Ned Mircetic was in his backyard Sunday afternoon, talking on the phone while he watered his lawn.

It had been days since the device had strayed far from his ears.

"Since Friday at three o'clock," said Mircetic.

It was then that word began to spread that Mircetic, the veteran Ventura College women's basketball coach, had lost his mind by adding the school's men's basketball program to his responsibilities for a one-year interim period.

"Congratulations, I think," Mircetic's neighbor, Robert Torres, told him.

Not everyone was so complimentary of the 54-year-old coach.

"Kim thinks I'm insane," said Mircetic of his wife.

Mircetic's boss, Steve Tobias, is the dean that manages the athletic department. "I have absolutely no comment," said Tobias, bluntly.

Coaching two teams simultaneously may be an impossible task, but Mircetic, at least, has a plan.

"I'm going to teach individual skills and fundamentals," said Mircetic. "I'm going to go in there with the same expectations that they're going to learn, going to work and going to improve."

And, of course, "they're going to play hard," said Mircetic, adding his program's motto. "I think if you're a basketball player and you really care, it's not going to be difficult to really buy into that."

The unusual move is physically possible because the entire Western State Conference schedule consists of doubleheaders, so Mircetic can coach back-to-back games. The school will add a part-time assistant to work with coach Jon Wyers during conflicts in the non-conference schedule.

But the results on game day are the least of Mircetic's task.

"I'm going to set the table for the next coach," said Mircetic, "so they can be their own man and coach the team. The foundation will already be built."

"The wins and losses on the floor in the coming year, as important as they are, will be minor compared to the infrastructure that will be waiting for the new coach when they take over."

The last time the program was mired in an investigation, the administration suspended the program for two years after the new coach, Red Hefferman, and some players left in the wake of sanctions.

This time, Mircetic will be on hand to absorb such blows.

"It's not in the college's best interests and the candidates' best interests to hire someone to just go out and put a finger in the dike," said Ric Ruffinelli, the team's public-address announcer. "If you have someone with the experience that Ned does, I think allowing him to functionally allow the program to keep going for a year makes a lot more sense. And it's a lot more fair for the candidates."

Tobias and Mircetic were part of a three-person search committee to find Greg Winslow's successor. Instead of hiring one of the candidates who was part of that process, college president Robin Calote decided on a short-term solution.

"I called it a long time ago," said Deborah Golden, a longtime supporter of both programs. "I've been telling Ned to do this for the last two months.

"I pushed for it all along because it makes sense. The program needs to be healed and he can heal it. It would have been a horrible transition for whoever the new coach would have been."

Part of the team's mentor program, psychology professor Lucy Capuano-Brewer currently works with Jessi Selleh, a sophomore on the women's team. She mentored Houston Rockets guard Rafer Alston when he was at Ventura.

"I think it was a wise choice," said Capuano-Brewer. "I think we have a really good shot of reformatting the team and providing the student-athletes with the support they need."

Mircetic's workload is lessened by the state of his women's recruiting class, which is expected to include Royal High tandem of Erika Ward and Kris King, Buena High point guard Amanda Padilla and former Ventura High forward Chanelle Brennan.

"My team is essentially complete," said Mircetic. "I'm real happy with the recruiting class. It makes all of this easier."

Mircetic made his first local recruiting men's calls over the weekend. Today, he'll begin meeting with the returning players and check on their academic status for the coming year.

"They're fortunate they have somebody of Ned's caliber to manage the program for a year and keep it from being a disaster from the student-athlete's perspective," said Ruffinelli.

"I don't expect him to import kids from around the country. I don't think they'll put a state championship team on the floor, although I do think they'll be competitive.

"But I don't think that's the focus. The focus is to create a good atmosphere. It's not a perfect solution, but certainly one that the college is fortunate to be able to make."