Tar Heels Prove Too Tall and Too Good for UCLA

They staged a different kind of Great American Smokeout in tobacco country Sunday night.

North Carolina and its chain-smoking coach, Dean Smith, torched UCLA, 107-70, before the 175th straight sellout crowd of 10,000 at Carmichael Auditorium.

It may have been the worst UCLA defeat in history. It was at least the worst since before the 1939-40 season, which is the first for which scores are listed in the Bruin media guide.

Afterward, the smoke rising in Carmichael was coming out of the ears of Walt Hazzard, who hinted that he’d seen enough Carolina blue.

The Bruins’ second-year coach said he wouldn’t be able to get this loss out of his mind “until I walk the streets and find somebody to fight. Maybe I’ll go into the woods and see if I can find a bear to get into a fight with.”

This was supposed to have been the first of four games between the schools over the next four seasons, but Hazzard indicated that he’d prefer to have seen the last of the Tar Heels.

“I don’t see any reason for me to start my season with North Carolina every year,” he said.

Later, he asked to speak with Smith, and the two talked privately for about 15 minutes in a hallway under the stands.

Asked what was discussed, Smith said: “That’s a private conversation. Whatever he said to you all--I have no comment.”

Will the series continue?

“You’ll have to talk to Coach Hazzard about that,” Smith said.

Earlier in the week, Smith said the series had come about at the suggestion of UCLA Chancellor Charles Young. Smith then suggested that UCLA help the Tar Heels inaugurate their new 21,426-seat Student Activities Center. The center, however, wasn’t finished in time for Sunday’s game.

In any event, this game certainly wasn’t Hazzard’s idea.

UCLA came in with a center, Jack Haley, who didn’t even play basketball at Huntington Beach High School, and played only five minutes a game for the Bruins last season after transferring from Golden West College.

Haley’s got more experience now, if not much to show for it.

In 26 minutes, he made one of five shots and had two rebounds, which is bad enough. What’s worse is, North Carolina’s All-ACC center, Brad Daugherty, didn’t miss any of his 13 shots and scored a career-high 31 points as Haley provided only minimal resistance. Daugherty’s backup, Warren Martin, had 13 points and 8 rebounds.

“I had a whole lot of questions about our size and our ability to deal with big people,” Hazzard said. “And they went inside the second half and just ran over us.”

UCLA’s frontline, including reserves, was outscored by North Carolina’s, 68-32, and outrebounded, 24-13.

In other words, the questions remain.

UCLA stayed close through the first half, leading by as many as eight points before the Tar Heels pulled ahead at halftime, 44-38.

The second half started with UCLA’s Montel Hatcher missing a jumper and Daugherty scoring on the other end, then Haley banging a jump hook off the rim and North Carolina scoring on a jumper by Joe Wolf. A steal by Steve Hale and a follow shot by Dave Popson gave the Tar Heels six straight points to start the second half.

Suddenly, they led by 12 points. Still, it looked as if UCLA might keep the score respectable until a bizarre play midway through the half.

On a 2-on-1 fast break, Daugherty scored on a pass from Kenny Smith over UCLA’s Corey Gaines, who was called for an intentional foul.

Under new rules this season, the call gave Daugherty 1-and-1. Hazzard was furious, let his feelings be known and was slapped with a technical foul. Daugherty then made two free throws, Hale followed with two more and North Carolina got the ball out of bounds.

Smith then made a jump shot, giving the Tar Heels an eight-point play and a 22-point lead with 9:25 remaining.

As Hale said, “It kind of collapsed on them in a hurry.”

It only got worse after that.

North Carolina shot 72.7% in the second half and 66.2% overall.

In his postgame meeting with the media, Hazzard at first refused to discuss the play, but later he finally said: “I didn’t think it was an intentional foul. . . . I thought that (call) was totally uncalled for on that play.”

Said Gaines, whose elbow struck Daugherty in the stomach: “I was trying to brace myself. If I was going to foul somebody on purpose, I’d put both my arms around him and grab him.”

Hazzard made it clear that he was not pleased with the officiating, but he shied away from saying anything more controversial. He pointed out several times that the Bruins shot “no free throws” in the second half, when in fact they had shot two, and missed both.

North Carolina made 15 of 18.

“I’m not going to criticize the officials,” he said. “Why cry about the officials. We took this game, we came and played and got our butts whipped.

“They’re more physical than we are and they took advantage of their physicalness. And when we tried to play them, they went to the free throw line.”

And beat the Bruins by 37 points.

“I didn’t realize that,” Smith said. “You sure?”

UCLA Notes

Reggie Miller caused a little bit of a stir among the local media when he said: “It’s hard for us to win in the South.” Later, he said the statement was not meant to be racial. “It’s just hard to win down here,” he said. “That’s my final statement.” . . . The Bruins open at home Friday at 7:30 p.m. against St. Mary’s.