NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Bruins Win Over a Critic

So, I called up my old buddy Mud when the NCAA basketball pairings were announced, when Cal State Long Beach and DePaul were left out, when not-so-hot Notre Dame and 14-time losers Kansas State and Villanova were let in, and I told him what else was wrong with the field.

“Mud, do you know who doesn’t belong?” I asked.

“Who?”

“UCLA.”

Well, Mud puts up with the fertilizer I shovel from time to time. He shows considerable tolerance.

“Why?” he asked.

“Who did UCLA beat? Santa Clara? San Diego? American? Fullerton? Fresno State? East Tennessee State? Real giants. UCLA didn’t beat a ranked team on the road all season.”

“They beat Arizona at home,” Mud said.

“And got beat by Arizona twice,” I said.

“They beat Oregon State at home,” Mud said.

“And got beat at Oregon State,” I volleyed.

Away from home, UCLA won exactly one game against any team that made the NCAA field of 64. That was California, which in turn whipped the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.

Do you know what Cal’s record was against NCAA tournament teams going into the first round? It was 2-7.

UCLA played at Notre Dame. Lost. UCLA played at Louisville. Lost big.

UCLA did not win its conference title and did not win its conference tournament. It got hammered in the conference tournament by an Arizona team that itself later got hammered in the NCAA tournament.

“What did UCLA do right that Long Beach did wrong?” I asked.

Mud showed his usual restraint.

“Hey, put Long Beach in, don’t take UCLA out,” he said.

He knew this wasn’t some personal grudge. He knew I was the same guy who went out on a limb, picking UCLA to upset USC in football. He knew how much I admired the UCLA coach, Jim Harrick. He knew I wasn’t disappointed that the Bruins got invited.

I just wasn’t sure they belonged.

Well, they sure showed me.

They showed me that they had as much right to be out there playing as anybody. They showed me that when Trevor Wilson’s wrist is OK, they can play with anybody. They showed me that they can win even when Don MacLean is off his game, that Darrick Martin is one slick dude, Gerald Madkins is one unselfish team player, Tracy Murray is one fresh freshman.

By beating Alabama Birmingham and then Kansas, UCLA convinced me that they have as much of a shot at the national championship as anybody else in this wide-open, anything-can-happen, faster-format NCAA tournament.

One night I listened to a KMPC radio call-in show, and some UCLA honk was complaining that Harrick couldn’t coach against such “big-time” competition, having come from Pepperdine. He made Pepperdine sound like some sort of computer-training academy, some beauty school.

I got hot. I nearly called in. Pepperdine played good basketball. “Big-time” UCLA hadn’t made the NCAA’s Sweet 16 since 1980.

When the Bruins dropped five games in a row, their longest losing streak in 42 years, an awful lot of people got down on them. I was one of those awful people.

“Everybody wanted me burned on the stake,” Harrick said the other day.

We conveniently forgot that the coach was starting three sophomores and a freshman. We forgot how much it hurt them when their main-man senior, Wilson, got hurt.

We made jokes about how rival coaches planned to defense UCLA--”Foul Wilson every time downcourt.” Trevor’s free throws suddenly had all the grace of a shotput competition. Fans covered their eyes, partly because they couldn’t bear to look, partly because they were afraid a Wilson free throw might sail over the backboard toward their faces.

But as he got better, so did UCLA.

Wilson, who recently was described by one opposing coach as the best baseline-to-baseline player in the college game today, really came to play in the tournament. He demonstrated what that coach was talking about--scoring inside, scoring outside, rebounding, passing, excelling at all facets of the game.

And he showed some definite senior leadership Sunday, when Kansas fouled Murray and put the whole season on the line. Wilson kept the freshman loose. When Kansas tried psychological warfare, making Murray wait and wait before shooting, Wilson kept him laughing.

UCLA thereby literally got the last laugh.

Don’t think Wilson wasn’t risking a lot, telling that joke. While my buddy Mud has been justifiably praising Murray for showing how incredibly cool he was under pressure, the Bruins also stood to be ripped to shreds on radio call-in shows all summer long for acting like clowns at the free-throw line, had Murray missed. “What was he doing up there laughing?” somebody (maybe me) would have demanded to know.

Well, all’s well that goes well. Spectators still can’t bear to look--several UCLA players made a major production of covering their eyes with Murray on the line--but this team keeps giving us something to see.

We’re ready to see more.

Make ‘em laugh, Trevor. Make ‘em laugh.