Bruins Look to Pac-10 for Pick-Me-Up : After Nonconference Frustrations, They Face Arizona State, Stanford

What’s the best that could be said of UCLA’s 82-79 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday, in which the Bruins squandered leads of 13 points in the first half and 8 points in the last 10 minutes?

“It wasn’t a league game,” Coach Jim Harrick said cheerfully.

True enough.

Although UCLA, in Harrick’s opinion, has given away games to UC Irvine and Notre Dame in the last 3 weeks, neither loss affected the Bruins’ standing in the Pacific 10 Conference.

The Bruins, who will play Arizona State tonight at Pauley Pavilion, remain in a virtual tie for first place in the Pac-10. They are 9-4 overall and 4-1 in conference games.

Arizona is 6-1 in the Pac-10, and Stanford, which will play host to the Bruins Saturday at Maples Pavilion, is 5-1.

Recent games, though, have revealed the Bruins’ lack of depth.

Since freshman Darrick Martin replaced sophomore Kevin Williams as Pooh Richardson’s running mate in the backcourt, the Bruins have had little offensive spark off the bench.

Williams is mostly a defensive specialist, as evidenced by the fact that he has scored 4 points in his last 3 games. Keith Owens doesn’t score much, either. He is averaging fewer than 2 points a game.

The Bruins’ only scoring threat off the bench is Charles Rochelin, who is erratic.

“I’ve got to play the hand that was dealt to me,” Harrick said. “I can’t talk about that because there are some times that those kids can come off the bench and score. Charles can. Kevin Williams can. Keith Owens needs a little more experience to be able to, but I don’t worry about that.

“I think our bench is adequate. It could be worse. It could be better. (But) I don’t think our level of play goes down too much when the reserves come in.”

That’s debatable, of course, but Harrick will certainly get no sympathy from the Sun Devils, who came to Los Angeles without the two players who are arguably the best in their program.

Emory Lewis, a 6-foot 10-inch sophomore center from San Bernardino High, has not played this season because of a stress fracture in his left foot, and point guard Tarence Wheeler underwent major reconstructive surgery on his right knee less than 2 weeks ago.

Wheeler, who was averaging 15.5 points a game, is expected to be in a wheelchair for another 3 months and probably will miss next season, too. His knee buckled as he moved through the lane late in the first half of an 84-60 loss to California Jan. 5 at Berkeley.

Arizona State, which is 8-6 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-10, has struggled without him. In an 85-65 loss to Oregon State last Saturday, the Sun Devils had 30 turnovers.

Coach Steve Patterson, calling it “a start born out of necessity,” said this week that freshman guard Adrian Brown will make his starting debut tonight. The status of the guards who had been starting, Mike Redhair and Matt Anderson, was left up in the air.

Bruin Notes

Trent Edwards, a 6-7, 237-pound forward who started his college career as a football player at Texas Christian, leads Arizona State in scoring (17.8-point average), rebounding (8.4), and field-goal percentage (61.4). . . . UCLA was originally scheduled to play Arizona Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, but the game was moved to March 4 so that it could be nationally televised by NBC.