Tar Heels Are Ready for Bruins

In a bow to tradition, North Carolina basketball Coach Dean Smith hand-picked UCLA to help the Tar Heels dedicate their new 21,462-seat Student Activities Center.

And, perhaps, to further illustrate that the torch has been passed in college basketball.

In the 10 years since UCLA won the last of its 10 NCAA championships, North Carolina has been the sport’s winningest team. A big win by the Tar Heels in their new arena might hammer that point home.

Construction delays, however, have rendered the SAC useless for tonight’s game (Channel 2 and ESPN, 4 p.m. PST). The game will be played instead at cozy Carmichael Auditorium, the 10,000-seat “Blue Heaven” that has been sold out for 181 of 184 games since it was opened in 1965, including 174 straight.

UCLA might prefer a little SAC time.

“It’s sometimes so loud in there that it hurts,” Fred Kiger, an announcer for the school’s radio sports network and a former basketball stat keeper, said of Blue Heaven.

Said UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard: “It’s not going to be much fun. We’ll be outnumbered. At least my mother and father will be there. I’ll have my mother’s shoulder to cry on.”

Smith’s 25th Tar Heel team--he is college basketball’s winningest active coach with 551 victories--is ranked among everybody’s top five in preseason polls. Seven of the top eight players are back from a 27-9 team that lost to NCAA champion Villanova in the Southeast Regional final.

Does UCLA’s name mean anything to these guys?

“I think it still has some meaning,” Tar Heel senior guard Steve Hale said. “I don’t think it strikes fear in the hearts of the rest of the nation, as it did 15 years ago. However, most of us are old enough to remember the dynasty years, and there’s a lot that goes with the name, a lot of pride that goes with it.”

A lot of pride goes with the Tar Heel name, too. UCLA, 4-9 on the road in Hazzard’s maiden voyage last season, may be reminded of that in a big way tonight.

Blue Heaven can be hell on opponents.

Bruin Notes

Coach Walt Hazzard is expected to start a lineup of Reggie Miller and Craig Jackson at forwards, Jack Haley at center and Corey Gaines and Montel Hatcher at guards. Hatcher has missed about a month of practice with a pulled muscle in his left leg. . . . How tough is it to get a ticket at North Carolina’s Carmichael Auditorium? A faculty member who had been on staff for nine years and applied for season tickets every year would be seeing his first game as a season ticket-holder tonight. . . . North Carolina is 164-20 at Carmichael. . . . UNC’s Student Activities Center is now scheduled to open Jan. 18 when the Tar Heels play Duke.