SoCalHoops College News

UC Irvine Season Preview:
Coaches' Luncheon Notes--(Oct. 9, 1999)

We made some quick notes based on what we heard and read at the LA Athletic Club at the Division I West Coast Coaches Luncheon sponsored by the Wooden Award folks.  Here are some observations on UC Irvine for the coming season 1999-2000, the roster, some schedule notes and other assorted stuff:

Pat Douglas is a pretty soft-spoken guy with the media, and Thursday was no different, but if we were him, we'd be shouting about the talent on this team.  We're not sure how they're going to finish overall, but they've got some great talent, they return the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year in Jerry Green, have a solid player in Marek Ondera who recorded five double-doubles last year, and signed four top freshman this past season, including JR Christ from Hutchinson Kansas JC, Jens Jensen from San Jose City College, Matt Okor from Buena Pak and Adam Parada from Alta, and they also got Greg Ethington from Gilbert, Arizona and one of the most fundamentally solid walk-on players around, Aras Baskauskas from Santa Monica HS.  Irvine has a great arena, the Bren Center, on a first rate campus that offers a UC education, close to the beaches and in one of the prettiest of the UC campus settings.  How can you not be happy about being there?  Pat Douglass began this rebuilding process in 1997-98 and led the Anteaters to a 9-18 record, and led UCI to the Big West Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed from the Western Division after the Anteaters recorded six conference wins, including road victories at New Mexico State and UC Santa Barbara. The win at  New Mexico State was only the second win for UCI in 15 trips to Las Cruces. Prior to coming to UCI, Douglass was at Cal State Bakersfield, leading them to three NCAA Division II titles in five years, including the 1997 championship. He guided Bakersfield to national titles in 1993 and 1994 and Douglass was named the NABC Division II Coach of the Year all three championship seasons. He also was the California Collegiate Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 1993, 1996 and 1997. 

In fact Douglass is one of only five coaches in NCAA basketball history (Divisions I and II) to have won three or more national championships, joining UCLA's Wooden, Kentucky's Rupp, Evansville's Arad McCutchan, and Indiana's Bob Knight. He was also the head coach at Eastern Montana (now Montana State-Billings) for six seasons prior to arriving at Bakersfield. In 18 years as a collegiate head coach at the four-year level, Douglass is 391-156 with 14 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances at Bakersfield and Eastern Montana. He has been a head coach for the past 26 years, including stops at Columbia College in Sonora, Calif., Manteca High School and Dixon High School.

So much for Douglass; now what about the team.  Here is the roster for 1999-2000:  

All five starters from last year's team return, a year older and wiser: Jerry Green, Marek Ondera, Adam Stetson, Ben Jones and Mark Gottschalk.   This team leads off with Jerry Green in the backcourt, who, as we noted above was the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year. An exciting player, quick, driving and driven, Green scored in double figures 17 times, including five 20 point games. He had a career high 27 against UCSB, hitting 12 of 17 from the field, and shooting 49.1 from the field to rank 6th overall in the Big West. He led the team also with 100 assists and 38 steasl and was the only UCI player to start all 26 games last year.  He will be joined in the backcourt by Zamiro Bennem, a returning soph, who also played in all 26 games, starting in 12, averaging 5.8 ppg and 1.7 rpg.  He is capable of being a good scorer, and he had 16 in a game against James Madison last year and 14 against BYU last season. Malachi Edmond also played in 18 games last season, averaging 1.2 ppg, and should see some time off the bench.   Aras Baskauskas, a walk-on,  will redshirt this season, so don't expect to see him on the court; he selected UCI because it had the best fit for his needs both educationally and athletically, and we know that he'll be a big part of the team next season, and potentially earn a scholarship spot. 

Ben Jones will also play out on the wing and at the small forward position; he's a returning player who started 20 games out of 26 that he played in and should have another shot to start again. He averaged 9.3 ppg and 3.8 rpg, and hit for 54 three pointers, 99 3's during his first two years at UCI, and is a good outside shooter with great regularity, having hit at least three 3's in 18 games.  His career high of 28 points came last season against Fullerton, and he scored 25 agaisnt Arizona and 21 at Oregon State, and he promises, as the sixth ranked player in 3 point production in the Big West to make another big impact this year. Sean Jackson will also play out on the wing; he redshirted at UCI last year after two years at Cal and will be available this year; he'll have two more years left of eligibility. In 1997-98 he averaged 2.1 ppg and 1.1 rebounds at Cal.  Jens Jenson, another newcomer averaged 12.1 ppg at San Jose and should be a big boost in the scoring department at the wing; he also shot 89 percent from the foul line to rank 2nd in the state in JUCO foul shooting stats. Jens Jensen is a newcomer to the program, a wing-forward who signed out of San Jose City College where he averaged 14 ppg with a high of 21, shooting 89% from the line to rank second in California JUCO stats.

In the frontcourt, look for Ondera, Gottschalk to start, Stetson as a returner, as the returners and J.R. Christ,  and Greg Ethington as the newcomers; Adam Parada and Matt Okoro both plan to redshirt this year, so don't look for either of them in the lineups.  Among the starters, Marek Ondera led the Anteaters in rebounding last season with 7.0 per game, ranked 7th overall in the Big West. He was also the second-leading scorer at 11.1 ppg, and he played in all 26 games last year including 23 starts, shooting 53% from the field in all games and 57% in conference games. Gottschalk has worked hard in the off-season to get into shape and he added over 20 lbs. through weight training.  He played in 24 games last year, including 8 starts, six in the last games of the season, averaging 2.5 ppg and 1.8 rpg, not very impressive, but he should be way up in production this season with the weight and strength training. Stetson Played in 20 games with 17 starts last season, but missed the first six games with a foot injury.  When healthy though, he averaged 10.5 ppg and 3.8 rpg, scoring in doublt figures in nine of the season's last 13 games, including a high of 22 points at Fullerton.   He's a very good free-throw shooter, hitting 80% of his shots, so he's not the guy you want to foul late in a close game.   Greg Ethington was very highly recruited last year by a lot of schools, originally signed with Pepperdine, but when Romar went east to St. Louis, the Waves let him out of his LOI, and he signed a scholarhip agreement with the Anteaters late in July.  In high school he averaged 14 ppg and 9 rpg at Gilbert as a senior, sroing a high of 24 against Westwood, and was named All-State; he should be able to contribute and possibly challenge for a starting spot.  Finally, JR Christ signed with UCI after playing one year at Hutchinson JC in Kansas, where he averaged 5.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg and 3 blocked shots a game. He'll have three more years of eligibility as a true sophomore this season.

The preseason opens on Nov. 4 at the Bren Center where they'll play the Double Pump West Coast All Stars, followed on Nov. 12 by Sakalai, Lithuania. The Anteaters play a real college team when they'll meet the USD on Nov. 19 at Irvine.  On Nov 26-27 they travel to the Oklahoma Tournament, and then return home on Dec. 1 for a game at Loyola Marymount.  On Dec. 4 they'll host St. Mary's, and after a 10 day break, will host Western Washington at the Bren Center. On December  18 they travel to Berkeley where they'll meet Ben Braun's new young team, the Rockfish North, and then they return home for a two game stand, where they'll host Humboldt State on Dec. 22, and St. Francis of NY on December 30.  Following the year 2000 celebrations, the team will travel in the dead of winter to Utah where they'll play BYU on the Jan. 5, and then they return home where they'll host High Point, North Carolina on January 9.   Conference play doesn't begin until mid-January and the schedule looks like this:

Jan. 13 at Nevada
Jan. 15 at Utah State
Jan. 20 Idaho
Jan. 22 Boise State
Jan. 26 Cal State Fullerton
Jan. 29 at New Mexico State
Feb. 3 Long Beach State
Feb. 5 Pacific
Feb. 10 at Cal Poly SLO
Feb. 12 at Santa Barbara
Feb. 17 Cal Poly SLO
Feb. 19 UC Santa Barbara
Feb. 24 at Pacific
Feb. 26 at Long Beach State
Mar. 1 at Cal State Fullerton
Mar. 4 North Texas

The Big West Tournament Starts March 9-11 and will be played this year at Reno.

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