Bruins Try N.Y. Again : Hazzard, Club Get Chance to Atone for Earlier Rout

UCLA’s Bruins, who were run out of town in their last trip, are back tonight as honored guests. UCLA, Indiana and Louisville, three schools the National Invitation Tournament wouldn’t have dared aspire to, are here for the 48th NIT in Madison Square Garden.

The Hoosiers will play Tennessee in the first game at 3, PST. Then the Bruins, who beat Louisville in February, 75-65, will play the Cardinals again at 6:15. The winners will meet Friday for the title.

Indiana and Louisville started the season hoping to be this far along in the NCAA right now. Indiana was listed fourth in the nation in Street and Smith magazine’s preseason ratings.

That was before Coach Bob Knight began experimenting with his lineup and his traveling party. After a loss at Ohio State, he wouldn’t let two players return on the team plane, sending them on another. For a game at Illinois, he started four freshmen. During a loss at home to Purdue, he threw a chair across the floor, was ejected and then later suspended. He sat out a game in which Indiana was routed at Iowa. The Hoosiers finished 15-13, and seventh in the Big Ten.

Louisville returned three starters from a 24-11 team and was ranked 17th. Then, after opening the season with a victory at Indiana, the Cardinals lost preseason All-American guard Milt Wagner and then his backup, high school All-American Kevin Walls, to injuries. Louisville finished 16-16 and missed the NCAA for the third time in Denny Crum’s 14 seasons.

The Bruins started this season keeping any thought of postseason play to themselves. They had one starter back from a 17-11 season, having lost Coach Larry Farmer, leading scorer Kenny Fields, playmaker and captain Ralph Jackson and center Stuart Gray. They were not picked in any top 20, nor were they among the 52 teams that got votes in the Associated Press poll.

Also, they had never been to an NIT, having turned down their only bid last spring.

Then they started 3-6, losing nationally televised routs at DePaul, Memphis State and St. John’s. This is their first time back since the Redmen took them apart on Dec. 22, 88-69.

UCLA had just lost a tough game two days before at Brigham Young in which Reggie Miller and Corey Gaines had gotten into a spitting duel with BYU’s Timo Saarelainen.

Miller had acknowledged it publicly, and Hazzard suspended him for the first half in New York. By the time Miller got in, the game was over, although Miller’s absence wasn’t as important then as it would have been later. Miller had not yet started to come on. He had taken down 11 rebounds in his first seven games. Hazzard had used him for only 20 minutes against Memphis State.

Hazzard opened in a full-court press against St. John’s. The Redmen, used to running Georgetown’s press, tore it apart. CBS’s Billy Packer said on the air that Hazzard should play some kind of “junk” defense since “they can’t guard anyone.”

The Bruins were accused of quitting. Hazzard, himself, said after the game that he had been disappointed by his team’s lack of effort, and vowed to sit his starters down.

Even if it meant playing younger, less established players?

“Even it if means using younger, less reputed players,” Hazzard said.

Freshman forward Craig Jackson was said to be crying in the dressing room. Hazzard was later seen in the St. John’s dressing room, looking disconsolate, getting a pep talk from St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca. Hazzard later said the flight home was one of the longest of his life.

But the Bruins went home, beat Oral Roberts, flew to Corvallis, Ore., and opened the conference season by playing Oregon State tough in a 59-49 loss. Since, they have won 16 of 22. Of the six losses, five were by one point or in overtime.

They held their Pacific 10 opponents to 41.5% from the floor, lowest in the conference. In the NIT quarterfinals, they held Fresno State, the nation’s top defensive team, to 43 points.

One of the Bruin victories, possibly their most impressive, was in Pauley Pavilion in February against Louisville. The Bruins took a 22-point lead before cruising in.

Crum, who normally plays a man-to-man, opened in a zone defense. He was then trying a three-forward lineup with his off-guard, 6-4 Jeff Hall, at the point and his power forward, 6-7 Billy Thompson, at the off-guard. He feared that the Cardinals were to slow too match up.

When the Bruins got over their surprise, they bombed the Cardinals into submission. Miller made 12 of 16 shots and scored 27 points.

“I guess they haven’t seen us play much,” Hazzard said after that game.

“Those aren’t shots you make every day,” Crum said.

Since then, Crum has returned Hall and Thompson to their normal positions and installed 6-4 freshman Mike Abram at the point. Crum is expected to play anything--man-to-man, gimmick, half-court press, you name it--before he lets Miller see another zone. Even if he’s missing some guards, Crum still has a roster jammed with athletes, starting with Thompson, who called up UCLA’s Nigel Miguel before their first meeting, promised to dunk over him and lived up to his word.

The Bruins will play man-to-man, too, and probably better than they did last time here.