Elliott Sets Pac-10 Record but It Was a Close Shave

More, more, more. Sean Elliott--or as he apparently is known around the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar household, Sean Who?--kept stuffing points down UCLA’s throats. From here. From there. From everywhere. From the cactus, man. Jams. Jumpers. Two-pointers. Three-pointers. And the fans in the stands yelled for more. And the guys on his own bench rose to their feet, salaaming him with their arms. Elliott could not get enough, nor could they.

Pooh Richardson could.

“Quit shooting,” the UCLA guard told the Arizona forward.

Nobody had clued Richardson in. He had absolutely no idea that Elliott needed 34 points Saturday to break the all-time scoring record for Pacific 10 Conference basketball players, established practically Elliott’s entire lifetime ago by the Big Bald Man himself, Kareem, back when everyone still knew him as just plain Lew.

Richardson was every bit as oblivious of this record as Abdul-Jabbar, who, when interviewed by a Tucson reporter by phone, professed to know nothing about it, nor to have ever heard of anybody named Sean Elliott. Well, at least, he didn’t ask if that was the guy who played James Bond.

Eventually, Richardson figured out what was up. Maybe he realized what was happening when there were 7 minutes and 10 seconds remaining and Elliott was fouled, whereupon the McKale Center message scoreboard encouraged the crowd to “Get Rowdy.” You usually don’t like to request that when one of your players is shooting a free throw. You get quiet, not rowdy. Get rowdy during an Indiana free throw and Bob Knight would throw furniture at you.

Anyhow, Elliott made both free throws, and the scoring record was his, and the first man to reach for him with a handshake was, as it turned out, Richardson, who certainly hadn’t felt like slapping hands with any of his teammates during a 102-64 wipeout that became the most lopsided loss a UCLA team has ever been handed. This wasn’t a Pac-10 game. This was a Pac-Man game. Arizona had UCLA for lunch.

“I’ve known Pooh for a while, and he’s not a bad guy,” Elliott said later. “I guess he didn’t know what was going on. He said: ‘Quit shooting!’ And I said: ‘But I have to!’ ”

Elliott, who will be entering professional basketball just as Abdul-Jabbar leaves it, wanted the big guy’s record, and his teammates wanted him to have it, even if it did take the Arizona player 35 more career games to get it. So, once it became clear Saturday that the visitors were dead meat, the Wildcats started clearing out for Elliott, getting out of his way, even letting him bring the ball up the court. He could do whatever he wanted to do, short of hiding the ball beneath his shirt, Meadowlark Lemon style.

“I had the total green light,” Elliott said. “I began to wonder if I could have come over half-court and just let it fly.”

Probably. Probably would have swished it, too. Elliott scored 35 points, including a half-dozen three-pointers, to give him 2,327 for his college career. Coach Lute Olson immediately and mercifully took Elliott out of the game after the record-breaking free throws, rubbed the senior’s bald head (he has much in common with Kareem) at a mid-court ceremony following the game and announced to the crowd: “There’s more where that came from!” Points, he means.

The season isn’t over yet, see. Arizona might still win the national championship. With Elliott on its side, it’s definitely possible. Just be glad for opponents’ sake that the Wildcats will not be permitted to play in their own regional here in Tucson, where the crowd stays on its feet at all times, screaming, and the world’s loudest public-address announcer seems to be under the mistaken impression that he is Sam Kinison.

Elliott was nervous beforehand, partly because the game was at home, and partly because he had been in a slump. Against USC two nights earlier, he had blown 11-of-15 shots. He was off his game a little, and still dragging with him a left knee wrapped in a brace the size of a Volvo. Elliott was looking to change his luck.

So, a couple of hours before game time, he went to his barber and ordered a complete semi-skinhead job. Like Kareem, he made himself basket-bald, giving himself a skull so smooth and clean, somebody could have stamped “Rawlings” on it and caused considerable confusion underneath the boards.

When Arizona started killing UCLA, Elliott relaxed. The Wildcats did everything right. As losing Coach Jim Harrick said: “They were throwing ‘em in from everywhere!” It got to the point that Elliott was going after a triple-double, since he also found time to dispense 11 assists. Everybody on the Arizona sidelines got into the act, with the exception of the mascot, Wilbur Wildcat, as UCLA fell behind by as many as 40 points.

Less than 10 minutes from the end, Elliott stopped passing and started shooting. He missed. He missed. He missed.

“Teasers,” he called them. “Darn thing wouldn’t go down.”

When Elliott passed off to Matt Othick, the teeny-weeny wittle Wildcat who looks as though he ought to be playing badminton instead of basketball, Othick passed it right back. Elliott shot from afar, but again it went in and out. He began to drop back. Then the ball was recovered by a teammate, who fed Elliott once more. He went between his legs, got fouled by Trevor Wilson, and went to the line.

The free throws weren’t fancy, but a record’s a record. Elliott finished off what his coach called the greatest all-around game of his career, and impressed everybody, including UCLA’s Wilson, who called him the best opponent he’s ever faced. Said Wilson: “I can’t think of anyone who comes close. Man to man defensively, I don’t think anyone out there can stop him.”

Elliott celebrated with a trophy and with a hug from his mother, Odie Elliott, who said: “I came about as close as I’ve ever come to tears at a basketball game.”

Glad to be out of his mini-slump as well, Elliott was asked what the biggest change in his game had been.

“Probably the haircut,” he said.

Worked for Kareem. So who knows? A Muslim name might be next.