The Four-Year Plan Works for MacLean

The moment came and went seemingly without notice, much the same as it did 23 years ago, when Lew Alcindor broke Gail Goodrich’s record at home to become the Bruins’ leading scorer. Back then, there was no fanfare; the game wasn’t even stopped. Heck, even Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, doesn’t remember it: “In those days I guess people didn’t pay too much attention or as much attention as they do now,” he said last week.

So maybe 23 years from now Don MacLean also won’t remember what happened Thursday night, when he made a free throw with 6:10 left in the second half against Oregon State to break Alcindor’s record of 2,325 points and become the Bruins’ all-time leading scorer.

The mostly Oregon crowd of 9,374 couldn’t be expected to care. Even MacLean didn’t know when he broke the record until after the game.

“I thought I did it, but then after the game everybody started congratulating me so then I knew for sure,” said MacLean, who scored 22 points and had 15 rebounds--a season high--in the Bruins’ 72-62 victory.

“There’s been talk about me setting the record for a while, and I’m proud to be in that position to be able to break the record,” MacLean said.

But there are some who think MacLean’s record should carry an asterisk. When Abdul-Jabbar played, athletes were not allowed to play their freshman year. He set the record in three seasons. MacLean broke it in four.

Even Abdul-Jabbar is matter-of-fact about it: “It’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Three seasons was all I was allowed to play, and it’s different now. Jim Brown set his record on a 12-game schedule, now players are rushing 1,000 yards in 16 games. It’s not an accurate comparison.”

MacLean said he hopes this record isn’t misunderstood. “I don’t know why people even bring it up, I’m not trying to compare myself to Kareem just because I broke his record,” MacLean said. “I would never compare myself to him. But I think it is important that the rule allowing freshman to play was changed a while ago, and no one has surpassed Kareem yet. I also have scored a lot more points than some of the other players in the country and nobody has mentioned that.”

MacLean is the highest-scoring active player in the nation with 2,329 points and his 20.6 career scoring average is second in school history behind Alcindor’s 26.4. Bill Walton is third at 20.3.

But there was at least one person at the game who is proud of MacLean’s record. His mother, Pat MacLean, made the trip from Simi Valley and has been at all of her son’s games lately, just to be there when he broke the record. After all, she’s been watching her son play since he was six.

“Just that Don has scored this many points and come this far is what I am most proud of,” Pat MacLean said. “He is appreciative of the record, but that is not his goal; his goal this year is to help his team get to the Final Four. He was devastated last year when they lost in the first round.”

After 20 years of marriage, MacLean’s father, James, left Pat when Don was in eighth grade. He never came back. Since then, Don has had little, if any, contact with his father, who works for IBM and lives in New York. Pat has remarried, and she and her husband were courtside Thursday.

But James MacLean wasn’t. The last time Don saw him was at his sister’s graduation from Loyola Marymount two years ago.

“Obviously you would like to have him (his father) there, it’s disappointing,” MacLean said last week. “I’d like to have him there but it’s not the end of the world.”

Times Staff Writer Jerry Crowe contributed to this story.

UCLA’s Leading Man

Don MacLean passed Lew Alcindor and became the Bruins’ all-time scoring leader Thursday night. A look at the UCLA and Pacific 10 career leaders.

UCLA

Name G Pts. Avg. Don MacLean 113 2,329 20.6 Lew Alcindor 88 2,325 26.4 Reggie Miller 122 2,095 17.2 Trevor Wilson 126 1,798 14.3 Bill Walton 87 1,767 20.3

PACIFIC 10

Name, School Pts. Avg. Sean Elliott, Arizona 2,555 19.2 Todd Lichti, Stanford 2,336 18.8 Don MacLean, UCLA 2,329 20.6 Lew Alcindor, UCLA 2,325 26.4 Gary Payton, Oregon St. 2,172 18.1