UCI’s Efevberha dismissed from team

Barry Faulkner

Mike Efevberha, a 6-foot-5 guard who averaged 11.1 points and started

21 games last season as a sophomore, has been dismissed from the UC

Irvine men’s basketball program, the school announced Friday.

Efevberha missed the final four games of the season after being

suspended indefinitely for what Coach Pat Douglass called a violation

of team and department rules.

Efevberha pled guilty in Orange County Superior Court May 5 to a

misdemeanor charge of petty theft and paid a $100 fine. The charge,

that he stole the personal property of a fellow student, was brought

March 17.

Douglass said Efevberha did not follow up on some things UCI

coaches asked him to do after the trouble he ran into during the

season.

Douglass declined further comment.

Efevberha was viewed by many to be the program’s most exciting

offensive player. He scored a career-high 37 points in a Dec. 6

victory over Arkansas-Monticello, the highest single-game output by

an Anteater since school-career-scoring leader Jerry Green amassed 41

against Pepperdine in November of 2001.

Efevberha, who led or shared the team scoring lead in six games

last season, sank a game-winning three-pointer with 2.6 seconds left

in a 66-65 Big West Conference home victory Jan. 15 over UC

Riverside.

He also sent a Big West game at Long Beach State into overtime by

netting a three-pointer with one second left in regulation, though

the Anteaters lost Jan. 24.

He delivered the assist on UCI senior center Adam Parada’s

buzzer-beating layup that beat Princeton Dec. 5 in the McCaffrey

Classic at Fresno State.

After averaging just five points and shooting 35.9% from the field

as a freshman reserve, Efevberha, who scored 58 points in one game as

a senior at Ganesha High in Pomona, triggered high expectations by

producing 28 points in a Nov. 1 exhibition game against the EA Sports

Southwest All-Stars.

His ability to shoot from long range, slash to the basket and post

up smaller backcourt defenders, quickly helped him forge a reputation

as a talented scorer.

His inability to play effective defense and his penchant for

untimely turnovers, however, sometimes put him in disfavor with

Douglass.

At the time of his suspension, he led the team with 40

three-pointers and he finished second among UCI players in that

category, trailing only sophomore guard Ross Schraeder’s 49.

Efevberha finished 40 of 97 from three-point range (41.2%), which was bettered only by sophomore guard Jeff Gloger, who hit 10 of 22

three-point attempts for 45.5%

Efevberha shot 42% from the field and 79.2% from the free-throw

line in 2003-04, averaging 25.2 minutes per game, fourth most on the

team.

He was second on the team with nine blocked shots and his 43

assists and 51 turnovers were both third most on a squad that

finished 11-17, 6-12 in conference, and missed the Big West

Conference tournament for the first time in five seasons.

UCI also announced that Mark Hill, a 6-foot-5 forward who started

five games and played in 20 as a true freshman last season, intends

to transfer to another unspecified school to play football.

Hill, who averaged 1.9 points and 10.3 minutes in his only college

basketball season, was an all-state receiver who caught 18 touchdown

passes as a senior at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas.