Arizona Can Wrap It Up With a Win at UCLA

Steve Kerr, the one-time UCLA ballboy, will most possibly make his most satisfying appearance on the court at Pauley Pavilion today at 11 a.m. as the star guard for the University of Arizona, the team that is leading the Pacific 10 and ranked No. 3 in the country.

A landmark day for the freckle-faced kid from Pacific Palisades?

“I’m looking forward to it as a big game, but not because it’s my last (regular-season) game at Pauley,” Kerr said. “It’s a big game because we could clinch the Pac-10 title today. That’s something that we’re going to do, anyway, but we really want to do it at Pauley Pavilion.

“If we can’t do it at home, which would be our first choice, we’d like to do it here. UCLA is our biggest rival in the conference, and they’re the defending champions. UCLA is the team we want to beat to win the title.”

With a strong stretch run, the Bruins have won 8 of their last 10 conference games to pull into a three-way tie for second in the conference with Stanford and Oregon State, all with 8-5 records.

Arizona is 13-1 in the conference, 24-2 overall. Kerr is right. It’s just a question of when the Wildcats will clinch the regular-season title.

He said: “We know it’s not going to be easy to come in here and do it. They don’t want to let us take it on their home court. . . . We know by how close they played us at our place that they have a good team. It’s very obvious that they have a lot of talent. They are very potent. They have some big threats. It’s going to be tough.”

Kerr is not being misled by the Bruins’ poor showing in a 79-73 victory over Arizona State Thursday night. “They can play better than that,” Kerr said. “They were probably looking toward us.”

The Bruin players admitted as much after their game Thursday night. After showing in the game they eventually lost to Arizona last month that they could, indeed, put a scare in the team that was then ranked No. 1, they’ve been very eager for another try.

Bruin Notes Today’s game is sold out but will be nationally televised by CBS (Channel 2). The only other sellout this season at Pauley Pavilion was for the North Carolina game Jan. 2. . . . UCLA leads the series with Arizona, 25-7. In the last meeting between the teams, Jan. 24 in Tucson, the Bruins came back from a 15-point deficit to lead briefly, with 5:52 to play, before losing, 86-74. At the time, the Wildcats were ranked No. 1. Sean Elliott had 27 points for the Wildcats in that game. . . . Elliott, a 6-8 junior forward, is Arizona’s leading scorer, averaging more than 18 points a game. And the player generally recognized as the driving force of the team is fifth-year senior guard Steve Kerr. But UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard, while agreeing that Elliott and Kerr are outstanding players, thinks that junior forward Anthony Cook should get more credit. Cook averages 13.1 points a game and 7.4 rebounds. Hazzard said, “Anthony Cook does all the little things.” . . . Among Arizona’s strengths, Hazzard pointed out: “Their percentage of scoring vs. possessions is very high. Against us, late in the game, they did an excellent job of turning it around. Steve Kerr is the difference. He does such a good job leading them in crunch time.”

Trevor Wilson has had 11 double-doubles this season (double figures in scoring and rebounding). . . . Freshman guard Gerald Madkins is continuing to emerge for the Bruins. After the Notre Dame game, Hazzard said, “Madkins gives us a big lift defensively; any time he scores, it’s a big plus.” Against Arizona State, Madkins came off the bench to score 8 points, helping the Bruins’ shooting percentage by hitting 3 of 4 shots, including 2 of 2 from three-point range. In his last seven games, Madkins has made 22 of 31 field-goal attempts, including 7 of 9 three-point shots.

Arizona has started the same five players in all 26 games. . . . Arizona clinched a tie for the ‘85-’86 league title with a 88-76 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in March of ’86.