Getting With the System

By PAUL McLEOD

Jan. 31, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

This day has been in the back of their minds for months now, yet neither Jerry Green nor his UC Irvine teammates could have imagined the importance of their Big West Conference showdown with Utah State tonight at 7 in the Bren Center.

“It will be a true test of just where we stand,” said Green, the Anteaters’ junior guard.

Irvine and Utah State are atop the Big West standings, each with a perfect conference record. But while the Aggies (18-2, 7-0), the defending champions, are used to this sort of thing, the same can’t be said for Irvine (15-2, 7-0).

The Anteaters are off to their best start since they went 16-1 to begin the 1981-82 season. The last time they were in first place was February 1996, when they shared it briefly with Long Beach State.

But Irvine lost five of its last seven games that year and hasn’t had a winning season since.

The Anteaters are enjoying the type of breakout campaign they have been hoping for since Coach Pat Douglass arrived 3 1/2 years ago. They have defeated two Pac-10 teams, California and Washington, and nearly upset UCLA in Pauley Pavilion. And they have tied a school record with 11 consecutive victories, first accomplished in 1971-72 when Irvine was a Division II school.

“I knew for sure that we would do well,” Green said, “but I did not expect us to be playing with a record like this.”

These are no longer the Anteaters who squandered leads, gave away games and suffered through some blowouts. According to Green, he and his teammates were just too immature to recognize just how talented they could be. They found it difficult to comprehend all of Douglass’ offensive schemes. This season, however, everything has clicked.

“We started listening to the coaches,” Green said. “We all were buying into what they were saying. It took two years for us to get it, to do it right.”

Green has led the Anteaters in scoring each of his three seasons. He ranks 14th in career points at Irvine. Overall, he’s averaging 17.7 points this season, and against conference opponents, 21.7 points, best in the Big West.

Green scored a career-high 32 points in Irvine’s 57-37 nonconference victory at St. Mary’s on Jan. 3. He followed that with 31 points in a come-from-behind 85-80 victory at Pacific on Jan. 6. In the process, he drew rave reviews from opponents.

Pacific Coach Bob Thomasson called Green a constant “thorn in our side.” Tiger guard Maurice McLemore said it was impossible to contain him.

“I couldn’t control him down the stretch,” McLemore said of Green. “He beat me.”

Over the last eight games, Green has averaged 23.3 points. But Cal State Fullerton held him to 11 points on Jan. 26.

“I can’t always be Superman,” Green explained.

UC Santa Barbara threw a box-and-one defense against Green last Thursday and he still managed 16 points, six rebounds and four assists in a 66-56 victory.

On Saturday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Green led all scorers with 24 points, making 10 of 11 free throws in a 75-63 victory.

Utah State is bound to throw the kitchen sink at him tonight.

That’s fine with Green and Douglass, who are eager to prove Irvine is more than a one-man show.

“We have good players besides Jerry Green,” Douglass said. “Although Jerry has been on a roll recently.”

Green was an all-state guard out of Pomona High, a cat-quick performer who went on to become the 1999 Big West freshman of the year and a second-team all-conference selection last season.

He figured to be the shooting guard this season, but when starting point guard Malachi Edmond was slowed by injury early in the season, Green returned to point guard.

Now that Edmond is back in the lineup, Douglass said he enjoys having the option of playing Green at either position. Green can even post up, as he proved against San Luis Obispo.

But he’s at his best with the ball in his hands.

“Jerry can run,” senior forward Ben Jones said. “When we push it up, that’s where our strength is.”

Douglass said Green’s emergence as team leader is a direct result of Green realizing he didn’t need to shoot the lights out all the time for the Anteaters to be successful.

“Ben led us in scoring for the first half of the year,” Douglass said. “But Jerry has been our top scorer in his first two years and I think the other players know that. If he hadn’t been our leading scorer, then things may have been different.

“There were games in which he was not scoring well and he was not a malcontent. He was not complaining.”

Green said his biggest complaint this season has been that the Anteaters haven’t learned to put teams away. While they can build big leads--like the 18-point cushion they enjoyed at San Luis Obispo--rarely are the final scores indicative of how well they’ve played.

“That’s our problem,” Green said. “We’ve got to take care of that because it’s something we’re lacking. When we are up on a team, we have to stay up, but we let down a bit and don’t bury them.”

Burying Utah State tonight isn’t likely to be an issue, Green said. A victory, however, is.

“It should be a battle,” he said. “It’s the two best teams in the conference.”