UCLA Gets Its First Win on the Road, and Then Gets a Lecture

UCLA forward Trevor Wilson was on his way out of the locker room, heading back toward the court to do a radio interview after UCLA’s 94-81 victory over Arizona State Thursday night--no doubt to talk about his 23 points and career-high 14 rebounds as well as the team’s much-needed first road victory.

But he was called back by the four Bruin assistant coaches who had been huddling in the hallway. They escorted him into the locker room--no doubt to talk about his little set-to with Bruin point guard Pooh Richardson in the closing minutes of the game.

Richardson had handed the ball off to Wilson as the Bruins led by 10 points, with just under 2 minutes on the game clock and about 15 seconds on the shot clock, with the admonition, “Take your time!”

Wilson went straight to the hoop, one-on-one with Eric Holloway, and was fouled with 12 seconds on the shot clock and 1:41 left in the game. While Wilson was standing at the free-throw line waiting to shoot a pair, Richardson was at the line, too, telling him about it.

Wilson was saying more than, “Yes, sir, Pooh,” because the conversation continued until UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard had to call a timeout.

“I just called time out to settle things,” Hazzard said later. “I wanted to be sure that we knew that we needed to run the clock.”

When Wilson was asked why he was called back into the locker room, his answer was, “No comment.”

And even though the coach had passed by and told Richardson, “Don’t tell them too much,” Richardson was a little more talkative.

Richardson told reporters, “It’s finished. It wasn’t a problem. Just a little miscommunication. . . . You can’t make nothing negative out of a win.”

That was much the same thing that Hazzard was saying, stressing the fact that the “Pac-10 defending champions” finally were back to .500 and have a “little, short, mini-win streak” of three straight Pac-10 victories.

The Bruins (7-9) are 3-3 in conference play going into their game Sunday against Arizona, the nation’s top-ranked team.

More important than the mini-win streak was the first victory on the road. UCLA was 0-4 away from home coming in to play this game before 7,542 fans, who did not fill the Arizona State University Activities Center.

That UCLA could beat a team on its home court by 13 points indicates the state of Sun Devil basketball. Commenting on his 10-6 team, ASU Coach Steve Patterson said: “There’s some immaturity on this team. There’s still not the cohesiveness that you can develop with time. This team still needs time.”

A tape of that comment was played in the media room later, and a reporter asked, in all seriousness, “Which coach was that?”

Indeed, Hazzard could have made the same comment.

Neither team could put together a sustained effort without someone going off on his own.

Even Richardson, the Bruins’ floor leader, made a couple of moves that brought scowls from the coach. Remember the behind-the-back pass that he lost in the game at Louisville last Saturday? Hazzard explained to him at the time that it might be better to make the simple pass and get the two points on a two-on-one fast break. When Richardson made the same pass in the first half against Arizona State and missed Dave Immel, Hazzard could hardly believe his eyes.

Moments later, freshman guard Gerald Madkins was up.

But when Richardson got back in the game with 1:23 left in the first half, he made the same behind-the-back pass to Immel on the next fast-break opportunity. The ball made it to Immel, though, and he ended up making two free throws to give the Bruins a 10-point lead.

Richardson stole a pass from Mark Becker seconds later so that Wilson could get in a last-second slam dunk, giving the Bruins a 51-39 lead at halftime.

Asked about the errant pass, Richardson explained, going through the motions of the play, that usually, when he leads a break like that and Immel is off to the side, Immel will pull up and set up for the shot, just waiting for the pass. This time, he broke for the basket. Richardson said, “When I passed the ball to where I thought he would be, he wasn’t there; that’s my fault.”

As for why he made a similar pass a few minutes later, Richardson said: “If they want me to go out and play, they have to put up with the things that I do.”

Simple enough.

In the second half, the Bruins took a 14-point lead that was looking safe until Joey Johnson came off the bench to put some life into the Sun Devils. While Arizona State was scoring eight straight to pull within six points and gain some momentum, UCLA was taking quick shots from three-point range that were not dropping.

Arizona State closed within four points, at 74-70, at the end of a stretch that included missed three-pointers by Bruins Kevin Walker, Charles Rochelin and Madkins.

UCLA made 2 of 11 shots from three-point range.

Against another team, that would have been disastrous.

But down the stretch, the Sun Devils were missing quick three-point shots and throwing away passes, too.