| Three weeks later, after beating lowly Howard and Loyola Marymount at the Bren, UCI took on the University of San Diego and lost that game at the Bren, 63-60.
It seemed like another mediocre season about to unfold. Little did we know that the loss at home to USD would be our last loss at home this season. Little did we expect at that time that UCI would have a prayer at making even the NIT tournament, much less the NCAAs. At that point, my preseason prediction of us finishing 17-10 still seemed optimistic.
When I ponder writing one of these commentaries, I usually think about the title. One word came to mind as I think about this commentary. I look back at the California game. The arena was packed and the crowd was energized. We knew that Cal was good and that eventually they would make a run at us and pull away with the victory. I had predicted that we had a 50-50 chance of winning and many scorned me for that. When we won, we all went wild, the crowd rushed the court, and we got a taste of what was to come this season.
That word comes to mind when I look back to the Utah State game at the Bren. I knew it was going to be a special day when I arrived at the Bren at 6:05 and there was a line of cars waiting to get in and already a lot of cars in the parking lot. When I entered the arena, I was stunned to see 500 students packing the student section ready to go. This was not going to be a typical Irvine home game. The guys next to the band in the crazy
oversized cowboy hats, the volleyball players walking around energizing the crowd, and the crowd itself made it clear that this was a big-time basketball game. Say what you will, but I had never seen a game like this in the Bren Center ever since it opened. The last time I had experienced this type of energy was back in Crawford Hall, back when #1 UNLV visited UCI and Irvine prevailed. As I recall then, the noise level could not get louder, it just got more distorted.
Then there was the Fullerton game. For years, UCI has suffered at their hands. In fact, in the past ten years, UCI has only won one game against them at the Bren Event Center. Irvine always had a way of playing down to their level or for that matter far below them, while Fullerton always managed to play one of its best games against UCI.
Many times Fullerton was the team that defeated UCI when it mattered the most: the opening round of the Big West tournament.
Certainly, if UCI had lost to Fullerton last Thursday, Irvine would kiss its at-large tournament hopes goodbye.
It is particularly sweet that UCI captured sole possession of first by
defeating Fullerton at the Bren. The LA Times captures a lot of the feelings in their recap.
The time finally came to celebrate. There was no need to contain their excitement any longer.
And when the final buzzer sounded Thursday in UC Irvine's hard-earned 58-55 victory over visiting Cal State Fullerton, giving the Anteaters the first Big West Conference title in their 36-year history, the Bren Center crowd erupted.
A sea of blue and gold-clad students, the bulk of an announced crowd of 4,054, surged past half-hearted security guards and spilled onto the floor to surround team members, who were just starting to whoop it up themselves.
No more of this one-game-at-a-time stuff that Irvine players and coaches had repeated as they marched down the stretch run and into the school record book.
Guard Jerry Green, who led the Anteaters to their sixth straight victory with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists, broke free and leaped onto a row of tables in front of the student section, held his index finger high above his head and slapped high-fives with approving fans.
The song "Celebrate" blared from house speakers as freshman center Adam Parada raised a hand-lettered sign that read simply "champs."
There were hugs all around and later, during a on-court ceremony conducted by conference Commissioner Dennis Farrell, usually stoic Coach Pat Douglass had a short slam-dance with Green while fans chanted, "Jerry, Jerry."
"We haven't had a chance to kick up our heels too much," Douglass said later, smiling. "But I want to take time to enjoy this. It's pure ecstasy. I don't have a lot of thoughts right now. It's a great feeling."
What particularly struck me was seeing coach Douglass out on the court celebrating with the students and his players. Douglass, who is usually quite reserved, was whooping it up, banging into Jerry Green and letting it hang loose like never before. History had been made and the handful of Fullerton fans whose faces I recognize from over the years simply watched glumly. The band even joined in, playing a new but short arrangement of
We Are The Champions. Hopefully, we will be hearing a lot more of that in the coming days.
Finally, in a surreal experience, I was at the women's game on Saturday the night that UCI closed its regular season against Idaho. Several band members
listened to the game on the radio and they called out scores along the way
to their fellow anxious band members. As the game progressed with Idaho
leading most of the time, we got more and more anxious. The women's game ended, and the men's game went into overtime. The band hung around waiting for the result. We
whooshed when the team made some critical free-throws, chanted Jerry-Jerry at times, and with about 1 minute remaining in overtime, the Bren Center put the game on the PA. When the game ended with UCI on
top, the Band and Cheer Squad rushed the court in a mock celebration.
Is UCI Just Lucky?
One thing that has been different about this season is that UCI has managed to win its closed games. After our near disasters against Cal Poly, Fullerton, and Idaho, many people believe that UCI's luck is just about to run out. Mark Wicker of the Orange County Register makes an interesting point.
The Anteaters are now a fanciful 12-2 in five-point games. They have won 10 such games in succession. It will be said that many of Irvine's games "could have gone either way." Actually, they couldn't have. The Anteaters would not let them.
"We've won close games most places I've coached," Douglass said. "We expect to win them."
"People talk about close ones," assistant coach Todd Lee said, "but two of the games we lost (San Diego and UCLA) came down to the last possession. We've won a lot of them, but I don't think we've caught up to all the ones we lost last year."
The key with Irvine this year is that they have a go-to player in Jerry Green and several other players who can step it up in crunch time. Ben Jones, Sean Jackson, and Adam Parada have all been there various times this season when it counted. Sean Jackson
has a way of hitting a three-pointer right when the game seems to be slipping away. Adam Parada nailed his turn-around 17-foot jump shot against Utah State to give us a lead with less than one minute left. Ben Jones can hit from the outside as well as post up and drive. This year, for the first time in many, we can have confidence and hope knowing that somehow this team will do what it has to do. The last time I felt this way really was when Kevin Magee was playing for the team.
Message Board Appreciation
After our victory at home against Utah State, JMoon posted
on the Sports
Only UCI message board the following regarding a New University article:
Did anyone read the article on the Mens Bball team? How terrible was the article? I read two paragraphs, and the article was so poorly written, I had to stop reading it.
In a subsequent thread, JoeG posted under the title "Here's what the "New U" should aim for!" a link to my commentary
Rising Star. Poster Larry responded:
Robert,
I think you are to be commended for your coverage of UCI over the years. You've
definitely provided a great service to those of us who are/were away from Irvine... but still remember the glory days of Mulligan teams. I've read the articles on your website for years now, and I've been a bit disappointed in not seeing them this year.
I have to disagree with your article today, however. Clearly, the game against Cal was the pivotal game of the year. While certainly one could argue that the game against Pacific was big, the game against Cal proved the team's credibility... it had to be what give the team the level of confidence to pull off the Pacific victory. Perhaps we could settle on the idea that both games complete the equation (to agree with the scientific nature of typical studies at UCI)?
Certainly also, we have to give credit to Pat Douglass. Rod Baker must be crying right about now! Then again, it has been a long time since I've seen players make the big plays like these guys have (several per game). You have to go back to the Mulligan era, really...
Lastly, I would argue that we are still the underdog to win the Big West. And we should go into the Utah State game with this mindset. Our team is good, but not infallible. I refer specifically to our reoccurring spouts of zero offense. And, of course, this is what got us in the 17 point deficit during the Pacific game.
I responded to that post:
> Robert,
> I think you are to be commended for your coverage of UCI over the years.
You've definitely provided a great service to those of us who are/were away from Irvine... but still remember the glory days of Mulligan teams. I've read the articles on your website for years now, and I've been a bit disappointed in not seeing them this year.
Thank you. I'm a little busier these days with three kids and a new job, but I am trying to pick it up now rather than running out of steam about this time of year.
> I have to disagree with your article today, however. Clearly, the game against Cal was the pivotal game of the year. While certainly one could argue that the game against Pacific was big, the game against Cal proved the team's credibility... it had to be what give the team the level of confidence to pull off the Pacific victory.
I have seen us play the big nonconference game in the past, Northern Arizona comes to mind two years ago, only to have things fall apart once Big West starts. It is all to easy to sneak up on non-conference foes, but conference opponents know us and they scout us and they know how to beat us. Also, the team had historically played poorly on the road and would have easily let the Pacific game turn into a blowout. While Cal was important and gave us lots of room for hope, it still did not leave me with the bubbling optimism I felt right after the Pacific game.
>Perhaps we could settle on the idea that both games complete the equation (to agree with the scientific nature of typical studies at UCI)?
Yes, I guess...
> Certainly also, we have to give credit to Pat Douglass. Rod Baker must be crying right about now! Then again, it has been a long time since I've seen players make the big plays like these guys have (several per game). You have to go back to the Mulligan era, really...
Absolutely. Without him, this team would be nowhere.
> Lastly, I would argue that we are still the underdog to win the Big West. And we should go into the Utah State game with this mindset. Our team is good, but not infallible. I refer specifically to our reoccurring spouts of zero offense. And, of course, this is what got us in the 17 point deficit during the Pacific game.
I agree with this assessment also. As I say, I keep waiting for the bubble to burst. I told band members after the Utah State game that the victory bought us into at least the NIT. That alone would be a major accomplishment. When all is said and done, let us keep everything in perspective and be thankful for the good season we are having.
Larry answered back:
Robert,
> I have seen us play the big nonconference game in the past, Northern Arizona comes to mind two years ago, only to have things fall apart once Big West starts. It is all to easy to sneak up on non-conference foes, but conference opponents know us and they scout us and they know how to beat us. Also, the team had historically played poorly on the road and would have easily let the Pacific game turn into a blowout. While Cal was important and gave us lots of room for hope, it still did not leave me with the bubbling optimism I felt right after the Pacific game.
This is the kind of insight that sells newspapers!
JoeG responded to the original post in this thread:
> I think you are to be commended for your coverage of UCI over the years.
Robert is an UCI basketball(& music) treasure. No doubt, UCI, LATimes, and OCRegister have profited from his efforts.
>You've definitely provided a great service to those of us who are/were away from Irvine...
Amen
>but still remember the glory days of Mulligan teams.
I saw Mulligan the other night and he was very impressed with this years team. I asked him point blank if he remember a point guard more athletic than Jerry Green -- he pondered for awhile and I interjected -- I said "maybe George Turner" and he said "I was thinking about George as well." In short, Jerry Green gave Mulligan some pause and remember he has had a number of great point guards...
>I've read the articles on your website for years now, and I've been a bit disappointed in not seeing them this year.
Perhaps Robert is superstitious with the current 13 game winning streak, but more than likely he's just busy!
To that UHCOAnteater responded:
I agree with you all.
Personally, I really appreciate what Robert has done throughout the years. Its hard to catch Anteaters in action living out outside of CA. However, it was always a delight surfing over to Robert's site...and enjoy not only his penmanship, but intriguing thoughts on the progress of the basketball program.
Hopefully, he will once again pick up his pen (or
keyboard) as much as his trumpet in the near future.
What can I say except thank you all for your recent
praise and support. It is moments like these which makes it all
worthwhile.
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