COLLEGES:A long road for ‘Eaters

Bands will blare, ticket merchants will share and brackets will be pared to one big winner at the Big West Conference men’s basketball tournament, Wednesday through Saturday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

But those UC Irvine supporters interested in a longshot payoff, might want to buy a lottery ticket instead.

March is, after all, Lack of History Month for the UCI men’s program, which now in its 30th season of Division I basketball, is still awaiting its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

The Anteaters (13-17), enter this week’s festivities as the No. 5 seed, which will require them to win four times in four days in order to avoid turning in their uniforms.

The good news is, the last time the Anteaters won four straight — actually eight straight last season — Big West rivals were shaking their hands every time afterward.

A three-game winning streak is the best they could muster this season, when they followed a Dec. 28 home triumph over Harvard with wins at UC Davis (Dec. 30) and at home against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Jan. 4).

UCI is 4-14 away from the Bren Events Center this season, with the only triumph in a remotely hostile environment coming at Pacific.

Coach Pat Douglass’ squad opens Wednesday at 6 p.m. against UC Riverside (7-23), which has lost 24 of its last 25 games against Big West foes.

So confident are the NCAA folks that Riverside will not be crashing their party, last spring they enlisted Highlanders’ Athletic Director Stan Morrison for a 10-year term on the NCAA men’s basketball committee that annually aligns the 65-team field.

Douglass, who won two NCAA Division II titles at Cal State Bakersfield, is no stranger to another member of the NCAA committee — UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, who while in the same position at UCI hired Douglass before the 1997-98 season.

Within four seasons, Douglass — and gifted guard Jerry Green — gave UCI its first regular-season conference title, and UCI won it again in 2001-02.

But UCI’s sudden March momentum fizzled in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with consecutive losses in the Big West Tournament semifinals.

Last season, UCI finished second and earned a bye into the semifinals, where it was eliminated on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Long Beach State.

UCI is 2-9 in Big West semifinal games and followed its only two semifinal triumphs with title-game losses in 1994 (New Mexico State) and 1988 (Utah State).

Since three straight 20-win seasons culminated in 2003, which included NIT berths in 2001 and 2002, UCI is 56-60 and Coach John Speraw’s No. 2-ranked men’s volleyball juggernaut is threatening to hijack the Completely Insane Anteaters’ student rooting section that, based upon recent performances, figures to make itself scarce this week in Anaheim.

Injuries and one defection have left Coach Molly Tuter without 60% of her projected starters this season and a 6-23 campaign has ensued.

UCI seniors Brad Evans (Columbus Crew), and Cameron Dunn (Chivas USA) have also signed MLS contracts, while senior Anthony Hamilton is awaiting an agreement after being drafted by Chivas USA.

Kuntz said Evans and Columbus will play an exhibition at UCI March 16.