Something’s missing at Wooden Classic, and it’s not just Coach

The Wooden family and UCLA players lingered together at midcourt, draping arms, pumping fists, feeling Coach, everybody quick, nobody hurrying.

“Every game, he is with us,” Bruins center Josh Smith said after UCLA’s 86-79 upset of No. 16 Brigham Young on Saturday. “It feels good to win this for him.”

No UCLA basketball celebration is as emotional as the party thrown when the Bruins win the game at the event named after John Wooden, but this one tugged the blue hearts particularly hard.

It was the first Wooden Classic since Wooden’s death in June.

And it might be the last.

“Oh, I really, really hope that isn’t the case,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said.

Believe it. This wonderful annual tribute at the Honda Center may have happened for the final time, the Wooden Classic being 17 years old and sadly all worn out, the contract expiring this year with no certain hope of renewal.

“We’re still talking, but we’re optimistic” said Greg Wooden, Coach’s oldest grandson.

No comment, said the Anaheim Arena Management organizing group, whose actions spoke louder than words.

This being the first major Southern California event linked to Wooden since his death, you might think there would be a commemorative program honoring his life. There was not. There was no program at all, only a simple scorecard.

“That was disappointing,” said Nan Muehlhausen, Wooden’s daughter.

This being the one tournament in Southern California that contains Wooden’s name, you might think that name would be emblazoned on a logo on the court. It was not. It looked like just another game.

“That was a shame,” Greg Wooden said.

Finally, with UCLA playing in the only game this season that is convenient for their Orange County fans, one might think the place would be nearly full. It wasn’t, with announced attendance only 12,499, and bunches of empty seats everywhere.

Part of the apathy was the vanilla first-game matchup of St. Mary’s and Long Beach State. The event was also hurt by the rain. But goodness, UCLA can’t even fill a house against a nationally ranked opponent on the one day honoring basketball’s greatest coach?

“We would really like a bigger crowd here, but we know we have to bring in the top teams to make that happen,” said Greg.

But it’s not happening and, as the Wooden Classic is currently constituted, it might not happen.

With more teams using their holiday time to play in tournaments in which they can play more than one game — eight teams played three games each in the recent 76 Classic at the Anaheim Convention Center — the Wooden has become a scheduling dinosaur. It’s also difficult to draw fans to a venue that is not known for basketball, especially when it can be a 90-minute drive from the Bruins’ biggest fan base.

The John Wooden Tradition game in Indianapolis — the other Wooden game — has been canceled for this season. Could the Wooden Classic be next?

“‘That can’t happen,” Howland said. “We have to keep doing whatever we can to honor Coach.”

The Classic’s best hope for survival in Anaheim is that Henry Samueli, a huge Bruins booster who even has a campus building named after him, owns Anaheim Arena Management and might push to make the changes to make this a relevant event again.

But maybe it’s time to leave Anaheim. Why not find another organizer and move it up to Staples Center? Or it put in the potentially remodeled Forum? Or rest it a year and then make it the centerpiece weekend in the new Pauley Pavilion?

Teams are often reluctant to play in the Classic because, even in Anaheim, they figure it is a UCLA home game. So give them another game, two games each for four teams over a December weekend, the winners and losers on Saturday play each other on Sunday.

“Whatever it takes to keep this going,” Howland said.

A continued resurgence by his young team would help. Did you watch them knock around the previously unbeaten Cougars? Could you believe this was the same Howland team that finished 14-18 last season and was embarrassed by Mississippi State in this game?

“We’re young, but we’re starting to get it,” said Howland, who is not prone to hyperbole. “If we play hard the way we can, we can beat anybody on a given night.”

Check out Tyler Honeycutt, a sophomore with NBA skills and smarts, sinking big three-pointers with a shrug. Check out Reeves Nelson, last year’s tough guy becoming a more complete player, throwing down a monster dunk in crunch time. Check out Malcolm Lee, who played bump-and-grind defense on Jimmer Fredette, the BYU star scoring 25 points but knocked off balance enough to miss every big shot.

Finally, check out Smith, a huge freshman who stretches his jersey to the screaming point, the big kid taking charges and making free throws and doing things that oversized freshmen don’t do.

When asked about Wooden, Smith shook his head and said softly, “I never got a chance to meet him.”

But through his teammates’ efforts and the Wooden family’s excitement, he saw Coach on Saturday. We all did.

At any cost, in any gym, it is a vision worth keeping.

bill.plaschke@latimes.com

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