With Douglass, UCI Has Game

If Pepperdine and UC Irvine really are as close as the score in Tuesday night’s 50-46 Pepperdine victory at the Bren Center, it’s bad news for the Waves and an almost prematurely bit of good news for the Anteaters.

After all, UC Irvine was ranked 298th by The Sporting News’ preseason college basketball guide, 192 spots below Pepperdine.

That’s quite a different level of expectations for two teams whose records last season weren’t so far apart.

Pepperdine finished 6-21 in 1996-97, its worst record since a 2-24 mark in 1965-66. That happened to be the year UC Irvine played its first season and managed a 15-11 record at the Division II level. It took 32 years for the program to sink to its lowest depth, 1-25 a year ago.

But Pepperdine’s hopes for ‘97-98 are high because a pair of transfers--Jelani Gardner from California and omm’A Givens from UCLA--are eligible to play after sitting out their mandatory year.

The most noticeable difference at Irvine is Pat Douglass, the new coach. I’d take an infusion of new talent over a new coach any time, even if the coach’s name was John Wooden.

The Waves had Pac-10 talent on a West Coast Conference team against the bottom of the Big West Conference. It hardly seemed fair.

The only burden for Pepperdine Coach Lorenzo Romar is that that kind of talent brings pressure. People think the Waves could make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1994. Some think they could win their conference.

“None of that came from me,” Romar noted, and perhaps he knew something the rest of us didn’t.

But if expectations are there, so be it.

“I’d rather have them than not have them,” Romar said.

Except on a night like Tuesday, when there’s everything to lose.

At tipoff and throughout the game, Romar looked as if he were taking a long bus ride to see his in-laws.

He knew little good could come of this. A victory would impress no one, a loss would be a devastating setback.

Douglass’ biggest concern as the game began was finding a place to put his jacket. He tried laying it beside the scorer’s table, thought better of it, then handed it to a manager for safekeeping.

Then he sat back for the ride. This turnaround thing is going to take awhile.

Don’t exert too much energy. No sense worrying. No need to jump for joy with each basket or yank his hair out over a costly turnover.

When Irvine’s Adam Stetson drove for a basket that brought the Anteaters within two with 1:38 remaining, Douglass calmly placed his cup of water down on the table.

Make no mistake though, Douglass was running things. He had a quick hook for center Andrew Carlson. Carlson seemed to spend most of the first half coming up with new ways to commit turnovers, from mindless illegal screens away from the ball to juking himself with a pump fake that caused him to jump off the floor and come back down for a traveling violation.

Carlson just didn’t have it. When he came back to the bench, Douglass couldn’t even bring himself to say anything. It would be like yelling at a penguin for not flying.

But Douglass did have some words for Lamarr Parker, who spent an extended stretch of the second half on the bench. Douglass expects good things from Parker, the team’s leading scorer last year who tried to force too much Tuesday night.

He didn’t want to talk about Parker afterward, choosing instead to focus on the positives. And it’s obvious he won’t lose much sleep over this game, which provided a tantalizing shot at a victory that has been so rare around here lately.

He kept talking about the “major strides” his team made from its first game. The defense held Pepperdine to 37% shooting. The offense had good movement and often got the ball to people in good places, although it also committed a slew of turnovers.

“I said [to the team] I’m as proud of them as if they had won the game,” Douglass said. “They did everything possible within their abilities to win the game.”

Pepperdine, on the other hand, didn’t. Even though Gardner enjoyed a 10-inch height advantage over Irvine’s 5-8 Junior Bond, he didn’t post him up against the man-to-man defense.

Gardner tried to shoot outside shots over him, and missed all four three-pointers and seven of eight shots in all.

Gardner tried to drive by him and was stopped in his tracks by the hustling, helping Irvine defense.

And Givens didn’t touch the ball enough, finishing with seven field-goal attempts and four free throws.

But the Waves played smart when they had to in the final three minutes. They finally showed patience, working the ball around.

Slowing the tempo is a tactic employed by underdogs against superior talent, but sometimes it works for the better team, too. In this case, the longer the Waves had the ball, the better the chances they would find a matchup in their favor. First it was a layup for Tommie Prince. Then it was the deciding basket, a shot jumper by Gerald Brown for a four-point lead with 25 seconds remaining.

Those were cases of good players doing what they were supposed to do. This game was an example of a good coach, Douglass, doing what he is supposed to do: put his outmatched team in a position to win.

He certainly has Romar’s respect.

“You put him in any situation,” Romar said. “and it’s just a matter of time.”

Time happens to be the one luxury Douglass has that Romar doesn’t now. But it’s one thing that couldn’t do him any good Tuesday night.