Men’s basketball: Anteaters will be Provo-ked at BYU

Barry Faulkner

A little more than a month ago, Utah welcomed the world to the

Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Thursday night, in neighboring

Provo, the BYU men’s basketball team and its fans figure to be more

hostile hosts to UC Irvine in the first round of the National Invitation

Tournament at the Marriott Center.

The Cougars (17-11) have, after all, not lost a home game in more than

two years, during which time the Mountain West Conference representative

has constructed a 35-game home winning streak, the longest in the nation.

The last team to beat BYU at home was New Mexico, which prevailed on

Feb. 17, 2000. The Cougars won the final five home contests of 2000, then

posted back-to-back 15-0 marks the last two years.

This season, the Cougars’ average margin of victory at home has been

15.8 points and only Mountain West rivals Colorado State (57-52), New

Mexico (68-62) and Utah (63-61) have gotten closer than nine points. BYU,

however, had to rally late in the second half to overcome New Mexico and

Utah this season.

BYU has defeated UCI in two previous visits to Provo, including a

93-80 second-round NIT triumph in 1986.

A BYU Athletic Department spokesman said Thursday’s crowd at the

22,700-seat Marriott Center, the third-largest on-campus arena in the

nation (surpassed only by Syracuse’s 32,000-seat Carrier Dome and

Tennessee’s 24,535-seat Thompson Boling Arena) is expected to be between

7,000 and 10,000.

The Cougars had the two biggest NIT crowds in their last appearance in

the tournament in 2000, at about 10,000 and 17,000. But that came after

the school had missed the postseason for a handful of years. This year’s

postseason appearance is the program’s third straight and follows last

year’s trip to the NCAA Tournament.

UCI is hoping for a little deja vU-tah against the Cougars. In their

first visit the state this season, the Anteaters ended Utah State’s

31-game home winning streak with a 67-66 victory, keyed by senior guard

Jerry Green’s 12-foot fadeaway jumper that just beat the buzzer Jan. 10

in Logan.

The Aggies, lost to visiting Montana State, 77-69, in one of four

first-round NIT games Tuesday night, defeated visiting BYU, 90-81, in

overtime on Dec. 1.

However hostile the environment, UCI Coach Pat Douglass will have at

least one good friend in the building not affiliated with the Anteaters.

BYU Coach Steve Cleveland and Douglass have a friendship that began

when Cleveland, then at Fresno City College, came to Douglass, then at

Cal State Bakersfield where he earned three NCAA Division II titles, for

coaching advice.

“I think the best thing UCI has going for it is their head coach,”

Cleveland said. “I think Pat Douglass is one of the best in the country.

I went to Pat when I was at Fresno City, because I just wanted to get his

input. I was very curious and interested in what he was doing (at

Bakersfield) and I had him come to a couple of my practices to evaluate

my program. I’ve always valued and respected his opinion. Any time you

win a couple national championships, you obviously know what you’re

doing.”

The Douglass connection isn’t Cleveland’s only link to UCI. He

graduated from UCI with a degree in social science after playing the

1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons for then-coach Tim Tift.

Cleveland was the Anteaters’ leading scorer and Most Valuable Player

as a senior.

“I had a great experience there and I loved Coach Tift,” Cleveland

recalled. “He was a great coach, a players’ coach.

“I met my wife (Kip) there and we’ve returned to Newport Beach every

year for the last 24 or 25 years to spend about eight to 10 days on the

(Balboa) peninsula. It’s one of my very favorite places.”

UCI went 17-11 and 14-12 during Cleveland’s two seasons in the lineup.

In addition to Douglass, Cleveland also has plenty of admiration for

Green.

“He’s a special player,” Cleveland said of the 6-foot-3 All-American

candidate, who hopes to postpone the inevitable retirement of his No. 5

jersey for at least a few more games.

Green’s All-Big West Conference Tournament performance Thursday and

Friday included 40 points and 12 assists. The two-time Big West

Conference Player of the Year also added to his already healthy

collection of school records.

Having started all 115 games of his UCI career, Green broke Ben

McDonald’s previous standard of 114. Also in the semifinal loss to

eventual tournament champion UC Santa Barbara, Green surpassed Tod Murphy

to become the school’s all-time leader in minutes played (1,132).

Green, averaging 20.6 points per game this season, continued to add to

his UCI records in career scoring (1,981), field goals (666), field-goal

attempts (1,415), free throws made (533) and attempted (658), as well as

steals (162).

Also during the Big West Tournament, he moved up to No. 6 on the

conference’s career scoring list. He needs 26 points to tie Freddy Banks

(UNLV) for the No. 5 spot.

Green needs 19 points to become the sixth conference player to score

at least 2,000 points.

The others still ahead of him in conference annals are: 1. Lucious

Harris of Long Beach State (2,312); 2. Greg Grant of Utah State (2,127);

3. Ron Cornelius of University of the Pacific (2,065); 4. Stacey Augmon

of UNLV (2,011): and Banks.

While Thursday’s crowd could be more than the combined total of UCI’s

two best home crowds this year (an overflow sellout of 5,150 vs. Utah

State Feb. 9 and 4,664 in the regular-season finale against UCSB Feb.

23), the Anteaters’ back-to-back Big West titles, as well as the

program’s first back-to-back 20-win seasons, has clearly produced an

attendance boom.

UCI’s average home attendance of 3,168 was second best in the

conference this season, trailing only Utah State’s 7,103.