Men’s basketball: UCI opens second season

Barry Faulkner

PROVO, Utah - Despite winning or sharing the last two Big West

Conference men’s basketball titles, few outside the Bren Events Center

have championed the UC Irvine cause for national recognition.

Even with four-year standout Jerry Green, one of 48 players to receive

honorable mention in Tuesday’s Associated Press All-American selections,

elevating the program’s visibility, there were no cries of outrage when

yet another NCAA Tournament snub followed a 20-11 campaign.

Instead, Coach Pat Douglass, his staff and his players, sweat well

into Sunday evening, before learning they would visit Brigham Young

University for tonight’s opening round of the National Invitation

Tournament. Tipoff is 6:05 PST at the Marriott Center.

So, tonight, the Anteaters, winners in two of their three previous NIT

openers and boasting back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in

the program’s 37-season history, will attempt to creep more conspicuously

into the consciousness of NCAA decision makers against a 17-11 BYU team

still trying to restore a proud tradition of its own.

“We’re excited about getting a chance to continue and about playing a

school with some tradition,” Douglass said. “We’re still one of the

select few teams in the country (89 following Wednesday’s NIT games)

still playing.”

To continue playing, the Big West co-champions, who finished the

season splitting their final 10 games, will have to overcome the Cougars’

35-game winning streak, the nation’s best.

“(The Cougars) are really tough at home, but we feel we can go on the

road and play with anyone,” said Douglass, whose squad ended Utah State’s

31-game home winning streak Jan. 10 in Logan, thanks to a 12-foot Jerry

Green fadeaway jumper that just beat the buzzer.

BYU, on a three-game losing streak, is making its third straight

postseason appearance under fifth-year coach Steve Cleveland, a UCI

graduate who was the basketball team’s MVP his senior season (1975-76).

“It has been an interesting year,” Cleveland said. “We’ve had some

really good wins, but we didn’t finish as strongly as we’d have liked

(including a first-round exit in the Mountain West Conference

Tournament). We lost seven seniors and four starters, who accounted for

all our scoring and rebounding last season. We went into this season

knowing depth would be a concern and that has proved to be right. We’ve

basically had five or six guys play the whole year. We’re kind of

gathering energy and excitement about a new season and I think we’ll be

excited (tonight). But my biggest question is whether we can sustain it

for 40 minutes.”

If there is also a question about how the altitude (4.553 feet) will

affect the Anteaters, Douglass doesn’t acknowledge it.

“We don’t even talk about it,” he said.

Douglass expects a strong defensive effort from the Cougars, who have

also impressed him with their shooting.

Cleveland said he expects a strong challenge from the Anteaters.

“Irvine has a very good team and, certainly, Jerry Green is a special

player,” Cleveland said. “But he isn’t the only one.”

Green, a 6-3 point guard, is UCI’s career scoring leader (1,981

points) and is averaging 20.6 per game this season. The two-time Big West

Player of the Year, needs 27 points to pass former UNLV star Freddy Banks

and move into the No. 5 spot in Big West scoring annals.

Adam Parada, a 7-foot sophomore center, is averaging 12.4 points and

7.0 rebounds, while shooting nearly 58% from the field. He is also coming

off a sterling Big West Tournament, in which he averaged 17.5 points and

9.5 rebounds in two games.

UCI also features 6-5 junior forward Jordan Harris, who comes in

averaging 12.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.

BYU has three scorers averaging double figures, led by 6-6 junior

Travis Hansen (15.3 ppg), a second-team All-Mountain West selection who

also leads the team in rebounding (6.4).

Mark Bigelow, a 6-7 sophomore, is averaging 14.8 points, while 6-9

senior Eric Nielsen chips in 10.4.

Senior point guard Matt Montague averaged 7.1 assists, which ranks No.

7 nationally, and he recently surpassed former Cougar great Danny Ainge

to become the schools all-time assist leader.

Jared Jensen, a 6-9 forward-center who shared Mountain West Freshman

of the Year honors, averages just better than nine points per game.

Tonight’s winner advances to meet either Memphis (22-9) or

UNC-Greensboro (20-10) either Monday or Tuesday night at a site to be

determined.