COLLEGES:

Pat Douglass would rather have been on the first tee than the 16th floor Thursday morning, where the veteran UC Irvine men’s basketball coach was doing his best to sell his program to a bunch of button-downed real estate agents, most of whom would have likely pegged ’Eater Nation as some sort of club for the nutritionally challenged.

But there Douglass, entering his 12th season after becoming UCI’s all-time coaching victories leader last season, was, at a Newport Beach Grubb & Ellis conference room, as part of a “Coaches Tour” outreach effort initiated by a quickly growing UCI athletic marketing department. This was the first of at least eight scheduled dates with community groups designed to win friends and, hopefully, influence season-ticket sales for a schedule that includes home games against Oregon (Nov. 21) and Utah (Dec. 27).

Call it Schmooze-a-Palooza.

Boy Scout leaders, alumni, students, as well as members of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce and the Junior League were all future targets for Douglass and newly hired UCI Community Marketing Director Edie Gobel. Gobel also spoke briefly and handed out packets of ticket brochures, as well as a catering menu and a coupon for an eatery sponsoring the tour.

Douglass encouraged audience members to enjoy the social aspects of attending games at the 5,000-seat Bren Events Center, where UCI won nine of its 10 games last season. He also noted that the networking and future employment opportunities they could provide his players, whom he praised as quality kids, would be a reciprocal benefit he could then use in future recruiting.

And with typically only one sellout a year (the annual homecoming game), good seats are surely available.

Douglass touted UCI as a competitive program with “fringe NBA talent,” and noted that many of his players are making a successful living playing overseas, such as 2008 graduates Darren Fells (Belgium) and Patrick Sanders (negotiating with Italy after a brief summer stint with the Sacramento Kings).

Douglass also pointed out that all of his seniors over the last seven years had graduated.

He also mentioned that Kobe Bryant has regularly worked out at the UCI practice facility the last two seasons, though tickets for these sessions are, as yet, not being marketed.

Gobel, hired in June, said the tour is the brainchild of Robby Ray, assistant athletic director of marketing and corporate relations.

Gobel also said Athletic Director Mike Izzi, who is all about an expanded community profile for UCI athletics, is also very supportive of the program.

Obviously, every little bit helps and Douglass, anxious to impress with two seasons left on his contract and still no NCAA Tournament appearances, is happy to take one for the tee time.

Turns out, Thursday’s meeting may have been on the ground floor, after all.

 Douglass revealed Thursday that Aaron England, a 6-foot-5 guard who transferred from College of Eastern Utah, after redshirting one season at Utah State, left the program and returned home after just one day in Irvine.

England shot 38% from three-point range while starting all 29 games last season at Eastern Utah and was an all-state performer at a high school in West Valley, Utah, where he averaged 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists as a senior.

 Douglass also said Darren Moore, a 6-2 guard who transferred from Citrus College, is recovering from a knee injury sustained over the summer. Douglass said Moore’s status for the upcoming season has yet to be determined.

 Former UCI baseball assistant coach Jason Gill was introduced Thursday as the head coach at Loyola Marymount, where he takes over for Frank Cruz, who was fired in July.

Cruz is a good friend of UCI Coach Mike Gillespie.

Gill helped then-coach John Savage resurrect the Anteaters’ program after a nine-season hiatus as the UCI recruiting coordinator from 2001 through 2004.

He left Irvine to become an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, where he left at the end of the 2007 campaign to join former Titans Coach George Horton’s staff at Oregon.

Gill, a Mater Dei High graduate who played one season at Cal State Fullerton, had been an assistant at LMU in 1999 and 2000.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].