Robert Morris Really Means Business : West Regional: UCLA’s opponent has a short and varied basketball history.

Everything you wanted to know about Robert Morris, UCLA’s first-round opponent Friday in the NCAA basketball tournament:

--Until the fall of 1968, when Lew Alcindor was starting his senior year at UCLA, Robert Morris was a junior college.

--In the spring of 1969, when UCLA won the fifth of its 10 NCAA championships, Robert Morris reached the final of the National Junior College Athletic Assn. tournament, losing to Paducah (Ky.), 79-76.

--The school is named for a man who was known as “the financier of the American Revolution.”

Although he voted against the original motion for independence in 1776, Robert Morris signed the Declaration a month later.

By the early 1790s, according to the American Heritage Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary, he was reputedly the richest man in America, but he overspeculated with his funds and spent three years in debtors’ prison.

--Robert Morris was no relation to Lon Morris, a Methodist layman who in 1924 left his estate to Alexander Institute in Jacksonville, Tex., which was so appreciative that it renamed the school Lon Morris College.

--As of Tuesday night, two days after the pairings were announced for the NCAA tournament, callers to the Robert Morris athletic department were still hearing a tape-recorded message regarding the availability of tickets for the final game of the Northeastern Conference tournament, which was played on March 11.

--A U.S. News and World Report survey of more than 4,000 college presidents, deans and admissions directors selected Robert Morris as the No. 1 up-and-coming business school in the United States each of the past two years.

--The school’s main campus is located in Coraopolis, Pa., about 17 miles northwest of downtown Pittsburgh and about a mile from the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

--Coach Jarrett Durham was known as “Jarrett the Jewel” when he was a high-scoring guard at Duquesne in 1968-71.

According to the Colonials’ media guide, “(In) the early 1970s . . . while UCLA dazzled a nation with a run of seven national titles . . . to Pittsburgh youngsters, Jarrett Durham was college basketball.”

--Earl (the Twirl) Cureton, a former Clipper, played for the Colonials during the 1976-77 season, their first in Division I, before transferring to Detroit, where he played for Dick Vitale.

--Two years ago, when Robert Morris played second-seeded Kansas in an East Regional first-round game at the Omni in Atlanta, UCLA Coach Jim Harrick addressed the Colonials beforehand.

“I’ve known Jim since we played them out at Pepperdine (in 1985),” Durham said. “He just came into the locker room before the game and said, ‘You guys can do it. You just have to believe in yourselves and go out and play hard.’ ”

Harrick probably hoped they could win because if they had, UCLA would have playedthem.

The Omni crowd embraced the underdog Colonials, filling the arena with chants of “ Rob-ert Mor-ris, Rob-ert Mor-ris ,” but Kansas hung on to win, 79-71.

It worked out OK, though. UCLA then upset Kansas, 71-70.

--The upstart Colonials made an impression on the Bruins despite their loss.

“They gave Kansas all it could handle,” UCLA senior guard Gerald Madkins said.

--Durham would feel better about his team’s chances if UCLA hadn’t lost to Penn State in a first-round game last season.

“That doesn’t bode well for us,” he said. “Our real chance of beating these guys is if they look past us and don’t perform up to their capabilities.”

--Robert Morris is 1-4 in NCAA tournament games, its lone victory coming against Georgia Southern, 64-54, in 1983. Its other tournament losses were to Indiana in 1982, Purdue in 1983 and Arizona in 1989.

Indiana beat the Colonials by 32 points, Arizona by 34.

--The Colonials’ 19-11 record this season includes losses to USC, 92-77, and to Cal State Long Beach, 84-81, during a Southland trip in December.

They are 0-3 against teams that made the 64-team NCAA field.

“I’m not going to say they’re going to beat UCLA, but they’re a very good team,” said Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg, whose team was defeated by UCLA, 68-57. “They play very hard. They don’t do a lot, but what they do, they do very well.

“They’ll run and they’ll play very aggressive defense. They will not play not to lose. And they will not be scared. They’ve played the Indianas; they’ve played all those other people in the first round. And they’ve played people tough.

“They’ll go out and compete.”

--The Colonials didn’t play UCLA during their December trip--and probably won’t play the Bruins in a regular-season game anytime soon--”because we don’t want to play them,” Durham said, laughing. “(Harrick) can call all he wants. I’m not going to return his phone calls.”

--Three of the Colonials’ top six players--guard Myron Walker, center Magdi Bilall and reserve center Ricky Cannon--are transfers, Walker from Kent State, Bilall from Long Island and Cannon from Ohio.

--Walker, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, was the player of the year in the Northeast Conference and the most valuable player in the conference tournament.

He is the Colonials’ leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 20 points and 6.1 rebounds, and has made 53.3% of his shots.

“Walker is a lot like (UCLA’s) Shon Tarver,” Greenberg said. “He’s a big-time talent.”

Said Robert D. McBee, athletic director at Robert Morris: “He’s probably too good to be playing in our conference.”

--Walker and point guard Wade Timmerson, a 5-9 senior who will see eye-to-eye with first-time UCLA starter Tyus Edney, were both all-conference first-team selections.

Timmerson is averaging 11.6 points and 6.6 assists.

--Bilall, 25, who speaks his native Arabic as well as English, was a backup to Manute Bol of the Philadelphia 76ers on the Sudanese national team in 1984 and ’85. At 6-8 and 205 pounds, he is 11 inches shorter than Bol, but only 20 pounds lighter.

--Forward Shelton Carney, a 6-5 sophomore from Steubenville, Ohio, is a first cousin of former UCLA forward Kenny Fields.

--Forward Joe Falletta, a standout pitcher and first baseman in high school, once struck out Pete Rose during a game.

Pete Rose Jr., that is.

--In its 3,056-seat Charles L. Sewall Center this season, Robert Morris never drew a crowd of more than 2,452, which was more than twice its average.

--Seeded No. 16 in the West, the Colonials are considered one of the four worst teams in the NCAA field.

To beat the Bruins, “They’d have to play probably the best game they’ve played all season and UCLA would have to play the worst game they’ve ever played,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “I just can’t see it.”