time this century the Anteaters have had a share of first place in the Big West. And this time they are 4-2 and tied for first with Nevada.
How good does it feel?
After last year, pretty darn good. In 1995, the Anteaters opened 0-6 and were buried so deep in the standings that a .500 record the rest of the way still left them in eighth place.
“Let’s put it this way, it feels good to go and play for first place,” Coach Rod Baker said.
Thursday night, the Anteaters (7-6 overall) will be in Reno for a showdown . . . and when’s the last time anyone used the word “showdown” and “Anteaters” in the same sentence? Sure, it’s just the seventh game of an 18-game Big West schedule, but for Irvine it offers the opportunity to prove it has more than just talent.
Pacific Coach Bob Thomason says Irvine has three of the conference’s top 10 players--point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, forward Kevin Simmons and guard Brian Keefe--but the Anteaters, 1-5 on the road this season, have yet to strike fear in arenas around the Big West.
“We’ve only played six or seven conference games, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the second half of the season,” Baker said. “But right now, Nevada is the only team in the conference with two wins on the road.”
In fact, Nevada fans might point out that Irvine is only in first place because of the conference schedule. The Anteaters are 4-0 at home and 0-2 on the road. The Wolf Pack is 2-1 at home and 2-1 on the road, including victories at Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara.
“In this conference, first you have to win at home,” Simmons said. “We’ve done that so far. Now it’s time to get our road thing together.”
Irvine lost at Santa Barbara and at Fullerton with listless efforts that raised questions about heart and desire. Then the Anteaters rebounded at home with a defeat of New Mexico State and an inspired victory over UNLV.
They shouldn’t have trouble getting up for Nevada and if they can win in Reno--the site of this year’s postseason conference tournament--it would be a big step for a program always striving to earn respect.
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Anybody home? Despite the on-the-court success, attendance in the Bren Center has been a disappointment to Irvine officials who hoped losing was the only thing standing in the way of sold-out Anteater games.
A decent crowd of 3,527 was on hand for Saturday’s victory over UNLV, but it is puzzling why the 5,000-seat facility isn’t full most nights. It’s in the middle of a quiet campus in America’s safest city. There’s no traffic jams and plenty of parking. Inside, every seat has a good view of the action, which is always unpredictable and usually entertaining.
“A family of four can come watch a basketball game here for less than the price of going to a movie,” said Greg Bistline, associate athletic director. “We keep the prices down because we refuse to let anybody use money as an excuse. We like to say, ‘It’s a fun thing, it’s a family thing, it’s an Anteater thing.’ ”
It still isn’t a very-well-attended thing, however.
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Helping hands: Senior forward Shaun Battle is healthy, fit and having the best season of his career. And junior transfer Paul Foster is learning to look for those unexpected thread-the-needle passes.
The emergence of Battle and Foster has increased the number of targets for Miglinieks, who had been concentrating mostly on Simmons and Keefe earlier in the season. As a result, Miglinieks has had eight or more assists in all but one conference game.
“So much of what Raimonds does is dependent upon what other people do for him,” Baker said. “He’s as good, if not better, than anyone else at what he does, and that is to make other people better.”
Miglinieks, the team’s No. 2 scorer at 15 points per game, averaged only 10 in Irvine’s first three conference games, but he’s averaging 19 in the last three.
“He’s not going to score 25 points every game, that’s not what he does, that’s not the way he looks at the game,” Baker said. “And I would never change him.”
It’s becoming more and more apparent, however, that Irvine needs more than spectacular passes from Miglinieks. Irvine is 1-3 when he scores 11 or fewer points and 3-0 when he scores 19 or more.
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Who’s sorry now? Baker admits to keeping some issues bottled up during his early years as a head coach. He’s still a long way from a screamer, but he usually lets his feelings be known.
“Larry Brown once said, ‘I don’t want to be the only guy who walks out of the gym [angry] today,’ ” Baker said. “There have been times in my past when that might have been the case, but I don’t think it happens much anymore.”
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Anteater Notes
The men’s volleyball team opens Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play Thursday and Saturday, hosting Brigham Young at 7 both nights in Crawford Hall. The Anteaters are off to their best start ever at 5-0. Irvine was 3-0 last season before winning only six of its last 20 games, but Coach Andy Read thinks this year will be different. “I think we have some players who figured out how to play well together,” he said. “We’ve had our lapses, really bad games, but we’ve also proved we can go toe-to-toe with really good teams.” . . . Water polo players Ofer Horn and Omar Amr won swimming events Friday during the men’s swim team’s victory over New Mexico State. Horn won the 50-yard freestyle and Amr the 100 breaststroke. . . . Senior Tamera Thomas quit the team and a knee injury sidelined junior guard Davette Williams, so the women’s basketball team has a freshman and a sophomore starting in the backcourt. In the last eight games, Irvine has committed 20 or more turnovers.