Bruins Untroubled by a Widening Investigation : Inquiry by Pac-10, NCAA Seems to Focus on Players’ Housing, Summer Jobs

They way they’re playing, UCLA should be investigated. What? They are?

The Bruins have been playing under the cloud of a Pacific 10 and NCAA investigation of their basketball program for some time now and it seems to have caused an unexpected reaction from the conference co-leaders.

Through it all, the Bruins keep on winning. UCLA completed a difficult 48-hour period Saturday with a 77-65 victory over USC in the Sports Arena.

The victory, UCLA’s 14th in its last 15 outings, may have been the easy part. What happened Friday was probably a lot more trying.

That was when the Pac-10’s NCAA investigators interviewed UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard and players Pooh Richardson and Dave Immel as part of an ongoing probe of the Bruins’ program that was initiated after high school recruit Sean Higgins asked to be released from his UCLA letter of intent. The Bruins refused.

Hazzard said that, so far, he is not upset by the investigation.

“I’m not concerned about that thing,” he said. “We’re trying to take care of business out on the court. I’m not concerned because we’re doing what’s right. But it is a nuisance. It’s what we have to live with.”

The investigation of UCLA appears to be widening. All of the Bruins have been interviewed except for freshmen Kevin Walker and Trevor Wilson, junior Kelvin Butler, sophomore Charles Rochelin, senior walk-on Isaac Hamilton and junior Darryl Morris.

At least two former players, Corey Gaines and Jerald Jones, who have transferred, also have been interviewed.

Richardson, whose session with the investigators lasted two hours, said the Bruins are unaffected by the probe.

“We didn’t do nothing,” Richardson said. “That’s why we’re so loose. When you know you didn’t do nothing, there’s no reason to be concerned. For what?”

The Pac-10’s NCAA investigators are believed to have focused on UCLA’s summer jobs program for its basketball players as well as the housing situation of some players, apparently involving Reggie Miller, among others.

Miller, whose interview with the investigators lasted an hour and a half, would not comment.

“I can’t talk about it,” Miller said.

Immel also refused comment, saying he had been instructed not to say anything. Hazzard, however, said he had not told his players to remain silent.

Montel Hatcher, who also said the probe has not been a distraction to the Bruins, asserted that the matter is out of their control anyway.

“There’s nothing we can do, so we’re not worried about it at all,” he said.

Hatcher said he had been asked about the housing of UCLA players, but that the main issue the investigators questioned him about was the recruiting of Higgins.

“That was the main thing, Sean Higgins,” Hatcher said. “But since I wasn’t involved in his recruitment, I didn’t know anything about it. He said he had been illegally recruited, so he wanted to be let out (of his letter), so I guess that’s the reason for this whole thing.”

Asked if he thought that UCLA might have avoided the investigation if Hazzard had voided the letter of intent as Higgins asked, Hatcher said: “Coach (Hazzard) wanted him and he thought he would help our program,” Hatcher said. “That’s smart on coach’s part.”

UCLA asked the Pac-10 to look into the letter of intent Higgins signed once a dispute arose over whether he was pressured into it, as he has alleged, apparently favoring the University of Michigan, the state in which his father lives.

Hazzard defended his decision, which is backed by Athletic Director Peter T. Dalis, of not voiding the letter of intent.

“If he (Higgins) had not said to me he was coming, I would have moved on,” Hazzard said. “I don’t want to say any more about it.”

Dalis refused to comment on the investigation.

But a source within the UCLA athletic department, who did not want to be identified, said: “There’s not a program in the country you couldn’t find something wrong with. But is it something small, a hamburger, or a house?”

There may be no quick resolution to the investigation, which is the second involving the UCLA basketball program in the 1980s. In 1980, under coach Larry Farmer, the Bruins were put on a one-year probation by the NCAA when they were found guilty of illegal activities by boosters.

“We restricted contacts with the alumni after our own internal investigation showed some problems that were really beyond our control,” Farmer said Thursday. “But when I left there, I did not think we had any problems with our alumni.”

Said Hazzard: “All we can do is let the process continue.”

Hatcher doesn’t think UCLA is going to be penalized again when the current probe is concluded.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Some of the stuff people are rumoring happened before we were even here. But I think whatever happens depends on Sean Higgins. If they find out he was recruited illegally, that’s the main thing.”