UCLA Returns to Cal, Where a Disharmony Lingers for the Bruins

There have been some changes since the the UCLA basketball team was last here. For one, the Bruins will be playing in Harmon Arena , not Harmon Gym . Arena sounds more dignified to University of California Coach Lou Campanelli, who is pushing the name change.

And another thing: The Golden Bears don’t have that 52-game home losing streak against UCLA anymore. Not since 1961, three years before John Wooden won his first National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship and four years before Reggie Miller was born, had a Cal basketball team beaten a UCLA basketball team at Harmon Gym or Arena or anywhere else on campus.

Once Campanelli put that sign on his desk last season, you could sense that UCLA and Cal would never be quite the same. The sign carried a simple message to UCLA: “The Streak Stops Here.”

And it did, too. Campanelli coached Cal to a 75-67 victory over the Bruins in his very first try. As difficult as that was to take, UCLA swallowed hard and accepted it. But it was the other stuff, the postgame celebrations, that still seems to be sticking in the Bruins’ throats.

“There’s one thing about winning and all, but they took it to the extreme,” Miller said. “They acted like they won the national championship, popping champagne and stuff. That’s OK in the locker room, but not out there on the court.”

Once the buzzer sounded, champagne bottles appeared on the court, and Campanelli was drenched by the time he got to the locker room.

That may seem like a small transgression, but what really burned the Bruins was the ritual snipping of the nets from the baskets by Cal players. And they didn’t stop at that. Eddie Javius decided he would sit atop one rim. Meanwhile, Earnie Sears actually wriggled up through the other hoop, where he nested.

After that, UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard decided he didn’t care much for Campanelli, who had already made a similar judgment about Hazzard.

Campanelli had been asked shortly afterward how he got along with Hazzard and said: “I like Walt fine, just as long as he keeps his mouth shut.”

Your turn, Walt. Walt?

Actually, Hazzard would like us to believe he has no animosity toward Campanelli, that there is no lust in his heart for taking apart Harmon Gym/Arena with a wrecking ball while Campanelli is locked inside and his finely tailored suit gets very wrinkled.

“If I had revenge in my heart, I’d have a heart attack thinking about all the people I’d like to get back at,” Hazzard said. “Life is too short. I want to see my children go to college.”

At any rate, UCLA is back again. Tipoff today is at 3:30 p.m., which means that for the Bruins, it’s time to go see Cal.

Bruin Notes Channel 4 will televise the game and it will be broadcast by KMPC. . . . UCLA is 14-5 overall and 8-3 in the Pac-10, which keeps the Bruins tied with Arizona, half a game behind first-place Oregon State. Cal is 14-10 and 7-5 in the Pac-10. The Golden Bears’ victory Thursday night over USC broke a three-game losing streak. . . . Unlike Stanford, which got caught in a running game, Cal seems certain to slow the tempo against UCLA and force the Bruins into a half-court game, which is not one of UCLA’s strengths. . . . Reggie Miller, who against Stanford passed Bill Walton for the No. 2 spot on UCLA’s career scoring list, has 1,782 points. Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) is No. 1 with 2,325. Assuming that UCLA plays three games in the Pac-10 tournament, Reggie would need to average 49.3 the rest of this season to reach Abdul-Jabbar.