As UCI Season Ends, Baker Watch Begins

Rod Baker’s sixth season, and quite possibly his career at UC Irvine was extended by a timeout with 1.4 seconds left Saturday night. He made it brief, then paced, hands on hips and waited.

What can you say in 20 seconds to a team you might never coach again?

“He just told us to keep in the game mentally and to try to steal the inbound pass,” guard Lamarr Parker said. “He was just coaching, like he always does.”

When it was over, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo had survived for an 84-78 victory in front of 2,038 in the Bren Center, Baker looked at the scoreboard. He then shook hands with Mustang players and coaches and walked off the court with his two children.

The clock on his job had started.

Sometime this week Athletic Director Dan Guerrero is expected to make a decision on whether to extend Baker’s contract.

So the Anteaters, who wrapped up last place in the Big West Conference long ago, made one last push for their coach. They came from 13 points down in the final eight minutes and pulled to within, 79-76, with 1 minute 50 seconds left. But Mustang Guard Mike Wozniak hit a scoop shot with one second left on the shot clock and San Luis Obispo made three of four free throws in the last 26 seconds.

End of game, end of season and . . . end of Baker’s Irvine career?

“We wanted to win this game for Coach and ourselves,” said forward Brian Johnson, who had a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds. “We realized at halftime that it was our last half this season. We needed to play hard for 20 minutes.

“We should have had that attitude all year. This year was a lesson and we really learned. Like I said, we wanted to win tonight for Coach and ourselves.”

Baker’s version was that this was another game.

Of course, it was the last game in a season that has seen the Anteaters (1-25, 1-15) lose seven games by 30 or more points--including a 62-point loss to USC and a 50-point loss to Pacific.

“If I had worried about all that other stuff, I wouldn’t have been able to call those great out-of-bounds plays tonight,” said Baker, who is 52-116 at Irvine. “There was no difference tonight.”

Irvine played like the team that wrapped losing streaks of 13 and now 12 games around a victory over Nevada.

San Luis Obispo (14-16, 6-10) finished the first half with a 15-6 run for a 51-40 halftime lead. Irvine fell into its standard traps, mainly turnovers, which led to Mustang runs of 10-0 and 8-0.

Damien Levesque had 19 of his career-high 29 points in the first half. He made 11 of 20 shots and also had 14 rebounds. The Mustangs shot 54.1% in the first half, but cooled off and shot 44.0% for the game. Levesque scored three consecutive baskets early in the second half to push the Mustang lead to 60-42, the largest of the game.

Irvine then rallied.

“It was our last shot, we had to leave everything on the court,” said guard Juma Jackson, who scored 18 points. “It was going to be a long time before we played again.”