It Isn’t Pretty, but Bruins Do Make a Point

Their five might not be fab, their coach might not be loved and their future might not be long, but UCLA is once again among the 32 best teams of college basketball. So there.

UCLA 81, Iowa State 70 was not the prettiest game ever played, and the best thing about it is that it is over. The fact remains, nevertheless, that Iowa State 17, UCLA 16 was the last time the Bruins trailed on the scoreboard during Friday night’s opening game of the NCAA West Regional, so you can safely say that they came to play.

Yes, to watch UCLA fritter away a 13-point advantage against a flat-footed Iowa State team was enough to make a grown fan cry. And yes, it will take twice the effort and half the errors for Jim Harrick’s scrappers to have any sort of chance Sunday against mighty Michigan--a team that, unlike UCLA, conceivably can get by on talent alone.

But there is a certain amount of pleasure to be derived from the fact that UCLA did not crack under pressure, that unlike Arizona or Memphis State or Georgia Tech or so many others that qualified for the field of 64, this team did not--and will not--be sent home from this tournament with their tails between their legs after the first round.

It was North Carolina that eliminated UCLA in 1989, and it was Duke a year later, and it was Indiana in 1992, so seldom have the players made fools of themselves against anonymous opponents during the Jim Harrick administration. And it may well be that Michigan will be the one to send the Bruins packing this time; no disgrace to lose to those guys.

What would have been difficult to swallow would have been an out-and-out collapse in the final 10 minutes of Friday’s game, when an assortment of clumsy moves and dopey passes put UCLA in hot water just when it seemed that Iowa State was about to call it a night.

Then along came little Tyus Edney to save the day, doing everything right at a time when his teammates suddenly and shakily began doing everything wrong.

There were moments early in this game when Harrick was eager to give Edney a breather, his offense having attacked the slow-ish Cyclones with a number of Laker-like fast breaks during the first few minutes. At one point with Edney sitting out, UCLA had Mitchell Butler doing the playmaking and Kevin Dempsey operating out of a high post, and it was a curious strategy that resulted in the team turning into Turnovers R Us.

“Turnovers are something we have been plagued with all year,” Harrick said afterward, and it becomes increasingly true that the only way in heck that UCLA is going to stay with Michigan is if Edney remains on the court all the time and maintains control of the ball most of the time.

It got uglier and uglier as time went by, watching Ed O’Bannon being stripped of the ball on back-to-back possessions, or Shon Tarver heaving a cross-court pass so high that Manute Bol couldn’t have caught it, or Butler lobbing an alley-oop pass so far off the mark that it nearly ended up in the cylinder.

There was a mindlessness at times that Harrick cannot and must not tolerate against Michigan. He cannot have his players taking naps during inbound plays under the opponent’s basket, as Butler did, or having someone launch a court-length pass at the very moment UCLA needs to be sitting on the ball, as O’Bannon did.

Seconds before halftime, Richard Petruska saw that he had an open jump shot and took it, in complete disregard of the valuable time that was ticking off the clock. His airball came down in time for Iowa State’s Justus Thigpen to go galloping back downcourt and lay one in at the honk of the horn, cutting UCLA’s halftime edge to seven points and causing Harrick to scream out “Damn!” as he stormed toward the tunnel.

The Bruins got away with it this time. They got away with it because, during other portions of the game, O’Bannon played splendidly, sinking all but one of his 10 shots, and because all five starters scored in double figures, and because the runaway bull moose Petruska played not only with finesse but actually labored an entire game committing one personal foul , an unheard-of development in Westwood.

While the thought of Richard Petruska vs. Chris Webber does not exactly make a Bruin backer tingle with anticipation, it is this kind of game that can result in miracles if Petruska can repeat this behavior against Michigan and stay out there, battling away, instead of occupying bench space next to Harrick with three or four fouls.

O’Bannon is attempting to encourage him further, saying of Sunday’s appointment with Webber: “He’s just another player. He puts his pants on the same way I do.”

Could be. What UCLA would like to do more Sunday is catch the Wolverines with their pants down. But, whether they do or don’t, they are one of the Final 32, and there definitely is something to be said for that.