UCLA and Irish Have Guards Up : Richardson, Hatcher to Go Against Rivers and Stevenson Today

David Rivers was a freshman sensation last season when he came in from Jersey City, became the point guard for Notre Dame and put a little more zip in the Irish attack.

This season, Pooh Richardson has come from Philadelphia and done the same thing for UCLA.

No doubt there will be some comparisons when UCLA and Notre Dame play here this afternoon on national television.

Alongside Rivers, the now-sophomore sensation who leads the Irish with 18.6 points, Notre Dame has a another rookie starting at the shooting guard spot, Mark Stevenson. He, like Richardson, is from Philadelphia.

Richardson is from Overbrook High, and Stevenson is from Roman Catholic High, but they are old friends. Richardson said: “He’s a close friend. We knew each other since the fifth grade.”

They know one another on the basketball court from one of Sonny Hill’s camps, and from countless meetings on neighborhood playgrounds, since Stevenson lived near Richardson’s cousin, Jimmy.

Alongside Richardson in the Bruin lineup is junior Montel Hatcher, who is the team’s second-leading scorer with an average of 16.3 points a game.

That makes four attention-getting guards in this particular game.

“It’s not the year of the big man, it’s the year of the guard,” Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said. “There are some good centers, but there’s not a Patrick Ewing and a Ralph Sampson. A lot of teams have guys 6-9, 6-10 who have good strength and can do more things for them inside.

“But overall, this is more a year for guards. I think UCLA has a great pair of guards in Pooh Richardson and Montel Hatcher. UCLA has good quickness and shooting ability. They don’t have a (Kareem Abdul-) Jabbar or a (Bill) Walton, but they can do other things to win.”

UCLA will have 6-10 Jack Haley at center, and he’ll have his hands full with Notre Dame’s 6-9 Tim Kempton. Kempton is a senior third-year starter who played a lot as a freshman. He plays a physical game. Haley is not nearly as experienced.

UCLA is missing one of its strongest center-forwards now that Kelvin Butler is out with an abdominal muscle injury. But Jerald Jones, a former football player, presumably will be available to come off the bench to help Haley and big forward Craig Jackson. Jones was not allowed to play in Thursday night’s game against Arizona State, but Coach Walt Hazzard would not say what Jones’ transgression had been.

The tallest player on the Irish front line is 6-10 senior forward Ken Barlow, who averages 14.7 points a game.

UCLA’s Reggie Miller is now averaging 25.3 points a game. Miller had 35 points Thursday night, making 9 of 15 shots, and Hatcher, with an even hotter hand, had 27, making 13 of 16 shots.

“UCLA can be a very explosive team,” Phelps said. “They’re going to be a very successful team. To me, they look like an NCAA tournament team.

“Last season, their record wasn’t good early, but they improved as the season went on. that’s a credit to Walt Hazzard’s coaching.”

UCLA’s record is 8-4, but the Bruins have played only three games on the road and have lost two of them. Notre Dame is off to a 9-2 start, having played Indiana, LaSalle, Providence, DePaul and Brigham Young on the road. This will be Notre Dame’s first game at home since Dec. 30.

The Irish won three of four on their last trip, winding up with a loss in overtime at Brigham Young.

Notre Dame assistant coach Gary Brokaw scouted UCLA’s 25-point loss at Washington. Asked if maybe it would be best for the Irish if they didn’t know how bad UCLA can be, Phelps said: “I can go back to the NIT championship game and see that they can be very good, too. Obviously (Washington center Chris) Welp played very, very well. For them to bounce back at Washington State is impressive.

“I’m not going to have to go in and give a Gipper speech to convince my team that this is not going to be an easy game. The tradition of the Notre Dame-UCLA series takes care of that.

“The UCLA game has always been the game for us. I don’t have to go into the history of the series.

“UCLA is a very deceptive team. They have excellent talent. They’d like to come in here and win. I look at them as a team that’s ready to explode.”

Bruin Notes UCLA’s game at Notre Dame today will be nationally televised by NBC (Channel 4, 11:30 a.m. PST). It will also be broadcast on KMPC (710). . . . UCLA has won its last four games at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps is still saying that he’s disappointed that UCLA cut the series from two games a year to one. “I don’t like these years that I don’t get to go to Pauley Pavilion,” he said. “I miss the way the students there boo me.” Phelps will probably be getting some more trips to Los Angeles, though, because Notre Dame and USC are trying to work out scheduling for an annual basketball game on the same weekend as the Notre Dame-USC football game.

UCLA forward Kelvin Butler made the trip to Notre Dame but is not expected to play. He is out indefinitely with a partial tear of an abdominal muscle. . . . Guard Corey Gaines, who suffered a hip pointer in practice Wednesday, will be available to play but is listed as questionable. . . . Bruin forward Reggie Miller, who has had two straight 35-point games, was sixth in the nation in scoring as of Tuesday with an average of 24.5 points a game.

Phelps on his guards: “David Rivers is more confident this season. He knows the team personnel better and, having been through a season, he knows what he can do. Mark Stevenson has had a very good start as a freshman. We knew he’d be solid. David Rivers makes anybody look good.”