Leapin’ Wizard

Hi, I’m Marek Ondera. I play on the UC Irvine men’s basketball team. Yes, we have a team. Please come watch us tonight. I can leap with the best of them and I will jump through hoops to get you to come see us play.

Seems a power forward’s work is never done.

It was the day before Irvine played St. Mary’s, not that many students were aware of the game. Ondera was doing his best to enlighten them.

He was cruising the campus in a golf cart with teammate J.R. Christ, Marketing Director Blake Sazaki and Peter the Anteater, Irvine’s mascot. They were handing out fliers about the game and asking--begging?--students to attend.

Suddenly Sazaki shouted, “Come to the game and watch Ondera dunk!”

As if there weren’t enough pressure.

“Ah, that’s to be expected . . . I guess,” said Ondera, a 6-foot-7 senior.

“You can get the crowd into it with dunks. I know my teammates love it, the fans love it, the kids love it. It does a lot for other people. To me, it’s a bucket.”

Still, Ondera obliged. He displayed his exceptional leaping ability with three dunks Saturday in a 67-59 victory over St. Mary’s.

His teammates loved them. The fans loved them. The kids in the audience--recruited from local junior high schools and enticed with free tickets--loved them.

College basketball may be a game elsewhere. At UC Irvine, it’s work, work, work.

Ondera has found that out, whether he’s getting the team a bucket or helping the program turn a buck. He shoulders it, even with a back that tends to creak from time to time.

His teammates look to him for leadership. Irvine students look at him and must ask, “Who’s the big guy sitting next to the nut in the Anteater costume?”

“That’s part of the team role,” Ondera said. “Around here, you don’t get the greatest turnouts, so you’ve got to do a little extra.

“We passed out fliers with discounts to the bookstore. I think that helps. Either that or we can throw in a free organic chemistry book to any student who comes to the game.”

Organic Chemistry Book Night? You’ve got to know your audience.

“That would appeal to some people,” Ondera said. “That’s the mystery of UC Irvine.”

It’s no mystery that Irvine has won 16 games in the last three seasons. That seems to be changing slowly. The Anteaters are 3-2 after beating St. Mary’s.

Ondera deserves a large portion of the credit for the early-season success. He is a marketing director’s dream. He has that hey dude appearance--sandals, hemp necklace, etc.--and a sharp wit. He also, as Coach Pat Douglass puts it, “thinks he can jump out of the gym.”

He seems to come close.

Against St. Mary’s, Ondera helped fuel a key 9-2 run with a flying dunk on a fast break just before halftime. In the second half, he went baseline--with St. Mary’s 7-3 center Brad Millard lurking--and put down a two-hand jam.

“Whatever his secret is, I want to know,” guard Zamiro Bennem said. “He has to pass it down before he leaves. I want to be in on it.”

More talk about dunks. Ondera does get a little weary of it. He would rather not be a sideshow act.

Still, if it puts fannies in the seats. . . .

When Ondera outjumped Millard for the opening tip, the crowd seemed to gasp, then cheered.

“I did notice that,” said Ondera, who played two seasons at Mira Costa Community College. “If it gets the people hyped up, then I’m all for it.

“But I would rather talk about the team. . . . I would trade all those dunks in for wins any day.”

How many the Anteaters get this season--and they already have half as many as a season ago--depends a great deal on Ondera.

A year ago, he was a somewhat scrawny, 190-pound forward, who thought his leaping ability was all he needed to soar in the Big West Conference. He was mistaken.

Irvine finished 6-20. Ondera averaged 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds, but needed time to adjust his game to the Division I level.

He finally found his niche and averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds in the final four games. His high-wire act wasn’t enough. Irvine lost 14 consecutive games before winning its season finale.

“We needed to regain our confidence,” Ondera said. “Last season, it got to a point where we needed to start over and build it up again. The off-season provided that.”

That’s not all that was built up during the off-season. Ondera added 25 pounds and bulked up his expectations as well.

“I think things are 10 times better than last year,” Ondera said. “There is just a different feeling in the air. I love that. I kind of feed off it.”

The Anteaters, in turn, feed off Ondera.

“He is kind of the glue that holds this team together,” Douglass said. “He is a senior and he has a lot of experience . . . and he can jump.”

When he’s healthy.

Ondera had 17 points and 12 rebounds against San Diego in the season opener, but struggled the next three games because of back spasms caused by a small bulge in a disk.

It also affected his legs, robbing him of some of his leaping ability.

But Ondera hasn’t complained. Andif there were questions about his health, they seemed answered in the victory over St. Mary’s. He scored 18 points, making six of 11 shots. Three were dunks, two were three-pointers. He also swatted away a Millard shot in the second half.

A crowd pleaser? There was little doubt.

“I like that pressure,” Ondera said. “I want to walk into the sunset with a big load on my shoulders and come out a winner.”