Hoping for magic all season long

BARRY FAULKNER

One might suggest two reasons why the UC Irvine men’s and women’s

basketball teams’ tipoff event Saturday morning was called Midnight

Magic.

First, donning the practice gear and taking the floor the first

minute of the allotted first day of practice, both displays and

encourages the kind of enthusiasm Pat Douglass has created around his

men’s program with three straight 20-win seasons.

“This senior class is the winningest in school history,” Douglass

noted in a brief address to the estimated 1,500, mostly students,

gathered at the Bren Event Center. “The last three years, we’ve been

the winningest program in Southern California.”

Loud cheers, not atypical of college students gathered to

celebrate the passage of Friday night into Saturday morning, followed

this statement, as well as Douglass’ forthcoming revelation that “I

think it’s time we go [to the NCAA tournament], so, I think, this is

going to be our year.”

The second reason? Poof, it makes fundamentals disappear.

The six-minute men’s scrimmage featured, arguably, more alley-oop

passes than Anteater fans can expect the entire 13-game home season,

including a pair of exhibitions, the first of which against the EA

Sports All-Stars, scheduled Nov. 1.

Big men launched three-pointers, guards dropped behind-the-back

dimes and Douglass, sitting approvingly near one end of the scorer’s

table, appeared to be anything but unsettled by the

less-than-Wooden-like display.

“They know what the students want to see,” Douglass said of his

players’ playground proclivity, which, beginning with Saturday’s

first “real” practice, must be left in the locker of any Anteater

hoping to win favor with the veteran coach.

A slam dunk contest followed the scrimmage and, well, let’s just

say springy 6-foot-7 senior Matt Okoro’s presence was missed. He is,

no doubt, saving it for the television cameras, which are becoming

more and more a part of the atmosphere accentuated by the

ever-expanding rooter section billed as the Completely Insane

Anteaters, or CIA.

“Part of the turnabout of our program [1-25 before Douglass

arrived to lead the ‘Eaters in 1997-98] has to do with the CIA

involvement,” Douglass said. “We’ve gotten more and more TV games,

because of the appearance those guys create by jumping up and down on

one side of the court.”

The CIA signup table seemed to be surrounded with new recruits,

anxious to trade their inhibitions and undamaged vocal chords for a

yellow T-shirt and a choice courtside, student-section seat.

The slam dunk champion? Patrick Sanders, a freshman walk-on out of

Orange High, whom Estancia and Costa Mesa high school players, fans

and coaches may remember for a few Dominique-like dunks as a prep.

The three-point challenge went to the women’s team, paced by

junior guard Courtney Ferguson, who sank 8 of 12 from three

designated spots beyond the arc.

Players were introduced one by one, delivering high-fives through

the rooters from the top of the arena to the floor. The players later

retraced those steps up the stands to pass out pocket schedules and

pass on their appreciation for and anticipation of the spectator

support.

With Midnight Magic’s complete, Anteater Anticipation has, indeed,

begun in earnest.