University of California Irvine Anteaters

[LIONS90045]

University of California Irvine Anteaters

Member Big West Conference

2013-14 Record: 23-12 Conference 13-3

2014-15:
Wins: Chapman 87-36, Pacific 68-50
Losses: Arizona 54-71, Saint Mary’s 69-72

Roster/ppg*

0 Jaron Martin G 5-10 160 Sophomore Sunland, Calif. / Chaminade College Prep 2.3
1 Alex Young G 6-1 185 Junior Phoenix, Ore. / Phoenix HS 10.5
2 Travis Souza G 6-5 210 Senior Turlock, Calif. / New Hampton (N.H.) Prep 7.3
3 Will Davis II F 6-8 210 Senior Sacramento, Calif. / New Hampton (N.H.) Prep 8.0
4 Reed McConnell G 6-5 194 Junior Atherton, Calif. / Sacred Heart Prep 0.0
5 Jonathan Galloway F 6-10 215 Freshman Brentwood, Calif. / Salesian HS N/A
10 Luke Nelson G 6-3 185 Sophomore Worthing, England / The Henley College 13.8
11 Haroldas Saprykinas G 6-1 170 Freshman Klaipeda, Lithuania / West Oaks Academy (Fla.) 5.0
12 Ioannis Dimakopoulos F/C 7-2 257 Sophomore Patra, Greece / Cathedral High School 2.3
20 Shawn Ray F 6-8 244 RS Junior Torrance, Calif. / El Camino College 0.0
24 Dominique Dunning G 6-4 206 Junior Corona, Calif. / Univ. of New Mexico 1.3
25 John Ryan C 6-10 262 Senior El Segundo, Calif. / Fresno State 6.5
31 Spencer Rivers G 6-2 190 Freshman Winter Park, Fla. / Winter Park HS N/A
32 Aaron Wright G 6-3 204 Junior Cerritos, Calif. / Cerritos HS 1.5
33 Mike Best F 6-10 215 Junior San Rafael, Calif. / Terra Linda HS 4.8
34 Mamadou Ndiaye C 7-6 300 Sophomore Dakar, Senegal / Brethren Christian HS 9.8

*2014-15 ppg stats

“UC Irvine Tripped Up at Saint Mary's, 72-69

MORAGA, Calif. --- UC Irvine and Saint Mary's matched seemingly point-for-point in the second half before the Gaels pulled out a 72-69 win at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga Sunday night.

After Mamadou Ndiaye's dunk gave UCI a 69-68 lead with 1:16 left, Brad Waldow hit a pair of free throws with 17.1 seconds remaining to put Saint Mary's up 70-69 and Aaron Bright added two foul shots with 2.3 second left for the final margin.

Waldow scored 21 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and at one point, he scored seven straight points, and 9 of 12 for Saint Mary's, in a 4 1/2-minute stretch late in the contest. The win was the 32nd straight home non-conference victory for the Gaels (4-0).

Sophomore guard Luke Nelson led UCI (2-2) with 19 points and six assists. Ndiaye scored 14 points, all in the second half, and added a team-high seven rebounds while Alex Young had 13 points and Travis Souza 12. Will Davis II recorded seven points and four assists.

The teams were tied eight times in the first half, including 35-35 at halftime after Souza hit a pair of free throws with nine seconds left.”

ucirvinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/2014-15/releases/201411240s7108

The Anteaters' big center Ndiaye (7'6" 300) will give the Lions a real challenge to the front line. How will we prepare for this giant? As well as guard the outside shooters?
UCI gave St Mary's all they could handle on the Gaels' court before succumbing in the last minute.
Should be a challenging game.

Gametime: Saturday, November 29, 8 pm at Gersten

Video: LMU Streaming

[LIONS90045]

The early line has Irvine as 8 point favorites tomorrow evening. Odds makers haven't always called the spread but they have called all the Lions games correct in the W/L column. Will be a tough contest for the Lions as the Anteaters have pretty good size inside.

www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/odds/las-vegas/?s=858

[husky]

Based on comparative records the odds seem almost generous. With the exceptions of Godwin's unusual offensive performance against Boise, Patson's 16 against the NAIA team, and Mornor's blocks we don't seem to have much going on inside. We had better be opening up and hitting some 6-12 footers (hello Deji and Humph), some shots from behind the arch (Evan and Hayes, and anyone else), and trying to guard the 3 point line. We can do what we can do in the middle but that 7'6" guy is probably going to be a horrible distraction. On defense we might be able to muscle him out of his range (hello Godwin/Herman). But his size is bad news for a team that already likes to venture with the ball farther under the basket than they can handle.

If we can't limit turnovers are screwed (24 or so last game). Our passes may be generally characterized as crisp but too many are too long and they wind up in enemy hands so crisp is good but make sure they are crisp enough not to be intercepted.

I am afraid that having to pay for this game attendance will fall back to an almost humiliating level despite T Shirt night. Now I will be there while hoping to catch key glimpses of Wash/ Wash St football game on my wife's IPad.

Still we are playing at home and I've been around basketball long enough to know we are capable of turning in a great effort. If we are close in the last 5 minutes its 50-50. So lets go Lions!

[LIONS90045]

Husky said "in defense we may be able to muscle him out of his range."
That Ndayie dude weighs 300 lbs!

[husky]

Yes, but our guys have a lower center of gravity.

[longtimelionfan]

And, our guys need to learn to meet their low post opponents out higher, where the opponent is uncomfortable. Good practice for Karnowski, Sabonis and Waldow.

[LIONS90045]

Broadcasters say there are several NBA scouts at the game, likely to see Ndaiye - the tallest player in D1 Basketball

[LIONS90045]

Patson and Matt starting with Evan

[LIONS90045]

How about that - tied at 39!

[ALioninWinter]

A well played first half. Only down 5. UCI is a good team. Their #3 is hurting us more than their giant.

Patson is playing very well. He's obviously psyched himself knowing what he's up against. A little less adrenaline in a few instances and we'd have a tied game (a couple of missed dunks from Evan and a bad pass from Patson). But overall we should be happy with the performance.

[longtimelionfan]

A loss is a loss but I continue to see development. Kracovich played his best game by far. He handled the ball well, dished out some nice assists and showed some scoring ability. Humphries was looking for his shot and buried a couple. Matt made some big deep threes as well as a couple of mid range shots. Herman showed a littlte bit. He started to look a little more fluid and showed some atleticism. Patson continues to show improvement game by game. The team showed some grit, fought back twice and didn't cede all scoring opportunities to Evan.

On the flip side, they failed to get back in transition during some runs and it cost them dearly. Evan and Deji, two of their best free throwers, failed to convert on free throws during crunch time. Evan returned to bad habits in the last 5 minutes. November and December are about learning what you have and learning to play together. The team finishes Novvember and the PT for Chase and Godwin is decreasing while the PT of Matt, Simon and Patson increases. I think this is a trend that will continue. i also expect Herman's time will increase at the expense of Mornar as we move through December.

All that said, I think the time the team is going to spend together after finals is going to very significant to continued development. i think we are going to see a better, more confident and dynamic team come conference time. Consistent play by the newcomers will be key.

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

As longtime opined "A loss is a loss" but I, too, see a lot of positive moments that can be mixed with the teaching moments.

Was very happy to see Humphries first three go in...I think he is a "confidence shooter". Even if Evan scores 20-plus every game, he needs help. It doesn't have to be the same guy every night, but between Humphries, Hayes, Siame, Deji, we could use one or two of those guys to have a hot hand on a given night.

I think we would have beat most teams tonight...UCI is very good, shot very well, and we hung in there despite going cold from the free throw line in the second half (missing the front end of 2 one-and-ones was the dagger!). Heck, UCI beat SMC in Moraga the other night...based off that, they could be the second or third-best team in the WCC (BYU maybe second). So this was a good, solid showing by the Lions tonight.

Lastly, I agree that Flint and Okonji will see fewer minutes...no knock on them, but the younger guys have more balance in their game.

If we play on Wednesday like we did tonight, and hit our free throws, I think we can win at USC.

Go Lions!

[husky]

In a final analysis,the game ended up pretty much as expected right down to the 8 point spread. We looked to be in deep do do early then Simon K, who reappeared all a sudden, tossed a couple of passes to Humphries who made both threes, that sent us to almost even at half time. A better crowd than I expected.

A loss for sure but it leaves me more optimistic for several reasons: Our big guys especially Patson really hung in there and I feel gained in confidence. Dunlap I think is successfully finding the optimum mixes and matches. Herman, Simon, Matt, Patson, Humphries, all played well. And Evan is Evan, our best hands down. Godwin and Maron didn't get going on offence but everyone was hustling on defense. Have not seen the stat sheet but I suspect we had far fewer turnovers in this game. Also, even though they threw up a pretty tough 2-1-2 zone we were not entirely buffaloed and I think we are making headway in coping. Notably Simon and Humphries seem to have a handle on how to penetrate the zones and when to shoot.

Oh, as usual, the officiating was poor; back to back marginal charging calls going against us stalled our momentum at a critical juncture in the first half.

Finally, I've noticed what I hope is a transitory condition. The whole team seems to have taken to missing dunks! Yep for us a dunk has become a low percentage shot..It's not supposed to be that way guys. Probably over eagerness, not a bad thing, but I wish the misses would stop.

Overall I think we will do well at USC. Go Lions!

[ironlion]

USC is aweful- if lions play like they did tonight. It should be a win for sure

[slblions08]

UCI's fans were really annoying tonight. And their bench guys who will never play in an NCAA game were taunting our fans. It was pretty low class coming from a UC school.

That being said, their team was pretty solid. It was obvious that their coach figures they have one really good shot at making a run to the NCAA tournament and a Big West title, and that's via defense. Why Because they have a 7-6 guy who basically is as tree in the middle.

He did have some weakness in his game as all guys that are abnormally large do, but I was impressed with his moves around the basket and his awareness on the court. I think he only drew 2 fouls, and even though the officiating was terrible, I think he did a great job staying out of foul trouble as big guys like him usually suffer from. I noticed that he was hobbling on an ankle or knee, but obviously with scouts in the building he was going to play his ass off. Good for him.

That being said, their #3 is why we fell behind early. He was a tough scorer, very athletic for 6-8.

I think Patson really was fired up by playing the guy. I mean, I'm sure there are scouts for him too, especially from the international arena. I know I keep warning this, but with Patson being 21 and having been on that International Nike team a few years back, he's getting tracked. I hope he wants his degree because he just keeps impressing by getting better. He was really conscious of not getting fouls today so that he could hang in there to play against his counterpart. He is not your typical big man. He plays with energy and passion, likes to handle the ball, really gives up for his teammates even though he's not getting fed the basketball. I'd love to see him in a pick and roll situation more often.

I liked what I saw from Simon today. He played with way more confidence by stroking some shots and penetrating to the basket. While Matt is the quicker more offensive player, Simon was the best and getting other guys involved in good spots. To me, he was a different player. Those of you NBA followers, he reminds me a bit of a Lithuanian guard named Beno Udrih who won a couple titles with the Spurs and I think he's still sticking around. He was not above the rim, he's not rigid, but kind of flows around. If Simon can play like that, I actually like him better than Matt. It all depends on his defense and whether he can stick with the faster guys in the league.

Herman showed up in the second half, but I still would have liked to see more Mornar. I know Herman had the size to battle their bigs (wide bodies) but I think Mornar is just one of those glue guys. Humphries stroked it early and just when it looked like we were going to get blown out he hit those shots, but then he quit shooting. Deji picks his spots and got better on D as the game progressed. I think we can all agree that we lost because of getting behind early it just became too deep of a whole.

Going forward, I love that Dunlap showed trust in Patson to play a lot of minutes. It basically shows us that against the titans in conference hes going to put a lot of trust on him. But you're also right. We need a consistent wing player who is not afraid to shoot and that can play some D, probably one more good/active big.