UCLA’S INSIDE GAME HAS BEEN LEFT OUT : Bruin Big Men Want a Larger Role in Offense : Haley, Foster Say They’d Like Opportunity to Shoot the Ball

Walt Hazzard arrived at Pauley Pavilion wearing the type of expression that could break a pane of glass. He snatched the cap off his head and threw it to the floor.

He jammed a whistle into his mouth, and through clenched teeth sounded a warning: “This is not going to be a fun practice.”

Fun is on leave these days at UCLA, where the Bruins appear to be a clear-cut choice to emerge as the most unsatisfying 13-5 team in Pacific 10 history.

For a team with a 9-1 record in its last 10 games, there seems to be a lot to worry about.

But maybe that’s an illusion. Maybe everything is really going to be just fine after all, and the Bruins will float right through the rest of the season and the Pac-10 tournament on a stream of jump shots.

Then again, maybe they won’t.

Maybe those jumpers aren’t going to fall and maybe the Bruins are going to sink like a rock because of one major weakness.

“Despite their glaring inadequacy, they still have the ability to win close games,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “To me, that’s the real story at UCLA this year.”

Wait a minute. What about the other story? What “glaring inadequacy?”

Raveling was referring to the same inadequacy that several other Pac-10 coaches who have seen the Bruins play this year already know about.

What they’re talking about, is the Bruins’ inside game, the most under-used part of the Bruin team, a weakness that is finally being exposed.

At UCLA, the inside game seems to be fine except in two areas: Offense and defense. Said one Pac-10 coach: “It’s a joke.”

The inside game revolves around big men.

Consider defense: Thursday night against Washington, 6-foot 10-inch, 230-pound Phil Zevenbergen and 7-0, 245-pound Chris Welp combined for 43 points and 28 rebounds as the Huskies beat UCLA, 95-87.

And on offense Sunday against Washington State, 6-10 Bruin center Jack Haley and 6-11 backup Greg Foster played a combined 20 minutes in the first half and get no points, no rebounds and two shots. They finished with 39 minutes, 2 points, 4 shots and 6 rebounds, but UCLA won anyway, 61-60.

Inside game? What inside game? Haley, who said the Bruins have only one offensive play designed for the center, said it isn’t used very much.

“It’s not even called in practice,” he said.

But Haley also said it’s not fair to say that the Bruins don’t have an inside game.

“Sure, we have one,” he said. “It’s just not utilized. The coaches would just prefer to live and die by the jumper. They have so much faith in great shooters like Reggie Miller and Montel Hatcher that 99% of the shots are taken from outside positions.”

The Bruins are not ignoring their big men by mistake. Hazzard said UCLA is just playing to its strength.

“There’s no question our strength is our outside players,” he said. “Our best inside players are all young--(Trevor) Wilson, (Kevin) Walker and Foster, they’re all freshmen.

“(Perimeter shooting) is just the profile of this team,” Hazzard said. “That’s part of the way we play. But I also think that our inside game will improve, game by game.”

Foster, who averaged 21 points a game in high school, said he isn’t sure. Right now, he doesn’t know how to judge the inside game, which he grades as incomplete.

“We’ll never find out whether it’s good, bad or indifferent until we use it,” he said. “I’m not trying to be selfish at all. I just think we can utilize it a little more.”

There is also more to an inside game than offense. The Pac-10 is pretty close to a wasteland for big men, but the ones that are around usually hurt the Bruins. Welp had 40 points in the first UCLA game. Oregon State’s 6-11 center Jose Ortiz scored 31 points.

Washington Coach Andy Russo said he wouldn’t be surprised if UCLA changes the way it does business next year, when Miller and Hatcher are gone.

“I definitely think UCLA has got very talented people,” he said. “They’ve got great perimeter players now, but Reggie and Hatcher are seniors and perhaps after they go, they’ll look to go inside more.”

Russo could afford to say nice things. The Huskies were 2-0 against UCLA. Washington State Coach Len Stevens, who was 1-1 against the Bruins, wasn’t as charitable.

“They need to get it inside more, that’s obvious,” Stevens said. “You stop their running game and their outside shooting and they don’t have anything to fall back on. But I really think they’re going to be O.K. because the tournament is at their place and they know they can win there.”

Raveling said that Hazzard is only playing the style that complements his talent, but he also admitted that the Bruins’ may eventually find themselves in real trouble because of their inside game.

“It’s fair to say most coaches play to their strength,” Raveling sad. “Their strength is the perimeter game with Hatcher and Miller and so forth. To me, I don’t think (Hazzard) has any choice. That’s good coaching.

“You’ve got to face the fact that they’re not a power team,” Raveling said. “They’re a finesse team. They’re not a power, bulk team that gets down in the trenches and socks it out with you. Obviously, teams that are playing inside are going to present problems for them when they aren’t shooting the ball well on the perimeter.”

Haley is in his third year at center at UCLA, where no one considers him a threat to score except himself.

In 10 Pac-10 games, Haley averages 22 minutes and 5.1 points. He is shooting 56%, which Haley points to when it’s mentioned that he also averages just 3.6 shots.

“The ball is just not passed inside,” Haley said. “Point-blank, we’d rather have Reggie Miller’s three-pointers and have perimeter shooters take a three-point shot than have big men take a shot inside. That’s what it boils down to.

“I’ve had guys guarding me in games whisper in my ear, ‘Don’t worry, they’re not going to pass it to you anyway,’ and that’s the way things work around here,” he said.

“I’m not complaining and I know Coach Hazzard feels he is doing the right thing. There are just certain players on this team chosen to shoot the ball and there are others who do important things like defend and rebound.”

But aren’t the Bruins 13-5 without going inside?

“Yes, but in my opinion, most of the games we lost were because we didn’t use the inside game,” Haley said.

“There are games when I go into the locker room, I look at the stat sheet and I see I had two points and took one shot,” he said. “Reggie Miller has 35 points and we won. I give him a hug. Other times, he gets 35 points and we lost and I think to myself, ‘God, the middle was wide open.’

“The big guys here aren’t named Kareem or Walton, but there isn’t a player out here who can’t put the ball in the basket if they get a chance,” he said.

And so it goes at UCLA, a team that seems at this moment to be turned inside out.