UC Irvine Notebook / John Weyler : Labat and McCloskey Hit Their Stride in Fast-Breaking Offense

After a 1-1 record in two exhibition games, it’s still unclear whether UC Irvine’s commitment to basketball on the run will mean a lot of victories to go along with all those points, but a couple of things are clear:

First, the fans seem to approve of the tempo. A crowd of 2,161 showed up for Saturday’s 121-119 exhibition victory over the Czechoslovakian National team. Irvine’s regular-season average last season was just 2,631.

Second, two players who didn’t figure to play key offensive roles this season have blossomed under the new system.

Junior Mike Labat, 6-foot 5-inch forward who started 21 games last season but shot only 43% from the floor and averaged 5 points and 3 rebounds, has scored 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the 2 exhibitions.

And freshman Brian McCloskey, who was not highly recruited out of Sunny Hills High School, has numbers to rival his senior year with the Lancers when he averaged 18 points and 14 rebounds. McCloskey has scored 36 points and picked up 11 rebounds in only 39 minutes of action.

Irvine had 15 offensive rebounds against the Czechs. Labat and McCloskey each had 4.

Not only have both players shown a knack for finding seams as both teams sprint down the floor, they’ve been able to take the ball to the basket with enough control to drop in a wide assortment of dunks, acrobatic layups and short bank shots.

In this year’s media guide, Coach Bill Mulligan says this about Labat: “Mike is a good defender, but he will have to shoot better this season.”

Labat, scoring mostly on high-speed layups off the break, has made 15 of 20 field goal attempts so far.

“I feel really comfortable in this style,” Labat said, “but I felt pretty comfortable last year, too. When you’re running the court like this, everyone has a chance to go to the hole.

“When I see an opening, I’ve been able to take advantage of it. I guess this style just suits my skills better.”

There weren’t a lot of coaches who shared Mulligan’s feelings about McCloskey’s Division-I potential. The 6-7, 175-pound forward supposedly was too skinny.

He expressed an interest in attending Loyola Marymount but was told he would have to walk on. Irvine offered him a scholarship.

It looks like a smart move at this point. McCloskey has made 15 of 27 shots from the floor and has looked a lot more like a veteran than a freshman. His slight build hasn’t been a factor in the running game.

“Yeah, I’ve been doing pretty well,” McCloskey said. “The guards are doing it, though. They’re getting me the ball when I’m open. We’ve put a lot of work into this running game and I really like it. Everything’s been going great so far.”

And they’re about to get better.

Mulligan has decided to move McCloskey into the starting lineup for the season opener against Georgia State in the first round of the Freedom Bowl tournament Nov. 25.

“You want to say, ‘Freshmen don’t start,’ but it’s about time we got him in the lineup. We’ve reached the point where he’s got to play.”

McCloskey got to this point in a hurry. Has his fast start exceeded his expectations?

“I’m really surprised I’m scoring like this,” he said. “I wasn’t even expecting to play that much. I was just hoping to get a feel for things during my freshman year.”

The running game and a lot of minutes could add up to some big-time statistics for a freshman who wasn’t considered a big-time recruit. McCloskey admits he wouldn’t mind sending a message to all those coaches who decided not to recruit him.

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” he said. “Real nice.”

Mike Hess, a starting guard on last season’s basketball team, is a graduate assistant for the Anteaters. Hess, who is working toward a master’s in business administration, has long maintained that he wants to become a basketball coach.

“During his freshman year, when he wasn’t playing much, he came into my office once to complain about a lack of playing time,” Mulligan said.

“I asked him if he really wanted to be a coach some day and he said, ‘Yes.’ So I said, ‘Do you think, when you’re a coach, that you’ll want some snotty-nose 17-year-old telling you how to run your team?’ ”

Hess, a quick learner, didn’t bother his coach with those kinds of questions anymore. He did, however, offer suggestions during games and, more often than not, Mulligan paid close attention.

“I’m going to get the degree and then pursue coaching,” Hess said. “I feel like I’ve got to give it a chance. I just can’t give up basketball. I just can’t walk away.”

Mulligan might be inclined to advise his protege to stay out of coaching, but he figures Hess will be a success in whatever he does.

“If Mike wants to coach, he’s going to be a heckuva coach,” Mulligan said. “I don’t know if I’d choose coaching if I had an MBA, though. He’d probably be happier if he went some other way . . . especially on paydays.”

The latest American Volleyball Coaches Assn. rankings have the Irvine women’s team tied for seventh with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the Northwest region.

Eight teams from the region are guaranteed National Collegiate Athletic Assn. playoff berths, but there’s a hitch. The winner of the Mountain West Athletic Conference gets an automatic spot and the MWAC’s two best teams--Boise State and Weber State--are tied for eighth in the regional rankings, which means somebody in the top eight could get bumped.

So an Irvine loss tonight at Fresno State could mean the end of the Anteaters’ hopes for their first trip to the NCAAs. A victory at Fresno and a win over UC Santa Barbara at Irvine Saturday night would just about assure Irvine a playoff spot. A loss to UCSB (ranked sixth in the region) after a victory at Fresno shouldn’t keep the Anteaters out.

And then there’s always a chance for an at-large bid.

“I hope it doesn’t end up being a name-recognition thing,” Irvine Coach Mike Puritz said. “Cal Poly’s got the name, but we’ve beaten them twice this season. It’s hard to get in the tournament for the first time.”

The Anteaters (18-10 overall and 7-9 in the Big West) will find out their playoff fate Nov. 27.

Anteater Notes

Dean Andrea, women’s basketball coach, has signed two players to national letters of intent. Yvonne Katala, a 6-1 forward from A&M; Consolidated High School in College Station, Tex., and Kim Cox, a 6-4 center from Granada Hills High in Livermore, Calif., signed Wednesday. Katala averaged 22 points, 12 rebounds and 6 steals last season. Cox averaged 11 points and 13 rebounds. . . . The men’s water polo team, ranked sixth in the country, should receive its 17th invitation to the NCAA tournament Sunday when the 8-team field is announced. Irvine (16-7 overall and 7-2 in the Big West) is host of the event scheduled Nov. 25-27 at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach. . . . The committee putting together a proposal that could bring Division III football to Irvine is working on a new draft of the student referendum and might not have it ready for a January vote, as originally planned.

Junior Brian Pajer of Mission Viejo set two records during the USC Swimming Invitational last weekend. Pajer trimmed almost 2 1/2 seconds off the 100-meter breaststroke mark with a time of 57.41. He also smashed the record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:05.56. . . . Bill Mulligan, on his desire to schedule Loyola Marymount: “We want to play Loyola every year. We don’t care where we play them. We’ll play them here or there. We’ll play them outside. But they can’t make room for us on their schedule. They have to play USIU. And then there’s that big game with Azusa Pacific. I said all this to (Loyola Coach Paul) Westhead, but he said, ‘Don’t bother me, I used to coach in the pros.’ ” (Note: Chances are very good Westhead didn’t really say that).