It’s Not Must-See TV, but It Is Entertaining

First an explanation. This was not an easy decision to make, to spend an evening checking out NCAA Division I Orange County basketball.

Because, and could the Big West take note, playing conference games on Thursday means that attending the first half of UC Irvine against Pacific and the second half of Cal State Fullerton against Long Beach State means sacrificing the best night of TV viewing.

That means no “Friends,” “Frasier” and “ER,” where there are only three more episodes with George Clooney, who, by the way, might have been able to start for Pacific or Irvine if reports of his high school talent back in Augusta, Ky., are correct.

But if this quest to discover was not quite as momentous as, say, Lewis and Clark traveling to Oregon with only a compass, it was still illuminating.

For the ultimate discovery turns out to be this: You truly travel between two different basketball worlds in the 21-mile journey between the campuses. OK, except that the hot dogs aren’t so great at either place, so dine beforehand or afterward. Got it?

So here goes, a basketball travelogue to be reprised at your own risk.

6:40 p.m.: Pull into the parking garage next to UC Irvine’s Bren Center and immediately park on the first level. No line, no problem and one question:. What is that pounding noise that sounds like barrels of oil being dropped from the top of a skyscraper?

6:50 p.m.: This seems like such a nice place to watch college basketball. Clean and shiny. Plenty of comfortable chair-back seats. Most of them are empty. Could this be the perfect place to study? Quiet, roomy, lots of space to spread out and concentrate.

7:05 p.m.: Tip-off.

7:08 p.m.: A creeping feeling of sympathy for Jerry Green. The Anteater freshman guard, so quick and so instinctive with the ball, so swift and sure with his shot, so many times seems to be a quarter of the court ahead of his teammates.

Green will have brought the ball up the court and begun looking for teammates, who are all trudging up the court at half of Green’s speed. So Green must screech to a stop and wait. And wait. And wait.

7:12 p.m.: Pacific has three guards with receding hairlines. Players on both teams have highlights in their hair. Forget shoe contracts, Pacific needs a team Hair Club for Men contract. Perhaps a Clairol contract too.

7:20 p.m.: Green keeps making three-pointers and UC Irvine is creeping ahead.

7:30 p.m.: There is so little atmosphere here. The student fans don’t do much en-masse cheering. There seems, instead, to be a contest for the best one-liners.

Example: “Hey, Davis, stop talking to your teammates and look over here. Put on some socks.” Pacific guard Nathan Davis can’t help but look. The voice is the only sound in the gym. And, yes, that was the best one-liner of the first half. Perhaps some en-masse cheering wouldn’t be a bad idea.

7:40 p.m.: Every time Clay McKnight, the Pacific guard who played at UCI and therefore considered a traitor, touches the ball he is booed. Might have seemed like a good idea. But McKnight ends up with 16 points and is Pacific’s leading scorer.

7:58 p.m.: Anteaters rush off the floor at halftime leading, 32-28. There are some raised fists and lots of adrenaline. Which must have disappeared somehow at halftime.

8:00 p.m.: Off to catch the second half of Cal State Fullerton vs. Long Beach State. Foolishly think this trip can be made in 15 minutes. Ha! Up Jamboree to the 5 to the 57 to Nutwood to State College to the parking lot and into the gym.

8:35 p.m.: Rush into the gym (don’t need a ticket, don’t need a pass, the door is wide open so for further reference you can watch the second half of Fullerton games for free), just in time to see that Long Beach is leading, 45-36, with 10:31 left.

But then Kenroy Jarrett (the only Titan in the media guide with a smile on his face) swishes a three-pointer and Ike Harmon slams down a rebound and then Harmon drops in a little jumper and the score is 45-43.

The noise bounces off the walls. There is enthusiasm but not so many chair-back seats. The Fullerton pep band has a nice, big-band swing sound. This game is moving at a different speed. It would be nice to see Jerry Green over here.

What time is it now?

Who knows?

This game has become too much fun to look at a watch.

Postgame reports indicate that the first half of this matchup was horrible. Would have made James Naismith roll over in his grave. Set the game back centuries.

But who cares about that now? Baskets are being exchanged. There is running and dunking. Harmon has a shot rim out at the buzzer to end regulation, so there is overtime. The noise continues, grows. The gym grows a little steamy, the emotions of the crowd generating heat as Fullerton went on to upset Long Beach in overtime.

It turns out that about 500 more people attended the Irvine-Pacific game and yet the atmosphere at Fullerton was so much more rollicking.

The gym might have been less tidy but the pace and closeness of the game made the experience rewarding. Jerry Green would have loved it.

Oh, and it turned out that Irvine blew an 11-point lead and suffered a dispiriting loss.

Which might be the best part about traveling between two schools.

If you play your cards right, you only see the very best.

And guess what? You can try it tonight. UC Irvine hosts Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton hosts Pacific.

Just don’t eat the hot dogs. And pick your halves with care.

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.