UCI bids to buck the odds

BARRY FAULKNER

Four wins in four days. Then they dance.

That’s the dream scenario for the UC Irvine men’s basketball

players, coaches and fans heading into Wednesday’s 6 p.m. Big West

Conference tournament opener against Idaho at the Anaheim Convention

Center.

And while it may be difficult to find four people outside the UCI

campus, perhaps even outside the UCI locker room, who believe the No.

5 seed can win its first Big West tournament this week, prospective

Cinderellas need only look to last year to find hope.

Cal State Northridge, which finished the 2004 regular season in a

three-way tie for fifth, won three times to reach the Big West

tournament title game. The Matadors played University of the Pacific

tough until finally succumbing.

“Anyone can get on a roll,” UCI Coach Pat Douglass said during a

Big West conference call Monday. “It’s a new season and it doesn’t

matter what you’ve done in league.”

The ‘Eaters (15-12, 8-10 in conference) did slightly more than

expected in conference play, finishing fifth in the Big West, two

spots higher than projected by preseason media and coaches polls.

And with only one senior -- 6-foot-8 starting center Greg

Ethington -- UCI would love to experience a taste of postseason

success, before gearing up for next season.

“I’m proud of our effort and our accomplishments,” Douglass said.

“We’ve made strides, but we’d like to play well in the tournament.”

UCI failed to earn one of eight bids to the conference tournament

a year ago and its three previous tournament excursions, all of which

came during 20-win campaigns, ended with a semifinal defeat.

Two of those semifinal losses were followed by appearances in the

NIT (losing in the first round at Tulsa in 2001 and at BYU in 2002).

But there is almost assuredly no such consolation prize available

this season. The only way UCI would be playing next week would be for

it to win the conference tournament and secure the circuit’s

automatic NCAA berth.

It would be the first trip the NCAAs for the ‘Eaters in 28 seasons

of Division I competition.

If victorious over Idaho, one of only two teams the ‘Eaters swept

in conference play this season (last-place Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

is the other), Douglass’ squad would meet Cal State Northridge

Thursday for a berth in Friday’s semifinals.

Pacific, winner of 33 straight against Big West foes, and Utah

State, still stinging from an NCAA tournament snub despite a 25-3

mark last year, and poised to make the most of its final Big West

foray before joining the Western Athletic Conference, are already in

the semifinals.

*

Among the streams of optimism flowing from coaches Monday, there

was one bent on a little buzz kill.

“I don’t think anyone can win the tournament, except the top four

teams,” UOP Coach Bob Thomasson said. “There can be some upsets, but

I don’t see [teams that finished fifth through eighth] making it deep

into the tournament.”

*

UC Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams fired off the quote of the day

Monday when talking about his injury-depleted team’s inability to

hold leads after halftime this season.

“We’re like a big, heavy man trying to hold onto a rope covered

with vasoline,” Williams said. “That grip just starts slipping in the

second half.”