Praising Caine

Debby Caine couldn’t have life much softer.

She rises in the morning, looks out at the Pacific Ocean glistening across the street from her apartment. Some days, she rides her bicycle to classes at UC Santa Barbara. Other days, when she’s lazy, she drives her car and then uses a skateboard to tool around campus. A beach-blanket-bingo lifestyle.

The flip side? Well, Caine couldn’t have had things much harder.

Try replacing a local legend as point guard for the Gaucho women’s basketball team. Do that after the team’s top player, one of the best in the nation, left school. Walk onto the court knowing that every other Big West Conference team thinks the Gauchos can be beaten, finally. That sea of turmoil could have pulled them under this season.

“I know everyone said we were going to have a down year,” Caine said. “It was just different for us. In the past, we used to win every Big West game, blowing teams out. But in the end, this may be the best season we have ever had.”

Caine, a graduate of San Clemente High School, can take the lion’s share of credit for the Gauchos’ success.

Only a sophomore, she refused to let the Gauchos slip. Caine led the conference in assists and has been a steady scorer when needed. But it is her leadership qualities that pushed the Gauchos to another title.

Another banner took a little work for a change, but they won their sixth consecutive Big West title and are still favorites to win the conference tournament, which begins today at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Certainly the immediate future looked more wilted than rosy back in November.

Point guard Stacy Clinesmith, three times a first-team all-conference selection, was with Sacramento in the WNBA. Kristi Rohr, the Gauchos’ career scoring leader, also had graduated.

The exodus continued. Erin Buescher, three-time Big West player of the year and two-time All-American, transferred to The Master’s College in September. Syretta Coleman, a high school All-American who was supposed to challenge Caine for the point guard spot, left the team because of personal reasons after two games.

Filling those holes in their lineup took time and effort.

“I thought they would lose games they haven’t lost in the past,” UC Irvine Coach Mark Adams said. “Clinesmith, Rohr and Buescher were the ones who took the bull by the horns and got things done.”

The linchpin is Caine, who spent last season as Clinesmith’s understudy.

“She’s efficient,” Adams said. “She’s just not flashy.”

Caine hardly stands out around campus, riding her orange Schwinn that “goes a little slower than other bikes.” She fell in love with the campus because of its proximity to the beach.

But it was the indoor sport that sealed the deal. Her surfboard, after all, stays in storage until after basketball season.

“This place just felt right,” said Caine, an all-state selection as a senior at San Clemente. “My brother went here. The coaches seemed to really care. And I do love the beach.”

The situation was right, too. After a year backing up Clinesmith, Caine would step into the starting lineup. Or so went the plan.

That changed when Coleman entered the picture. She, along with 6-foot-8 center Lindsay Taylor and 6-4 forward Jessica Combs, led Chandler High School to back-to-back Arizona state titles. All three signed with the Gauchos.

Caine had a challenger before she had the job.

“Nothing like having an All-American point guard coming in to make someone work hard,” Gaucho Coach Mark French said. “Debby expected to have a battle for the job. She worked so hard during the summer. But she always works hard.”

Caine had won the starting job by the time Coleman left the team.

Naturally, there were comparisons to Clinesmith, who had guided the Gauchos to 108-20 record during her four seasons. Santa Barbara finished 30-4 last season and was ranked ninth nationally.

That success became more difficult to match when Buescher left.

Caine, though, didn’t press. She knew she was not like Clinesmith as a player and refused to let others make her a round peg jammed into a square hole.

“There were confidence issues, whether I could fill her shoes,” Caine said. “But we are two different type of players. Stacy was very emotional and she loved to shoot the ball. I think we impact the team differently. It was more like the team had to adapt.”

Said French: “I asked Debby to only compare herself to the vision she had of herself as a player and not to Stacy.”

Others handled that, especially after the Gauchos started slowly. They had a 4-5 record in mid-December, something unheard of at Santa Barbara in the last decade.

Their string of 49 consecutive conference victories ended with a loss to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Feb. 9. Two nights later, Irvine ended the Gauchos’ 34-game home winning streak.

Those, though, were mere speed bumps. The Gauchos won their last five conference games to overtake Long Beach and Pacific and win the title.

Caine’s on-the-job training was slow. She had been the focal point and leader in high school. But learning to do that on the Division I level took time.

“Last season, Stacy was on the floor at the end of games,” Caine said. “If you’re not out there, you can’t process a lot. I had to learn what it takes at the end of games, who to go to and who not to go to.”

That took some time, and a few ruffled egos.

“She had to learn to modify her way of talking,” French said. “You really need 12 different leadership styles for 12 different players. Some you can eyeball-to-eyeball with, some you need to be a little more subtle.”

Caine was obviously in charge on the court, especially after the Gauchos won the Arizona State tournament in early December.

She had a career-high 10 assists in the victory over Arizona State in the title game.

“That was a tough game and Debby was very much in control,” French said.

And she has been since.

“This is just playing basketball,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for ages.”

Which to Caine is just a day at the beach.