In Due Time, MacLean’s Answer Appeases Host of Inquiring Minds

Hey Don, where ya goin’?

For Don MacLean, Big Mac on Campus at Simi Valley High, those were the words he dreaded for the past two weeks and beyond.

And when he was asked at school, in stores, in restaurants, on street corners, even on the basketball court, MacLean flinched. Folks didn’t want to know where he was going , they wanted to know where he was going.

Most recently, it was UCLA or Georgia Tech. Before that choices included Kentucky, Nevada Las Vegas and Pittsburgh.

It wasn’t that MacLean didn’t want to respond. As badly as he wanted to have an answer, MacLean just didn’t have one.

“You wouldn’t believe, when I was walking around school, how many people asked, ‘Where you gonna go? Have you decided yet?’ ” MacLean said Tuesday, 24 hours after announcing he would attend UCLA. “And that kind of bugged me, because I couldn’t tell them anything and I didn’t want to tell them anything. So it was a hassle with them asking all the time. I know they meant well, they were interested, but it got to be a pain.”

Friends and acquaintances were hardly the only interested parties. There were persistent recruiters and members of the media with whom to contend.

“I think the thing that really gets hectic is the phone just ringing off the hook all the time,” MacLean said. “I know you guys are trying to do your job and I respect that, but some of the coaches, and I won’t mention any names, would call every single day. . . That’s why most of the time, even if I was home, I’d tell my mom to tell people I wasn’t at home.”

MacLean, in the meantime, tried to concentrate on his decision over the incessant ringing of the telephone while Pat MacLean, his mother, deflected the calls. He and Simi Valley Coach Bob Hawking devised a matrix system, whereby each school received numerical values for various criteria.

The winner, more often than not, was Georgia Tech. However, that was before UCLA fired Coach Walt Hazzard and hired Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick, a longtime friend of the MacLean family.

Although MacLean insists Hazzard’s dismissal was not the determining factor, the matrices were supplemented by intuition as time wore on and pressure mounted.

MacLean played in the Dapper Dan all-star game in Pittsburgh on April 8. He was home for two days, then flew to Albuquerque, N. M., to play in the McDonald’s all-star game April 17.

Harrick was also in Albuquerque for the McDonald’s game, but it wasn’t until April 20 that the two met formally to discuss MacLean attending UCLA. He signed the letter of intent Sunday, culminating the trying period.

While contemplating his decision, MacLean frequently withdrew into the world he knew the best. On a court, with a ball.

“Knowing Don as I do, he had his quiet moments,” Pat MacLean said. “That’s how he dealt with stress. The week that the news broke out about the coach at UCLA, many days he’d say, ‘Mom, I’m leaving. I’ve just had it.’ He’d go shoot baskets and be with his friends.”

But the courting of Don MacLean is over. Much to his relief, the tumultuous events of the past several months are over.

But, looking back, he almost misses the whirlwind romances. He enjoyed the trips, the all-star games, the home visits, the phone calls. Well, maybe not all of the phone calls.

MacLean, who averaged 33.5 points and 12.3 rebounds in a season in which he attained All-American status, a Southern Section 4-A championship and a den full of awards and certificates, figures the recruiting system works pretty well.

Especially considering the alternative is to be ignored.

“As much as it was a hard decision and I dragged it out so long, I’m just happy to be in this position,” he said.

The recruiting process--its initial excitement, the season-long lull and the final, frenetic kick--spilled over to Pat MacLean.

“I’m relieved,” she said. “The pressure is off for Don, the pressure is off for me, and maybe we can resume a little normality for now until the end of school.”

Anyway, she said with a laugh, “I’m not going to have a cauliflower ear anymore.”

There are no more calls, no more questions. They all know where Don is going.