This New Bruin Recruit Comes Loaded for Bear

Walt Hazzard’s first recruiting coup at UCLA is a point guard from South Philadelphia named Jerome Richardson. But you can call him Pooh.

Nicknames like that generally come with a story explaining their origin. So, to explain about Pooh without further ado:

“That came from my grandmother,” Richardson said last week in Las Vegas, where his Ben Franklin High School team was playing in a tournament. “I’ve seen pictures and I have to admit, I was a fat baby. My legs, everything. I was fat. She just started calling me Pooh, after that bear.”

As in, Winnie the Pooh, of course.

“Then, my aunt started calling me that, and people on the street would start hearing it,” Richardson said. “I couldn’t get away from it. I think it’s going to stick with me for a long time.”

Laugh if you will, but withhold judgment until you see Pooh play. Until you see him dribble behind his back as if he’s been doing it since he was a cub. Until you see him lead the fast break.

And, oh, see Pooh pass. Richardson leads teammates to the basket the way Dan Marino leads receivers to the end zone. Statisticians may need a new word for some of Pooh’s passes. Assist just doesn’t seem to cover it.

There were plenty of college coaches asking Richardson to bring his nickname and his no-look bounce passes to their campuses after his graduation this spring. Georgetown’s John Thompson wanted Pooh in his back court. So did DePaul, Syracuse and Temple, to name just a few.

When it came time to decide, though, Richardson pooh-poohed the big names of college basketball present for a school currently hung up on the ghosts of basketball past. Pooh, the kid named for a fat little bear, decided to become a Bruin.

Hazzard landed his first big-name recruit against stiff competition, and news of Richardson’s signing Nov. 19 sparked praise for the salesman-like skills demonstrated by the first-year UCLA coach.

“Salesman . . . I don’t know,” Richardson said. “Great coach, great basketball player, but salesman? I’ve never seen him running around with a briefcase.”

Richardson said it didn’t take a hard-sell to persuade him to go to UCLA. He was attracted by the potential for national exposure and the prospect of starting as a freshman.

An assistant coach also held a special attraction for him. Richardson has been called the best playmaker in Philadelphia since former UCLA guard Andre McCarter. McCarter is the UCLA assistant who recruited him. What goes around, comes around.

“He was a big factor,” Richardson said. “I’ve known him since I was small. I watched him play as I was growing up.”

As a junior last season, Richardson led Ben Franklin to a 26-1 record. The Electrons won the Public League championship with a 17-0 record and finished the season as the top-ranked team in Pennsylvania. This season, they have an 8-1 record, having been upset by Santa Monica in the Las Vegas tournament. Richardson is averaging 21 points and six assists a game.

McCarter could relate to Richardson, particularly since both got pressure to spend their college careers close to home. Temple is just a long lob pass away from where Richardson grew up, and Philadelphia folks weren’t altogether pleased at the prospect of losing another native son to the West Coast.

“There was a lot of local pressure for me,” Richardson said. “People really wanted me to stay home. But it came down to what was going to best benefit me.”

Still, the Temple faction was persistent. Supporters there pointed to McCarter, claiming that his talents had been stifled at UCLA, and that consequently his pro career turned out to be far from spectacular.

“People used me as an example because my style was somewhat changed when I came to UCLA,” McCarter said. “In order to play in John Wooden’s system, I had to curtail some of my fancy stuff. But that was good for me. It taught me the importance of team play. It made me a better player.”

Richardson chose to ignore the skeptics. Reaction to his decision was mixed.

Ken Hamilton, Richardson’s coach at Ben Franklin, said: “The press (in Philadelphia) has been relatively clean about it. But there have been little things. There was one headline that said, ‘Pooh Defects.’ ”

UCLA’s recent bad fortunes didn’t scare Richardson, either. The castle may have crumbled, but Richardson figures it’s just a matter of time before Hazzard puts the walls back up and fills the moat with water. He also likes his chances of playing as a freshman, which he figures are better than at the schools that lost out in the Pooh derby. Besides, how many Temple games have Billy Packer or Al McGuire been to lately?

“They don’t get a lot of TV exposure,” Richardson said. “Back home, they have a cable station that shows their games. And when you get to Jersey, that’s where it stops. It’s not really what you’d call national recognition.

“And even with UCLA losing as many games as they’re losing now, they’re still playing on national television. I think I can really produce in that kind of situation.”

Hazzard is hoping that Richardson will bring to UCLA something it has been lacking in recent years.

“He’ll give us some of that East Coast attitude,” Hazzard said when Richardson announced his signing. “They’re a little more aggressive in the East, hungrier. Things that come from growing up on the streets.”

Richardson had trouble putting that attitude into words, but Hamilton was more precise.

“In the city, basketball is a way of life,” Hamilton said. “It’s more serious, because to be known as a good basketball player in Philadelphia . . . it just means so much.

“Like with Andre McCarter. There isn’t anything he can’t do in Philadelphia because he was known as one of the best basketball players to ever come out of there.”

McCarter agreed.

“The East Coast breeds a tough attitude,” he said. “In order to get something, you have to work hard for it.

“The environment that they grow up in is so competitive. Society in general is competitive, and you can take that to a basketball level. If you want to be somebody in basketball, there are a lot of guys out there you have to be better than.”

South Philadelphia has its share of tough streets, and some of them run right past Ben Franklin High.

“Trouble’s there for you if that’s what you’re looking for,” Hamilton said.

Richardson chose to look for basketball games, and not just pick-up games at local playgrounds. He said he has been playing organized basketball since the fifth grade.

“You talk about recruiting,” he said. “The reverend comes around to your house and asks you if you want to play for the church team. For real.”

People have been asking Pooh to play ever since. And when he said yes to Hazzard, it was looked upon as a Bruin victory, something they aren’t seeing much of at Westwood these days, unless you are talking about football.

Indeed, there may be a moral to this story of the Bruins’ new Winnie the Pooh. UCLA may be losing games, but it hasn’t yet lost all of its allure.