Mackey Gets a New Read on Basketball Success

Chelsea Mackey, UC Irvine’s 6-foot-3 sophomore center, doesn’t do everything by the book. Just basketball.

The reading material she works from is “Venus to the Hoop,” an account of the U.S. national team’s preparation for the 1996 Olympics. Mackey treats it like a how-to book, which she used to supplement her summer education in a San Francisco pro-am league.

“When I first saw it, I thought it was a really cheesy title,” Mackey said. “It looked like another condescending book about women playing basketball. Then I started reading it. I would be up at 2 a.m. and I would think, ‘I have to go to sleep. No I can’t, I have to read more.’ ”

Mackey is no longer merely dreaming about being a better player.

Her improvement on the court has certainly come in handy for the Anteaters. When Leticia Oseguera fractured a bone in her left hand last week, Irvine was left with an 18-point, 10-rebound gap in its lineup. Mackey, it seems, is ready to fill at least part of it, if not all.

She had 18 points and eight rebounds in the Anteaters’ 56-43 victory over San Diego in Sunday’s season opener. Both were career highs.

“We could see in the first week of practice that something had clicked,” Coach Mark Adams said. “She was doing all the things we worked on in practice last season, but she was doing them right.”

Her summer spent in the pro-am league, playing against professional, collegiate and international players, certainly paid off. But her reading helped too.

Mackey underlined key passages from “Venus to the Hoop” and brought the book with her to school this fall. It has been handy reference material.

“It takes you from their first practice up to the gold-medal game,” Mackey said. “I couldn’t believe how hard they worked and how much they ran. I have inspirational things highlighted, a lot of quotes from [Stanford Coach] Tara VanDerveer.”

The Anteaters, though, needed more than inspiration when Oseguera was injured. They needed points. Mackey, who averaged 4.5 points and 3.1 rebounds, had a moment of terror, wondering if more was going to be asked from her.

“At first, I went, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to be looking to me and the other post players more,’ ” she said. “But the first thing Coach Adams said was, ‘You guys don’t need to worry about the points, you need to worry about the rebounds.’ ”

Mackey got the rebounds, including five off the offensive boards on Sunday. She also made eight of 15 shots. Mackey scored 10 points in the first six minutes of the second half, turning a 29-25 halftime deficit into a 37-31 UCI lead.

“She came back a different person,” Oseguera said. “She has always been real upbeat and took a leadership role. When we’re down in practice, Chelsea is the one who is picking us up. But her offensive skills are a lot better. She’s scoring like a madwoman. I don’t know what she did during the summer.”

Nothing really. Just read a book.

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Mackey wanted to improve, but spending the summer sweating in a gym wasn’t the most appealing vacation.

“At first I was little worried, I wanted to enjoy my summer,” Mackey said. “But I’m really glad I did it. Besides, every weekend in San Francisco is not a bad thing.”

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Megan Stafford, Irvine’s eclectic point guard, wore a stud pierced through her tongue during Sunday’s game. NCAA rules, apparently, only cover visible jewelry.

“She started clicking it on her teeth during timeouts late in the game,” Adams said.

It was the only thing clicking for Stafford, who was one for 11 from the field and missed 10 consecutive shots.

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Irvine faces Utah, which won the Western Athletic Conference’s Mountain Division last season, Friday in Salt Lake City. The Utes feature Alli Bills and Julie Krommenhoek, one of the top back-court tandems in college basketball.

Bills averaged 7.6 assists to lead the nation last season. Krommenhoek was second in the nation in three-pointers, averaging 3.3.

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The Anteater men’s team has an even bigger challenge in Salt Lake City, where it plays 16th-ranked Utah Saturday. True, the Utes no longer have All-American Keith Van Horn, but plenty of size and talent remains, including 6-11 center Michael Doleac.

Andrew Carlson, a 6-10 center, is Irvine’s only available player taller than 6-7, and he has two points and five rebounds in three games. Matt Willard, a 6-9 junior, is out at least two more weeks with mononucleosis.

“We seem to play better against bigger teams,” Coach Pat Douglass said. “They have to come out and chase us on the offensive end.”

On the other end, however, it gets a little rough. Douglass has been using Ben Jones and Adam Stetson, both 6-7 perimeter players, as the Anteaters’ muscle. Those two may find it easier to scale the Rockies than handle Utah’s formidable frontline.

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The Anteaters received a size boost this week when Douglass allowed Wendell Robinson, a 6-8 senior, to begin practicing. Robinson, who averaged 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds last season, is academically ineligible for the fall quarter.

He could be eligible to play Dec. 13 against San Diego State.

Anteater Notes

Michelle Wong, a 5-11 outside hitter from North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake High, said she has orally committed to play at Irvine. Wong was a first-team All-Southern Section Division III selection as a junior. . . . Gwen Loud has resigned as assistant track coach, effective Jan. 1. Coach Vince O’Boyle has brought in former Anteater cross-country coach Larry Knuth, John Gramber and Len Blutreich as assistants.

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Coming Attractions

A look at key upcoming games for UC Irvine:

* Men’s basketball plays at 16th-ranked Utah 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

* Women’s basketball plays at Utah 6 p.m. Friday and hosts Fairfield 1 p.m. Sunday in the Bren Center.

* Water polo faces third-seeded Stanford 10:30 a.m. Friday at Belmont Plaza in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament. Irvine, which has lost to the Cardinal twice by one goal this season, is the sixth-seeded team.