College men’s basketball: Bounced

Barry Faulkner

PROVO, Utah - UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Pat Douglass said

playing in the National Invitation Tournament can be tougher than playing

in the other tournament that occupied the national consciousness

Thursday.

But BYU Coach and UCI alumnus Steve Cleveland actually credited the

flurry of televised NCAA Tournament action for inspiring his team’s 78-55

victory in the first round of the NIT Thursday night, before 6,288 at the

mildly mad Marriott Center.

“I think of the big things that helped us tonight, was that our kids

watched all those games on TV today,” Cleveland said, after the Cougars

extended the nation’s longest home winning streak to 36 games. “Our kids

showed up tonight with a bounce in their step.”

UCI (21-11) had a bounce of its own early, muffling the home faithful

by pounding the ball inside and crashing the offensive glass to build

leads of 19-11 and 25-20.

But an 18-3 BYU run to end the first half, 20 second-half points from

Cougar junior Travis Hansen, and a scoring contribution from all 12

players on the roster, helped bounce the Anteaters from their fourth NIT.

It was the second straight first-round NIT exit for UCI, which also

said goodbye to senior career scoring leader, the two-time Big West

Conference Player of the Year.

“If we could have quit after the first 10 minutes, we would have been

fine,” Douglass said with a smile. “Jerry got in foul trouble (benched

for the final 8:09 of the first half with two fouls) and Steve’s kids did

a better job of being aggressive than we did.

“We talked at halftime (trailing 38-28) about coming out and really

getting after it the first five minutes of the second half. But we didn’t

do that either.”

Douglass said the first-round road date that has accompanied all four

of the Anteaters’ NIT berths, didn’t help either.

The same was largely true about Green’s lackluster finale. The

honorable mention All-American scored six points in each half, was 6 of

11 from the field and 0 of 1 from the free-throw line in 27 minutes. The

subject of frequent double teams, Green didn’t reach double figures until

7:25 remained.

That bucket, a 19-foot jumper that capped a 10-2 Anteater run, drew

the visitors within 60-51.

But 7-foot BYU center Dan Howard then made his first basket of the

game while being fouled with 6:29 left. Hansen then drilled a

three-pointer from the left corner 52 seconds later, after a three-shot

UCI possession seemed to sum up the visitors’ frustrating finish. And it

wasn’t long before both coaches emptied the benches.

“BYU canned some threes (six in all supported by four traditional

three-point plays) and that was crucial,” Douglass said.

“And (Green) never really got going. When he’s not going well, it

really affects us. There were times when we had four sophomores out

there. They shouldn’t be playing like sophomores at this point, but they

did tonight.

“I thought about bringing Jerry back in (as the lead vanished before

halftime), but if he’d gotten a third foul we’d have really been up

against it.”

Asked to put his reaction to the loss in emotional terms, Douglass

delivered the same no-nonsense approach that has led to 60 UCI victories

the last three seasons, including the program’s first consecutive 20-win

campaigns and a share of the last two regular-season conference crowns.

“I’m not emotional about it,” Douglass said. “There’s nothing I can do

about it now. The season’s over. I know people don’t drink too much beer

in Provo, but I’m going to have a couple beers tonight.”

Douglass might also have pondered a group of talented returners,

including 7-foot sophomore Adam Parada and 6-5 junior forward Jordan

Harris. They both posted a team-high 13 points.

But Hansen (23 points) and plenty of help, allowed the Cougars (18-11)

to advance to the second round Monday at Memphis.

“We haven’t had that many players contribute since early in the year,”

said Cleveland, who played six players most of the 14-game Mountain West

Conference schedule.

“We were elated to be in the NIT,” Douglass said of the school’s

back-to-back postseason appearance. “We would have gone to Timbuktu if we

had to.”