Good News Hard to Find for Mulligan’s Crew

All around Bill Mulligan, there was chaos. As usual.

UC Irvine guard Justin Anderson gets the ball underneath the basket, primed for his first shot of the game, and he travels.

UC Irvine center Ricky Butler throws a pass to teammate Elgin Rogers and Rogers lets the ball bank off his face, bouncing from cheekbone to out of play to UC Santa Barbara.

UC Irvine forward Jeff Herdman takes another pass from Butler, drives the lane, raises his right arm and--whiff--launches a hook shot minus the basketball.

UC Irvine center Don May gets the ball down low, backs in, swings to his right and dribbles the ball off his foot.

Eleven minutes down, 29 to go.

This is Anteater basketball, early 1990. By the time this one is through and Irvine has lost for a 10th consecutive time, Mulligan will watch his leading scorer--Butler--go 1 for 7 from the field, his entire team go 7 for 14 from the foul line and a lineup laden with three freshmen make Irvine’s only spirited run of the afternoon.

The final score is Santa Barbara 73, Irvine 66. Mulligan grabs a stat sheet, slips on a pair of glasses and mutters, “Well, we shot 42% from the field. That’s a good percentage for us.”

The saddest part is that Mulligan, for once, isn’t kidding. At Irvine, you take good news where you can find it and before Saturday, the Anteaters were shooting 38.8% from the field in Big West Conference games.

More good news: The Anteaters made it to the opening tipoff. These days, getting there is easier said than done.

Mulligan went through three drafts before deciding which five would brave the pregame introductions. First, Mulligan benched Butler, the junior who averages 14.8 points and 7.2 rebounds, for arriving late to a team meeting. Then, he handed the following five names to Irvine sports information director Bob Olson: Rogers, May, Rod Palmer and a couple freshmen named Jeff Von Lutzow and Craig Marshall.

Average scoring average per man: 5.8 points.

Finally, Mulligan scratched Rogers and Marshall and replaced them with Herdman and Anderson, trading youthful uncertainty for experienced inconsistency.

Average scoring average raised to 8.6.

Nothing is done easily, not even Mulligan’s pregame radio show, where broadcaster Tim Tift teases Mulligan about closing in on the school record for a consecutive losses--a record Tift helped set while coaching the Anteaters to 11 consecutive defeats during the 1979-80 season.

Mulligan isn’t in the mood. “The conference is tougher now than it was then,” he grumbles. Mulligan also sarcastically lauds the current ‘Eaters as “the most consistent team in the conference. Some teams are up and down, but we’re consistent. I guess there’s something to be said for consistency.”

In happier times, back before Christmas, Irvine had a 2-5 record and the 1989-90 Big West schedule was still a curiosity. Now, the Anteaters are 2-15--0-8 in conference--and after Thursday night’s 103-67 disaster at UNLV, several Las Vegas writers were calling Irvine the worst team they’d ever seen, making a point to include last year’s mutiny-ravaged San Jose State squad in their rankings.

At Irvine, disbelief has taken hold of the locker room.

“I’ve never been through anything like this in my life,” said Palmer, the senior guard who played two seasons at UCLA before transferring to Irvine. “It’s a big shock. We have a good team. We have good shooters . . .”

Before the season, that was the rumor.

“It’s maddening,” Mulligan said. “I never expected anything near this. We had three starters back and four guys who’d played a lot.”

A pause and a deadpan.

“The coaches all of a sudden got bad,” Mulligan said.

Or some of his experienced people all of a sudden got gun-shy. Mulligan is asked the mental toughness question and his only response is a tight grin suppressing a slow burn.

“Excuse me, there’s a recruit I want to talk to,” he says, walking away.

Actions speak louder, however, and during crunch time--or at least what passes for crunch time at Irvine--Mulligan had three freshmen on the floor Saturday. And the trio of Von Lutzow, Marshall and Dylan Rigdon momentarily shattered the inertia, scrambling around and making enough things happen to help pull the Anteaters to within four points (61-57) with 2:23 to play.

“That was good to see,” said Palmer, the lone senior on the court for Irvine during the waning minutes. “That picked us up on the defensive end. Craig and Dylan put some pressure on them and forced a few turnovers.

“That’s a good sign. We were playing aggressively.”

Kinda makes a guy pine for the pine at Pauley Pavilion. Palmer didn’t play much at UCLA, but at least he didn’t lose much.

“Naw,” Palmer says, waving a hand. “Once I left UCLA, I never regretted it. I’m having a great time. Coach Mulligan is a great guy. I’m having fun.”

Fun? Fun?

Mulligan has different words for it.

“I’d just like some more wins,” Palmer says. This is good. On this much, point guard and coach agree.

Now, how to get them. At Irvine, everyone nowadays is at a loss.