No. 16 Utah Gives Irvine’s Douglass Refresher Course

Pat Douglass has claimed ignorance to what sort of program he inherited, saying he has no idea what went on a year ago during UC Irvine’s 1-25 season.

Now he has some first-hand knowledge as Utah beat the Anteaters, 83-45, before 12,921 at Utah’s Huntsman Center on Saturday.

These types of losses were common year ago, although they sometimes came at the hands of teams such as Eastern Washington and Cal State Fullerton. The Utes (5-0), though, are ranked 16th in the nation and looked it in the second half when they outscored Irvine, 44-15.

“These are bastardized games,” Utah Coach Rick Majerus said. “They are going to hold the ball and try to keep the score close and I don’t blame them for that.

“I would love to play UCLA, have a home-and-home, give them a guarantee. They won’t play us. We have to take who we can get from Southern California because we want to recruit there.”

The Anteaters (1-3) made good fodder for the recruiting brochure.

Utah had 10 players score, led by Michael Doleac had 19 points. Hanno Mottola score 16 points, making seven of nine shots.

“They can handle about every team in our league,” Douglass said, “and they sure handled us tonight.”

Irvine put up a fight for one half. Utah led, 31-13, when the Anteaters went on a 17-4 run to pull within four, 35-30. They trailed, 39-30, at halftime, but couldn’t sustain it.

Utah opened the second half with a 20-4 run.

Ben Jones had 14 points to lead Irvine.