Baker Is Taking the Anteaters’ Latest Upheaval in Stride

Rod Baker recently said there was nothing about his job he didn’t like. He was willing to admit that some aspects were more work than vocation, but insisted there was no part that he didn’t enjoy on some level.

After the last week, however, the UC Irvine men’s basketball coach may have to amend that.

His best player and one of his greatest recruiting coups--Brooklyn native Kevin Simmons--said Tuesday he would definitely not return to Irvine this fall. Brian Keefe, his next best player--the one no one else was smart enough to offer a scholarship--is shopping around for a place to transfer. And Tchaka Shipp, a medical redshirt Baker was counting on to return to form, was academically dismissed from school and won’t be back.

Forget the Big West and District 15 coach of the year honors and the daydreams of how it’s going to be for the next two years with Simmons and Keefe dominating a league they already had starred in as freshmen and sophomores.

Start thinking about building a team around senior center Dan Augulis (who averaged two points and two rebounds last season), point guard Lamarr Parker (one point and less than half an assist), guard Clay McKnight (five points), and forward Paul Foster, who started six games and averaged seven points and six rebounds.

Clearly, it has been a difficult period, but Baker is reacting with his typically stoic, stuff-happens philosophy.

“You know me, I just don’t get too wrapped up in negatives and positives,” he said Wednesday. “Hey, the glass is half full. We’re OK. First, neither [Simmons nor Keefe] is gone. At this point, they’re looking at other options, but both are in school attending classes. I’m not trying to harbor any false illusions, but it’s just not done yet.

“Look, I’m in a tough situation because there are some things that appear one way, but I’m not at liberty to go into them.”

In Keefe’s case, that probably means Baker doesn’t want to bad-mouth the Big West, a conference Keefe may have outgrown. Keefe is from Winchester, Mass., and probably wouldn’t mind playing closer to home--in a big-time college basketball atmosphere--somewhere in the Big East for example.

“Brian is in a situation where I think he’s looking to be a little closer to home,” Baker said. “His parents love to watch him play and they have seen him a great deal over the past two years, but it’s obviously been a strain.”

Baker refused to comment about Simmons, which only adds to speculation that the former conference freshman of the year is struggling academically; a student-athlete’s academic records are protected by strict confidentiality rules.

But if Simmons is worried about losing his eligibility, why not transfer to a school with a less rigorous academic regimen and sit out the same year he would have sat out at Irvine?

And a player-coach rift between Simmons and Baker seems unlikely. Simmons has said he chose Irvine over a number of big-name schools because he believed Baker really cared for his players. “A lot of these other coaches really don’t care what happens off the court,” he said last season, “but Coach Baker checks up on you and makes sure everything is OK.”

Tuesday, Simmons waved off a suggestion he had changed his opinion, saying, “me and Coach Baker are cool. This is about personal reasons.”

As for Baker, he’s taking the high road. Actually, Wednesday afternoon he was taking the freeway, south to San Diego to visit a recruit.

“Ours is a place that a lot of people have some interest in, for one reason or another,” he said from his car phone. “Sometimes you talk to some very good players who are interested, but maybe you already have very good players in those positions. Well, now you go back to that list and find out where guys are. That’s what I’m in the process of doing now.”

Baker, who originally was looking for a big man and a point guard, is now seeking more than a few good men. But he says he’s not going to panic and sign a slew of community college transfers.

“We’re going to try and bring in whichever guys we think will make us better,” he said, “and I think there are enough guys out there that we can recruit who can make us a good team. Some of those guys have been in junior college and some are finishing their high school career.”

Two players--Brian Johnson, a 6-foot-6 forward from Bellflower St. John Bosco High who averaged 22 points and 15 rebounds last season, and Phil Negrette, a 6-5 swingman from Gardena High--have signed letters of intent to play at Irvine.

“I thought both of them would get some time as freshmen, anyway,” Baker said. “Now, maybe they’re in a situation where they’ll get a little more.”

Baker also has two assistants to hire, after parting ways with Maz Trakh and Mike McIlwain last month.

“I’ll get to that when I get done recruiting,” Baker said. “I wasn’t prepared to bring anyone in right away anyway. And then the recruiting took on a little more urgency.”