Bruins’ Youth to Test Oregon State Patience

After the UCLA basketball team had lost one of its early games this season, Temple Coach John Chaney started this trend of killing the Bruins with kindness. He urged patience for the young-but-talented team his friend, Walt Hazzard, was trying to pull together.

And after UCLA lost the next game, Brigham Young Coach Ladell Andersen volunteered: “UCLA will keep getting better, wiser and more mature as the season goes on.”

After UCLA lost the next game, St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca offered: “This is going to be a good club. It’s just in the development stage. They played excellent defense that kept them in the game. The right components are there. What they need is a little time. You can’t rush them.”

Last Saturday, after the Bruins suffered their seventh loss, they were singing the same, old song. North Carolina Coach Dean Smith offered hope for the Bruins “as soon as they get a feel as to who their players are.”

Even former UCLA coach John Wooden mentioned the problem, saying in a nationally televised halftime interview, “What bothers me more than anything is that they’re not playing as a team.”

Hazzard has been saying, since before the season began, that it would take some time for this team to come into its own. This week he said he is still trying to figure out how to play 9 players during 40 minutes.

Hazzard wants to give his sophomores time to develop. But he also wants to let senior center Kelvin Butler and senior forward Craig Jackson, who is currently in the starting lineup, have the minutes they have earned.

He also has to get junior forward Charles Rochelin into the game. Rochelin, a starter at the beginning of the season, has come off the bench to score in double figures in the last two games.

But when are all of the pieces going to fall into place?

Hazzard said: “I think the team is playing together much better, at both ends of the court. Right now, it’s a matter of getting the confidence that comes from success.”

In an interesting contrast, UCLA will play at Pauley Pavilion at 7:30 tonight against a team that has an outstanding sophomore point guard but no superstars, that has no one in its starting lineup taller than 6 feet 6 inches, but that does play together and does have a better record than the Bruins.

Oregon State is 6-3. UCLA is 4-7. Tonight’s game will be a Pacific 10 Conference opener for the Beavers. The Bruins are 0-2 in conference.

UCLA can expect a slow tempo from Oregon State, which is averaging 10 steals a game and forcing an average of 21 turnovers.

The Beavers are controlled by 6-3 ballhandler Gary Payton, the Pac-10’s defensive player of the year as a freshman last season. He is averaging 11.3 points and 7.9 assists per game. Payton was named MVP of the Far West tournament, which Oregon State won during the holidays.

The Beavers’ top scorer is 6-6 center Bill Sherwood, who is averaging 14.3 points a game. Sherwood was a center last season but moved over to fill the void left by 6-10 Jose Ortiz, who now plays pro ball in Spain. The Beavers’ returning starter at forward is 6-5 Earl Martin. At the other forward spot is 6-4 senior Shawn Freeman.

Miller started 7-1 Johannes Reinalda of Meerenveen, The Netherlands, in the first two games this season, but then decided that the team was better off with a smaller, faster lineup.

Hazzard said, “This is the quickest team I’ve seen Oregon State have.”

Bruin Notes

Tonight’s game will be televised on Prime Ticket and broadcast on KMPC radio (710). . . . UCLA swept the series with Oregon State last season, winning at Pauley Pavilion, 69-67, in overtime, and winning in Corvallis, 57-53. . . . Oregon State guard Gary Payton played at Skyline High School in Oakland with UCLA center Greg Foster. When they were seniors, Skyline had a record of 20-5. . . . Guard Dave Immel leads the Bruins in scoring with an average of 16.6 points a game.