It’s a Good Thing He Makes His Living on Pacific Coast

This might not be what UCLA Coach Jim Harrick needs to hear this close to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament but . . .

In nine seasons under Harrick, Pepperdine was 1-4 in the NCAA tournament, and three times the Waves were eliminated by a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In 1983, the Waves led North Carolina State, 59-55, with 28 seconds left in overtime of a first-round game at Corvallis, Ore. But Dane Suttle missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw and North Carolina State rallied. The Wolfpack eventually won, 69-67, in two overtimes, and went on to win the NCAA championship for Coach Jim Valvano.

“I made Jim Valvano,” Harrick has often said since.

This season, if UCLA beats Iowa State in a first-round game Friday night at Atlanta, it faces a probable second-round matchup against North Carolina, the ACC champion.

“I’m working my way through the Atlantic Coast Conference,” Harrick said.

Well, yes, and being worked over in the process.

Harrick and Pepperdine lost to Duke in a first-round game in 1985 and to Maryland in a first-round game in 1986. Last December, Harrick and the Bruins were overwhelmed by North Carolina, 104-78, the fourth-worst loss in UCLA history.

Trivia: Ivan Lendl’s victory in the $415,000 tennis tournament at Scottsdale, Ariz., Sunday gave him his 75th singles title--second on the all-time list for men. Who leads the list and with how many wins?

Do I hear $21?One of the items up for sale at a celebrity auction in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., recently was an autographed picture of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

The photo fetched $20. The buyer? Yankee General Manager Bob Quinn.

Eight and counting: The last thing Wayne Gretzky would seem to need is another record, but he could be part of one if he scores eight goals in the Kings’ final 10 regular-season games.

That would make him the fourth player to score at least 60 goals this season. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mario Lemieux, the Detroit Red Wings’ Steve Yzerman, and Bernie Nicholls, Gretzky’s teammate, already have surpassed that figure.

Having four players score 60 or more goals in the same season has never been done in the National Hockey League.

Coming unraveled: USC’s dismal basketball fortunes apparently have not affected Coach George Raveling’s sense of humor. He tells this one on a recruit whose intelligence he was testing.

“I asked him, ‘How do you spell Mississippi?’ ” Raveling said. “He said, ‘The state or the river?’ ”

Trivia answer: Jimmy Connors is the all-time leader with 107 titles.

Quotebook: Said PGA Tour regular George Archer: “If it wasn’t for golf, I’d probably be a caddie today.”