Harrick Very Familiar With This Opponent

Jim Harrick begins his second season as UCLA basketball coach tonight against an old friend and a familiar foe, but not necessarily against a friendly foe.

Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams, Harrick’s West Coast Athletic Conference nemesis when Harrick coached at Pepperdine, will provide the opposition at Pauley Pavilion.

What can be expected from the Broncos, who were 20-11 last season and reached the final game of the WCAC tournament for the third consecutive year?

“They just slug it out--knock you down and put an elbow into you,” Harrick said. “(They) walk it up the floor and pound it inside. (They’re) slow and physical.

“And they foul you every time down and hope (the officials) only call half of them.”

Williams, who enters his 20th season at Santa Clara with 305 victories, learned the style, Harrick said, as an assistant under former coach Dick Garibaldi.

“That’s the way they’ve always played,” Harrick said. “They had big, strong, slow guys and they were just the most physical teams. The old Santa Clara-San Francisco games were blood baths.”

While Harrick was at Pepperdine, his teams were 12-7 against Santa Clara, but the Waves rarely enjoyed their visits to Santa Clara’s Toso Pavilion, where they were 4-5.

Santa Clara was less successful on the road--including a 1-8 record at Pepperdine during Harrick’s tenure--but five years ago, the Broncos upset UCLA, 68-60, at Pauley Pavilion as Harold Keeling and the late Nick Vanos combined for 42 points.

It is still Santa Clara’s only victory over UCLA in 12 games since 1959. And Harrick was there.

“He came in here and just spanked the Bruins,” Harrick said of Williams. “I mean spanked ‘em and ran a clinic. I scouted the game from press row, and he ran a clinic, pal, on how to run the flex and take what the defense gives you.”

Harrick and the Bruins hope to do the spanking tonight.

Bruin Notes

UCLA has lost only one of its last 36 home openers. Brigham Young beat the Bruins in 1981, ending a string of 28 victories. . . . Another Bruin team will make its debut tonight, on KMPC radio: play-by-play announcer Paul Olden and analyst Ann Meyers. . . . Santa Clara’s Jeffty Connelly, a 6-foot-5 forward who averaged 11.9 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, played at USC as a freshman with Tom Lewis, Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers.

While he was at Pepperdine, Jim Harrick recruited Santa Clara’s 7-1, 285-pound center, Ron Reis, out of Monta Vista High in Cupertino. “He’s pretty agile,” Harrick said. “He’s not very hostile, but he’s mobile.” Reis’ father, Ron, was a reserve center for the Cincinnati teams that won NCAA championships in 1961 and ’62.

Darrick Martin has responded well to the challenge of replacing Pooh Richardson as the Bruins’ point guard, Harrick said. “He’s the kind of guy who makes you sleep a little better at night, knowing you’ve got him for three years,” Harrick said. . . . Besides Martin, UCLA’s starting lineup will include forwards Don MacLean and Trevor Wilson, center Kevin Walker and guard Gerald Madkins.

In two exhibition games, UCLA freshman reserve forward Tracy Murray attempted 28 shots in 38 minutes. “If you notice, he’s always in position to score,” Harrick said. “He’s always open. He’s like Reggie Miller. Miller was always open, no matter where he was on the floor--35 feet (out), 30 feet.”

Harrick, on his decision to redshirt 6-11 freshman Rodney Odom: “I wanted him to play both forward and center and, fundamentally, he’s a little away from doing that. If he’s going to play center and defend guys like (Stanford’s) Adam Keefe--there’s no way. He told me I’d regret it, and I hope I do. That will mean he’s really good.” . . . UCLA will play Pacific-10 Conference games next week at Washington and Washington State.