Blind Faith Binds Burns, Bruins : UCLA Coaches Never Watched Reseda Guard in a Game but Still Offered Him a Scholarship

Call it a vicious circle.

NCAA men’s basketball, a product of television saturation and the insatiable fan appetite that it both created and nurtures, has become perhaps the biggest meat market in all of college sports.

Division I coaches attend high school summer-league games to sniff out the choice cuts. Assistants ferret out blue-chip recruits from blue-plate specials at all-star camps. The best players routinely begin receiving mail from colleges while they are high school underclassmen.

It has become a 12-month season for high school players seeking a scholarship. The pressure to land highly regarded recruits is nearly as important to a college coach’s survival as wins and losses. As a consequence, very few of the nation’s best and brightest prep standouts fall between the cracks.

Marquis Burns is an exceptional exception. Burns, a 6-foot-3 off-guard from Reseda High, has been selected The Times’ Valley player of the year.

Yet a few days before the early-signing period last November, Burns seemingly had missed the boat on a full ride to a major Division I school. Schools such as Pepperdine had expressed interest, but Burns and his coach, Jeff Halpern, thought he could play at the highest level.

Problem was, nobody seemed to know who Burns was, despite rather gaudy credentials. Burns averaged 20.0 points and 9.1 rebounds as a junior and was an All-City Section 3-A Division selection. The phone, nonetheless, was not ringing.

“Beats me how a school can miss a guy who makes All-City,” Halpern groused. “If I was a coach, I’d drop a quarter in the (news) rack and at least have an assistant go down the list to make sure we hadn’t missed a player.”

Burns had neither participated in any camps, played in any high-profile summer leagues nor traveled the nation with an age-group all-star team.

“I will not let these kids be prostituted,” Halpern said. “I will not play that game with those guys who use kids to make money.”

Halpern did his best to remedy the oversight. He borrowed a 1991 game film from Taft Coach Jim Woodard that featured Burns ripping the Toreador nets to shreds. He sent copies of the tape to several schools, including UCLA, Marquette and Arizona.

UCLA assistant Tony Fuller, who recently was named head coach at San Diego State, viewed the tape and agreed to drop by for a look. That began a strange series of events that culminated in Burns signing a letter of intent with UCLA, even though Bruin coaches never saw him play in a game.

Last October, a few days before City schools were allowed to begin basketball practice, Fuller agreed to swing by Reseda during a sixth-period physical education class. Halpern rounded up five other players who joined Burns for a brief game of half-court three-on-three.

Fuller liked what he saw and contacted UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, who reportedly was in New Orleans looking for a shooting guard. Fuller told Harrick they had overlooked a scholarship candidate at that very position in their own back yard--little more than 10 miles from the UCLA campus. Furthermore, Burns, an honor student, already had satisfied the requirements of the NCAA’s Proposition 48.

Later that week, Harrick also watched Burns play in a three-on-three game at Reseda. He then sent assistant Brad Holland--who specializes in coaching the Bruin shooting guards--to the campus. Holland came by during lunch and another workout was conducted.

At long last, Harrick visited Burns’ home a few days before the early signing period with some very good news. Halpern, who also was present, said Burns’ low-key reaction caught Harrick by surprise.

Said Harrick: “How would you like to play at UCLA on a full scholarship?”

Burns: “Yeah, I would like that.”

Harrick: “Is that all you have to say?”

Burns: “I guess.”

Halpern, who had watched Burns work so hard to experience the thrill of that very moment, couldn’t believe that Burns wasn’t climbing the walls--if not higher.

“I would have been on the ceiling,” Halpern said, laughing. “That’s what he had worked so long for and all he can say is, ‘Yeah, thanks.’ ”

He had good reason. Burns believed he belonged at the highest level all along.