Team Tries to Buoy Baker’s Spirits as Horrid Season Ends

Rod Baker, on the eve of what likely will be his last game as UC Irvine coach, remained upbeat, certain he will retain his job.

The Anteater players, a day from ending--mercifully--the worst season in the program’s history, attempted to prop up their coach.

Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, who soon will make his decision, kept mum, saying he will stick with his original plan of waiting for the season to end.

All these forces converge and mix as this season on the blink goes dark after tonight’s game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Baker could learn his fate early next week. With the Anteaters at 1-24, most see it as a foregone conclusion.

Still, in an effort to keep Baker as coach, the players met with Guerrero for 15 minutes Friday, a parley that had been arranged after freshman Brian Johnson met with Guerrero this week.

“We wanted Mr. Guerrero to know how we felt,” Johnson said. “We think Coach Baker deserves another chance. We feel better because [Guerrero] now knows how the team feels. It’s his team too.”

Guerrero said the meeting was “an open discussion” that was needed.

“I need to make a decision and I like to hear what our student/athletes think,” Guerrero said. “I think we all understand that we’re all on the same team.

“I think they understand what it is I have to do.”

The meeting came a day after the Anteaters’ 79-71 overtime loss to UC Santa Barbara. It was devastating defeat for players and coach. With it, Irvine set a school record for losses. The Anteaters’ 1-24 overall record is one the worst in the nation. BYU, Lehigh and Drake are the only NCAA Division I teams that have only one victory.

The players said afterward that Baker’s situation has been a constant distraction lately. Even Baker seemed to crack a little. After the loss, he hid in the equipment room until the players, as a team, went in and brought him to the locker room, with Johnson cradling a smiling Baker.

Friday, they again attempted to carry him.

“We tried to influence the decision,” freshman guard Juma Jackson said. “We had to get some stuff off our chests because the end is coming to a close.”

Since last spring, there has been speculation that Baker’s contract would not be renewed. Baker even attempted to leave last summer when he pursued the head coaching job at Maine.

Baker, though, has attempted to put a positive spin on everything this season.

After losing to San Francisco to conclude a 0-9 nonconference schedule, Baker said, “If we win the conference, who is going to care if we’re 16-9?” After the Anteaters beat Nevada for their only victory, Baker said, “Getting one win is not our goal here. We want to win the conference.”

This week, Baker said he felt he would keep his job based on the overall quality of the program.

“I don’t think this is the kind of university where it has got to come down to wins and losses,” said Baker, who has a 52-115 record in six seasons at Irvine. “There are a couple other things that go on here and I think we’ve done that.

“Our guys go to class. Our guys do well in school. The men’s basketball program has a positive image in the community. We do an awful lot of things in the community, where people know us and ask for us to be around. So, from that standpoint, I think that we have a positive image as far as representing the university.”

Off the court. On it, things haven’t been so positive.

Last spring, two returning starters and a key reserve transferred. Baker has started three freshmen much of the season, which led to the Anteaters setting a school record for losses.

Irvine hit a new low in the only poll that rates that far down. The Rating Percentage Index ranks the Anteaters 305 out of 307 Division I teams. Only Lehigh and Mercer are ranked below Irvine.

“All I know, each year we got a little better,” Baker said. “And now, because of a couple unforeseen happenings, we kind of went off a little bit. That doesn’t mean a year from now, it doesn’t continue to go upward.”

“Up until right now, it’s been a steady climb upward,” Baker said. “Each year, we won more games than we won the year before. I don’t know if it’s happened at the exact rate where somebody else wanted it to happen. But that’s not my problem. That’s not my focus.”

Baker’s 1993-94 team reached the conference tournament final, but finished 10-20. The Anteaters were 13-16 and reached the conference semifinals the following season.

“I think that, as a staff, we have done as good of a job as can be done,” Baker said. “I think we have a core of players, who during their tenure here, will win a Big West championship.”