If this sounds like a home game where UCI manages to grab victory
from the jaws of defeat in front of a very vocal and supportive crowd,
then you'd be wrong. This game happened on the road at one of the
toughest Big West arenas. Yes, UCI rallied from a 17 point deficit
with less than 14 minutes remaining to win on the road against an equally
good Pacific team. Pacific, mind you, was favored by four
according to Sagarin, and by up to seven on the street. The
Orange County Register captured some of the significance of this game in its recap:
UC Irvine's 85-80 victory over Pacific on
Saturday gives evidence that there's a hint of magic to these Anteaters.
UCI (9-2, 1-0) rallied from a 57-40 deficit with 13:46 remaining and won
its Big West Conference opener at the Spanos Center. From Aras
Baskauskas to Stanislav Zuzak, the Anteaters never gave up.
"No, they don't," UCI coach Pat Douglass said of his team's
never-say-die attitude. "We're a pretty resilient team."
UCI improves its record to 9-2, shows it can rally from near
death, and that it is indeed a force to be reckoned with. While the
box score shows that UCI wins by 5, which by itself does not seem to be
that big of a deal, the way they came back and the way then won it portends
good things in the days ahead. First, Irvine seems to be getting
better with every game. Second, UCI played without Dave Korfman, who
just underwent brain surgery after falling and is out indefinitely.
Thirdly, this game showed that there is almost always hope, and that the
team should never, if ever, give up.
Message Board Chatter
After the game, numerous posters posted messages on the UCI
SportsOnly message board. Sean F writes:
Wow, what a game. Parada did have the
good game he needed, but J.R. Christ was the welcome and unexpected
surprise that may have got us the win tonight. While we should all be
horribly concerned at our propensity for terrible starts to second
halves (a 19-0 run? what the hell was that?), coming back from down 17
on the road against a very good Pacific team is an unimaginably positive
way to start the conference season. We are well on our way to a 20 win
season now - and while it IS still too early to start talking
postseason, it's the perfect time to start talking about at least the
possibility of a Big West championship. Utah State may be the class of
the conference, but they didn't look so good tonight, and that's great
for us. Way to go Eaters, and let's keep this win streak alive.
UHCOAnteater responds:
The Anteaters can definitely achieve a 20 win
season if they play like they did tonight...with heart and mental
toughness. Best road game I ever heard since the St. John tournament,
now lets pack the Bren and show our support for this team!
Poster RadioHost writes:
This is not only a great win, but one of
the greatest come backs I can remember since I began following the
Eaters in '86. In years past, after falling behind by 17, I would have
turned the radio off (I'm glad I didn't). I always thought that we were
cursed ('88 losing to Utah St. in B.W. Finals, going to the finals in
L.V. as the 10 seed, only to lose to NMSU, and the one that crushes me
the most, losing to SJSU with, at that time, our best team ever
(Raimonds, Simmons etc.). But this is a different year and a different
team. This team has an incredible will to win and finally, things are
going our way. I had a conversation once with Todd Lee and he says that
the 2 toughest places to play in conference are Utah St. and Pacific. I
am so excited to pull one off up there. I am so proud of this team. It
is a shame that the pre and post game show may not be on this year. I
have been waiting for a year like this where we could have had the lines
lit up with all of you diehards calling to discuss a great victory, as opposed
to another disappointing loss. I am glad that we have Dr.
Carden's message board for the legion of die hard fans to gather.
JoeG responds to RadioHost:
I agree about the pre and post radio show
-- What gives? KUCI will not allow it or what?
Such a tremendous win -- tomorrow will be
a 2-paper Sunday($3.00). Again, I never remember in my UCI lifetime
(spanning from 1980) when UCI came roaring back from such a deficit on
the road! It would've been a great game to watch -- Sean must have
played stellar "D" against McLemore, Green undoubtedly was
unstoppable, JR Christ played phenomenal on the 0-boards, Jones with so
many clutch shots, 3 pt daggers by Green, Jones(2 in the 2nd half),
Sean(2 in the 2nd half) and Stan Z. Pat et.al. must be feeling pretty
fine tonite!
To RadioHost I responded:
I agree with most of this and am
absolutely amazed with the outcome of this game. One nit I must pick is
that I don't think the (Raimonds, Simmons) team of 94/95 was our best
ever. I reserve that honor for one of three Mulligan teams -- Kevin Magee's
team of 81/82, Ben MacDonald's team of 83/84, and Tod
Murphy/Johnny Roger's team (the one that beat UNLV twice and UCLA on the
road in Pauley) of 85/86 as the three best teams.
Now it is time for us to pack the Bren.
This team is for real and we need to spread the word. Come on sports
Marketing...now is your chance to shine.
RadioHost responded to me:
Dr. Carden, you are correct! We have had
better teams, but I felt that team was a lock to gain us our berth into
the NCAA tournament. Everything was playing out in the Anteaters favor as
CSULB (who was a favorite to win it that year) lost in the earlier game.
I remember looking towards the B.W. Conference finals when we had the
lead deep into the second half over SJSU and how I would rush the court
after our victory. Well, Olivier St. Jean killed us that night, and I
have hated him ever since.
I responded to that:
Yep, I was there. The Band was really
into it, and we thought for sure we would make it to the finals. For us
to lose to the 6th place seed was devastating. We all got pretty drunk
that night. I can still remember that SJSU band taunting us at the end
of the game...
Finally, in a response which captures a lot of our
feelings toward the end of the message, RadioHost responded to JoeG:
Joe from F.V., you are amazing! I get
both papers after any Anteater Victory as well. (I also get it before
big games to find out the spread). As far as the pre and post game show,
there is still a slight chance. It has nothing to do with KUCI not
supporting us, but my partner and I have to try to work out something
with them that will work with the scheduling and the coverage of the
station. The first year of our show, we had an engineer that was a die
hard Eater fan that set up all of the KUCI equipment. He would rotate
our live post game broadcasts from the Anthill pub, Steelhead and
Trocadero. Without him, we are lost. Last year we would have to rush
back to the station before home games ended to do our show, which was no
fun. However, I am a big believer of karma and I am very superstitious.
When UCI went on their run in L.V., my wife and all of my friends sat in
the exact same seating arrangement each game and at the UCLA game
earlier this year, I switched seats at the half (we all know what
happened in the early minutes of the second half) and the Eaters did not
recover until the seating arrangements were back the way the were in the
first half. Each and every year, I go out and buy every major college
basketball publication and study up for the upcoming season and enter
the year with so much excitement. Each and every year, I tell tell my
co-host that "This is going to be our year", only to have my
heart ripped out. My dream is to have a live remote broadcast from the
NCAA tournament from the East or Southeast regional and that is what
kept us going each year. I wanted the Eaters to do so well, it hurt. My
fear is that if we start doing the show now that they are playing
awesome, we will experience bad karma, things will start going bad and I
will have my heart ripped out again.
And so it is. You see, a lot of us have been
hanging around for some time, waiting for that magical year when we would
turn it around. Six years ago, UCI under Rod Baker seemed to be finally
breaking out during the Miglinieks and Simmons year (95/96), then the
following year the team won only one game. Douglass took over, and
the team won 9 games. Two years ago, I expected us to have a winning
season, with last season being the breakout year. Instead, we won
our first game of Big West play against North Texas, then lost every game
until the last game against Cal Poly. Ouch. That about killed
all of us faithful, effectively ripping all of our hearts out. Last
year, we all watched waiting for it to happen again, and even though we
did finish the season 14-14, most of it was very frustrating to
watch. Now, with us standing 9-2, many of us are waiting for our
bubble to burst, and for us to once again return to those bad old
days. Maybe, just maybe, we are past all of that, and maybe, we are
returning to the days when we expect the team to win, not lose.
Upcoming Games
UCI should return home as conquering heroes. The
Athletic department should take advantage of this by first hyping it up to
the max among the students, and getting as many of them to come to the next
three home games. First up is Idaho, a team which has fallen upon
hard times. The next game is UCSB. I would love to see the
arena packed with 4000 UCI fans to counterbalance the expected 1000 UCSB
fans. Finally, the next game after that is a home game against a
good Boise State team. We can certainly win all three of these, and
maybe, just maybe when we hit the road, we may find ourselves 4-0 in
conference, and 12-2 overall.
Today, UCI finds itself #79 according to Sagarin.
This puts us in contention for an at-large NIT berth. To make it to
the NCAAs, we must win the Big West tournament, or do exceptionally well
during the rest of conference play. For instance, we can get an
at-large NCAA berth if we make a run of the table in Big West play, but
lose in the Big West tournament.
After last night, I think we should be aiming at winning
the Big West. Utah State, at least according to Sagarin, is #57 and
not that far ahead of UCI (#79). From here on forward, it gets a lot
tougher.
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