He’ll See If Bruins Are Better : El Camino Cage Coach Takes Shot as UCLA Assistant

Dr. James Schwartz knew that it would happen someday. Couldn’t keep such a good basketball coach here forever, Schwartz reminded himself over and over.

Still, when highly successful Paul Landreaux of El Camino College asked for a leave of absence Tuesday so he could become an assistant at UCLA, Schwartz couldn’t shake the blues.

“I hate to lose him,” said Schwartz, dean of physical education and athletics. “He was a real gem.”

Call him a multicarat gem.

Landreaux, 44, won three state titles in nine years. His record was 278-53. Only Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who was at Pasadena and Riverside city colleges, has won more state titles. The Warriors won at least 20 games each year under Landreaux.

“He’s a good man for UCLA,” Schwartz said. “He’s very classy, great image. A good all-around person. He’s the type of person UCLA needs.”

El Camino granted Landreaux a one-year leave to try out the job at UCLA, according to Schwartz. If things don’t work out, Schwartz said, he can return to his old position for the 1989-90 season.

“Sometimes a guy goes off and doesn’t like it,” Schwartz said. “Paul has to be sure.”

Landreaux agreed.

“The only reason I requested a year of leave was to go back (to the four-year level) and see what lurks up there.”

Jim Harrick, new UCLA coach, seems to be counting on Landreaux to be around for a while.

“Not only is he a quality coach who is familiar with high school coaches and players in Southern California, he is a quality person.”

Landreaux never hid the fact that he wanted a four-year head coaching job. In the past couple of years he became frustrated because he had been passed over for several positions, despite his success. Last winter he criticized four-year athletic directors for selecting four-year assistant coaches for head jobs, rather than taking a chance on a successful community college coach.

Now, in accepting the UCLA role, Landreaux seems to haved resigned himself to the fact that he has to become one of that inner circle of assistants in order to get a head coaching job.

“It can be frustrating,” he said about his job searches, “But here’s another avenue now.”

Persuading El Camino to give him a leave of absence was important to Landreaux. He wanted to protect his family, assure them that he had a place to work if his new job did not work out. It benefits El Camino too, which could not give Landreaux his old position back a year from now if he had resigned.

There are those who wonder if Landreaux, who has a reputation of doing things his way, can adjust to a secondary role under Harrick. Landreaux said he would not be taking a back seat to Harrick. He called the assistant position “a label” and said he understood his “role.”

“I will never be an assistant coach again. Those days are over,” he said.

Now the big-time pressures and scrutiny begin, although, as an assistant, he should be less visible than Harrick. Yet the crowds at Pauley Pavilion are far from the near empty community college gyms he faced on game nights with El Camino. The alumni at UCLA aren’t apathetic, and media coverage is much more intense.

At El Camino Landreaux was his own man, a disciplinarian. His players wore uniforms--matching coats and ties--off the court.

Landreaux had quarrels with the local press, but recently he became more open. Writers found him a bit stiff and somewhat disinterested in their attention after the season.

His name was mentioned anytime a job in Southern California became available. Yet, three times he was turned down at Cal State Long Beach and two years ago he was the leading candidate at San Diego State, only to be bumped out of the running when Jim Brandenburg suddenly resigned at the University of Wyoming.

In frustration, he said last fall that he would not seek another four-year job, that such a search had been a burden to his family and that he would consider changing jobs only if someone came after him. That’s apparently what Harrick did, asking Landreaux to be in charge of the Bruin defense.

“Coach Harrick told me he wants the best defensive club around,” Landreaux said.

Landreaux’s specialty is a suffocating man defense. Twice his teams at El Camino held opponents scoreless in the first half. Tarkanian, whom Landreaux worked for as a graduate assistant in 1971 at Cal State Long Beach, often flew him to Nevada for a weekend to teach new defenses to the Rebels.

In accepting the job at UCLA, Landreaux has taken his career full circle. Before becoming a head community college coach, first at Trade Tech and then El Camino, Landreaux was an assistant at Pepperdine.

Harrick was head coach at Pepperdine last year.

Schwartz said he will announce El Camino’s plans to replace Landreaux in about a week. He indicated it is doubtful the school would open the job to applicants for only a one-year appointment.

It is expected that Ron McClurkin, a Landreaux assistant, will get the job on an interim basis.

“That’s a natural situation. He knows the kids,” Landreaux said of McClurkin.

Schwartz agreed. He also said the school will probably make some arrangement with Bill Becktel, a volunteer assistant under Landreaux, to become a regular assistant.

“Without Paul next year, it will affect our program a bit,” Schwartz said. “But we’ll get back on top.”

As for the future?

“Maybe we will find another Paul Landreaux out there.”