Anteaters Are Even Starting to Sound Like Winners
They are even sounding like a first-place team around UC Irvine these days.
“There are 16 conference games and we still have a long way to go,” forward Juma Jackson said.
Said Coach Pat Douglass: “We have 12 games left, so every game is a big one for us.”
Said guard Lamarr Parker: “We have to play them,” . . . [all together now] . . . “one game at a time.”
It sure beats losing them one game at a time, as Parker and Jackson know all too well.
Still, as cliche-heavy as the Anteaters have become, it further proves how much things have changed.
A season ago, Irvine finished 1-25, the school’s eighth losing season in the last nine, and many considered the Anteaters to be the worst team in the nation. Now, three consecutive victories have the Anteaters atop the Big West Conference’s Western Division.
The recent success was enough to make Douglass giddy after his team beat Boise State last Thursday, as he giggled through the postgame press conference.
Douglass, who won three NCAA Division II titles at Cal State Bakersfield, was hired last March to put the Anteaters back on their sneakers. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
“There is some satisfaction with what we’ve already accomplished, but I don’t think we’ll have complete closure on last season until we get to the Big West Conference tournament,” Parker said. “Even then, I don’t know if I can ever forget about last season. But we have higher goals now.”
A year ago, players were hoping to save Coach Rod Baker’s job. They came up way short. The talk now is about making the conference tournament, which seems more realistic after victories over New Mexico State, Boise State and Idaho.
This could all halt abruptly, with road games against Pacific and Long Beach State this week. Irvine hasn’t exactly routed anybody, even in victories over Division II Chico State and Sonoma State, and the Anteaters’ one conference loss was to 2-12 North Texas.
Self-confidence, though, is high.
“You can sense more urgency this year,” senior center Wendell Robinson said. “Our goals last year were no goals. Everybody was in it for themselves. This year we have a team goal and we all our going to play our roles to make it happen. We are going to make the conference tournament, then all you have to do is win three games and you go to the NCAA tournament.”
A year ago, Pacific thumped Irvine, 96-46, in Stockton, one of 13 games the Anteaters lost by 20 or more points. The Anteaters (6-8, 3-1 in conference) are back in Stockton tonight and a repeat performance wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility as recently as a month ago.
The Tigers (9-8, 2-2), who have a future NBA first-round draft pick in 7-foot center Michael Olowokandi, were favored to repeat as conference champions when the season began. Irvine, of course, was again favored to bring up the rear. The Anteaters’ cast of players seemed only to support it.
Forward Adam Stetson, the team’s second-leading scorer, was found in the mail. He sent letters to several Division I schools begging for a chance. Walk-on Jason Flowers, now a starting guard, spent last year as a student at UCLA. Three other players signed late last spring, long after the best recruits had been gobbled up.
“In the future, we’ll be more talented,” Douglass said. “But one has to appreciate how hard this group works to get some success.”
There are other reasons as well:
--Players are doing things that previously seemed foreign to them. Against Boise State, the Anteaters got offense from Jackson, who had 10 second-half points, and defense from Parker, who made the key stop in the final seconds.
--The Anteaters now have an inside game, of sorts. The 6-foot-8 Robinson was academically ineligible the first six games and 6-9 Matt Willard missed a month because of mononucleosis. Robinson is averaging 8.1 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds. Willard is coming off his best game of the season (11 points, six rebounds, two blocks).
--Jones, Flowers and guard Malachi Edmond are playing with maturity above what is expected of freshmen. Jones, the team’s leading scorer, scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half against New Mexico State.
--Douglass has shown he can affect games. With Irvine leading by three against Idaho, he called timeout and switched to a zone defense for the first time in the game. The Vandals looked confused and turned the ball over.
He also can motivate.
“At halftime of the New Mexico State game, Coach challenged us,” Stetson said. “There were also a few adjectives involved.”
UCI rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat the Aggies, 62-55, and has not lost since.
“The New Mexico State game showed our players that if they went out and competed to win, that there are chances they can win,” Douglass said.
A year ago, Fresno State’s Jerry Tarkanian, commenting on his tough schedule, said, “I said we’d play anybody, any place, any time. I should have said, we’d play UC Irvine, any place, any time.”
Irvine is no longer a punch line.
“That is a confident team,” Boise State Coach Rod Jensen said. “When you lose enough, you think you’re a loser. Coach Douglass has changed that attitude quickly.”
In October, Douglass, unhappy with his team’s effort in a practice, called them together and told them, “It’s not my fault you’re here. It’s not my fault I’m here. We’re just here. Let’s get to work.”
Irvine practices have become a matter of survival.
“I was watching them one day and some badminton poles had been left just off the court,” Irvine men’s volleyball Coach Charlie Brande said. “The ball bounced over to the poles and I expected play to stop. Five players went after the ball into the poles.”
Such fanaticism has hardened the Anteaters as much as a nonconference schedule that included fourth-ranked Utah, Nevada Las Vegas, Pepperdine and San Francisco.
“We had two-a-days during the Christmas break,” Jackson said. “I got home one day and laid on the side of the coach. The TV was on and all I could do is move my eyes. Luckily, it was something I wanted to watch.”
The payoff seems to have begun.
Irvine held New Mexico State to 27% from the field in the second half. Boise State scored only six points in the final seven minutes. Idaho shot 37% for the game. In all three games, the Anteaters came from behind in the second half.
“Defense is the one thing that a team can do consistently,” Jensen said. “They have made that a high priority.”
The offense? Well, the Anteaters take what they can get.
“We knew our players’ abilities, but we didn’t know their limitations at first,” Douglass said. “Our ability to play offense wasn’t good. When we score some, handle the ball well and don’t get worn down, our defense has been adequate.”
A year ago, Irvine was hoping to get a victory. The hangover has subsided.
The Anteaters ended a 14-game losing streak by beating Chico State in November. They doubled last season’s victory total by beating Portland in mid-December. They ended a 23-game road losing streak in January.
Now they tend to look forward instead of glancing back.
“The only way you get to the national tournament is to get to the league tournament,” Douglass said. “Our goal is to get these young guys to the league tournament this year so they can experience a tournament.
“Along the way, if we’re all of sudden in first place, that’s fine.”
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UCI Rebound
Last season, UC Irvine’s basketball team hit bottom with a 1-25 record. This season, with a new coach and several new players, the Anteaters have gone from last to first in the Big West Conference Western Division. Here’s a look at what a difference a season makes:
STANDINGS THEN AND NOW
1996-97
*--*
Western Division Overall Pacific 4-0 13-1 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 3-1 9-7 Cal State Fullerton 2-2 9-5 UC Santa Barbara 2-2 7-7 Long Beach State 1-3 5-9 UC Irvine 0-4 0-13
*--*
1997-98
*--*
Western Division Overall UC Irvine 3-1 6-8 Pacific 2-2 9-8 Long Beach State 2-2 7-9 Cal State Fullerton 1-3 6-8 UC Santa Barbara 1-3 4-10 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-4 7-9
*--*
Last Season’s Lows
Dec. 4, 1996
Eastern Washington 80
UC Irvine 53
Two days earlier, the Anteaters are routed by Washington State, 91-53, the same day as the worst blizzard in a decade hits Washington. The weather clears in time for them to get smacked by Eastern Washington. Irvine would go on to lose 13 games by 20 or more points.
Dec. 15
USC 107
UC Irvine 45
Loss is second worst in Irvine history, eclipsed only by a 129-57 drubbing by Nevada Las Vegas in 1975 when Irvine was a Division II program.
Jan. 25 1997
Cal State Fullerton 89
UC Irvine 57
Two days after their only win of the season, Anteaters revert to form. Fullerton plays without leading scorer John Williams, who is injured, and goes the first 4 minutes 21 seconds without a point. No matter; it’s the most lopsided score in the 62-game series between the teams.
Feb. 22
Pacific 96
UC Irvine 46
Pacific, playing without its leading scorer, still ends up with largest margin of victory in school history. A week later, with the season mercifully over, Irvine Coach Rod Baker is let go.
This Season’s Highs
Nov. 11, 1997
Pepperdine 50
UC Irvine 46
Pepperdine has big-name transfers Jelani Gardner from Cal and omm’A Givens from UCLA, but score is tied, 42-42, with three minutes left. “I couldn’t have been prouder if we won the game,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass says afterward.
Nov. 21
UC Irvine 74
Chico State 66
OK, it’s a Division II team and Irvine trailed by one with five minutes left. But it matches the previous season’s victory total.
Dec. 23
Nevada Las Vegas 77
UC Irvine 55
Never has a 20-point loss meant so much to the losing team. Irvine is within four with 12 minutes left, then tires. Anteater players talk tough afterward. “I think they thought they were going to come out, throw the ball up and go home,” forward Ben Jones says.
Jan. 10, 1998
UC Irvine 62
New Mexico State 55
Anteaters trail by nine at halftime, rally and end a 23-game road losing streak. It’s only Irvine’s third victory in 21 games against the Aggies and their second victory in 14 games in Las Cruces. Douglass wins understatement award: “This is a great win for our program.”
