UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Given Chance, Channell Operates at High Level

It has been a good-news-bad-news winter for Khalid Channell.

He’s playing the best basketball of his life, but he’s not playing that much. He has scored in double figures four times; the Anteaters lost all four. He was averaging almost 20 minutes a game as Irvine started the season 4-3; but he’s down to 15 during Big West play. He played 46 minutes, scored 25 and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Anteaters lost their fifth and sixth consecutive conference games; but he played only eight minutes Sunday when Irvine beat San Jose State to end its losing streak.

But just when Channell starts to feel down, there’s more good news in the mailbox. So far, Stanford, UCLA and UC Irvine have informed him he has made it through the first stage of application to their medical schools.

Many of his teammates talk about their future in a basketball uniform. Channell dreams of surgical gowns. If a teammate makes it to the pros and, God forbid, blows out a knee, he’ll know where to find an orthopedic surgeon he can look in the eye.

“I like sports and I want to be involved in sports,” said Channell, a 6-foot-7 senior forward and a biological sciences honor student, “and ever since I got hurt my senior year in high school and the doctor let me watch him take the pins out of my knee, I’ve been interested in orthopedic surgery.”

On the court, Channell has refined his game and emerged as one of the Anteaters’ most efficient players. He’s averaging seven points and four rebounds in only 17 minutes of playing time.

As a freshman, Channell scored a total of 10 points in 12 games. He was named most improved player after a sophomore season during which he averaged four points and three rebounds. Last season, he started three games and averaged six points and three rebounds.

“When I first started playing some minutes last year, I felt like I really had to assert myself, especially offensively, as soon as I got in the game,” he said. “I was putting too much pressure on myself. Now, I kind of try to feel the flow of the game and do what I do best.

“My dad said it looked like I was thinking too much, so I’ve tried to let that go. I mean it’s a game. Just go. Just play.”

And even when he doesn’t play, he manages to maintain his perspective and see the big picture.

“Everybody wants to play more, but I’m comfortable in that I feel I’ve really helped the team in the role I’m playing, whether it happens to be scoring, rebounding, playing defense or just making good passes,” he said.

“I guess a lot of it’s confidence. I don’t rush things. I don’t take shots I can’t make. Last year, I think I felt the only way to make an impact was score, but now I try to do more things and score when I have the opportunity.”

Recently, when he hasn’t been buried in a textbook, Channell has been trying to unravel the Great Anteater Mystery. Why did this team, so full of early season promise, lose six in a row?

“I’ve sat in my room and thought about this transition to losing and it’s really hard to explain,” he said. “It’s something intangible. I don’t really see us playing all that much differently. It’s been disappointing because no one likes to lose, but it’s also been very confusing.

“The positive side to it is that everybody is still focused, still believing this can be a successful season. I haven’t sensed a defeatist attitude from any of the guys. And, compared to other teams here, there’s been very little back-biting and finger-pointing. Everybody’s just trying to figure out how to get the job done.

“It’s like it’s just a matter of time. We know we’re a good team.”

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Hocus focus: What’s going on with Chris Brown? He gets suspended for the UNLV and New Mexico State games so he could “reassess his priorities in regards to the team,” according to Coach Rod Baker. He returns and continues to miss shots and mope.

Baker reinserted Brown into the starting lineup last week against Utah State but removed him from the game less than a minute later when Brown failed to execute the defensive game plan and double-team post man Eric Franson on the Aggies’ first possession.

Sunday in San Jose, he forgot his game shoes at the hotel and then forgot the offense. At one point, point guard Raimonds Miglinieks shouted out an offensive set. He stared at Brown and shouted it twice more. Brown stared blankly back. Finally, Miglinieks had to point to the other side of the floor and Brown ran over to the right spot.

And Brown, who had four of the top seven individual three-point performances in the country last year (he made 11, 10 and nine twice), continues to struggle with his shot, even in practice.

Since returning from the suspension, Brown has made only four of 16 three-point attempts and that includes a two-for-two outing Sunday wearing Kevin Simmons’ practice shoes.

Brown has little to say about his predicament.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, shrugging. “I just have to be mentally strong. We’ll be all right.”

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Shipping out: Tchaka Shipp, the transfer from Seton Hall who is back attending classes after recovering from a near-fatal auto accident in Irvine last July, left Seton Hall because of a strained relationship with former Coach P.J. Carlesimo.

“I keep asking myself why I went there to begin with,” said Shipp, who lived in Brooklyn. “I guess there were a number of reasons. They have a super TV contract. My mother and friends back home could see me play all the time. When I visited, the guys were all cool, really nice, and I got with them really good. The facilities were great, plush carpets, stereo, big screen TV and you could go in there any time. And the living quarters were nice.

“I didn’t really base much of the decision on P.J. Of course when you’re on a visit, the coach is going to be nice. But P.J. would scream at you for the smallest thing. He’s always yelling at you. And you can almost understand it on the court, but off the court, it was like he didn’t want to be bothered.”

Shipp admits that he was “a little shaky at first” about the idea of playing at UC Irvine, but after meeting Baker, he decided to become an Anteater.

“He’s somebody you can feel comfortable around, somebody you can relax around,” Shipp said. “He’s sarcastic a lot, but that’s something you can go with, know what I mean?

“He’s the coach and you have to listen to what he says, but it seems more like he’s here to help you.”

Anteater Notes

The men’s tennis team dropped matches against 29th-ranked New Mexico and No. 25 Minnesota over the weekend and sophomore Marc-Andre Tardif, the 28th-ranked singles player in the country, injured his shoulder last week and played only doubles against Minnesota. . . . The women’s tennis team, which features three area freshmen--Nina Basica of Fountain Valley High, Rachel Buenviaje of Brea Olinda High and Tara Kuhnert of Laguna Beach High--opens the season Thursday at home against Washington State.