COLLEGE BASKETBALL: 1993-94 SEASON PREVIEW : A Family Affair : Charles O’Bannon Joins Brother Ed at UCLA, Bolstering the Front Line

It has been 30 seasons since the UCLA Bruins won their first national basketball championship and 19 since they won their last, which brings us to today’s history lesson as Pauley Pavilion begins to take on a sort of museum quality.

Those 10 NCAA title banners hanging from the rafters at Pauley are relics from the past, maybe even touching tributes to bygone days, but to the coach who has to work beneath them, they still pack a wallop.

“I know the banners are there,” Jim Harrick said. “I can see them. I know the expectations here. I have been in Los Angeles for 33 years, so I know.

“But I asked for this job, so I’ll never complain or snivel. This is a high-profile job that people expect you to do well in.

“My only goal is to take our team to the Final Four and win it all.”

The past is always present at UCLA, a place where magic was made by a wizard using a rolled-up program as his wand.

Nearly two decades and six coaches removed from the last time UCLA and John Wooden dominated college basketball, the Bruins begin another season, putting up jump shots and trying not to look over their shoulders.

Harrick’s sixth season at UCLA isn’t going to have the same degree of uncertainty that his last one did. He signed a three-contract extension through the 1995-96 season last March. It remains to be seen how the Bruins will respond.

At Westwood, the three most popular sports are football, basketball and sniping at the basketball coach. (See Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham, Larry Brown, Larry Farmer, Walt Hazzard.)

Last year, when the UCLA administration waffled over Harrick’s contract and allowed it to become a major distraction, the Bruins played with blinders and earplugs and finished 22-11.

Returning for Harrick from last year’s team that lost to Michigan in the second round of the NCAA tournament, 86-84 in overtime, are starters Shon Tarver, Ed O’Bannon and Tyus Edney.

There is one notable change. Mitchell Butler is gone, but Charles O’Bannon has arrived. The 6-foot-6 1/2 freshman from Artesia High in Lakewood joins his brother in the Bruins’ front line, enabling the O’Bannons to become the first brothers to play together on a UCLA basketball team since Denny and Kent Miller in 1958-59.

Harrick figures the O’Bannons are noteworthy for something more than school sibling history.

“The O’Bannons are all about winning,” he said.

Charles O’Bannon averaged 23.4 points and 10.8 rebounds last year at Artesia, was a Parade All-American and eventually selected UCLA over Kentucky, Michigan and USC.

Ed O’Bannon, a 6-8 junior, was UCLA’s top rebounder last season, besides averaging 16.7 points, and is once again being counted on to lead the charge to the backboards, where the Bruins are likely to be most vulnerable.

Tarver and Edney form one of the nation’s better backcourts. Tarver led the Bruins with a 17.2 scoring average last year and was fourth on the team in rebounds, averaging 4.3, and second to Edney in assists.

Tarver, a senior, probably is going to have his hands full. Not only is he the team’s top scorer, he also draws the defensive assignment against the opponents’ top scorer. “Shon Tarver is the key guy,” Harrick said. “From the second half of the conference into the tournament, he played as well as anyone.”

Harrick also expects bigger things from Edney, a junior, listed at 5-10 and 145 pounds.

“He will be a lot better player than last year because he will have a better focus and be more consistent,” Harrick said.

Specialists include 6-6 sophomore sharpshooter Kevin Dempsey, slotted as a zone-buster, and freshman Cameron Dollar, a highly regarded point guard.

As usual, the Bruins want to run as often as possible. As usual, they will be hampered in that by a rebounding problem. Richard Petruska’s departure at center leaves the job to be divided by 6-8 senior Rodney Zimmerman and 7-0 junior George Zidek.

Zimmerman is a better shot-blocker and plays better post defense, but Zidek is better offensively. Harrick doesn’t need many points from the center position, but he does need rebounds at both ends and the kind of defense that plugs holes at the baseline and down the middle.

In the future, Harrick will be able to stick 6-10 omm’A Givens at center and leave him there, but not until next season. As for last season, the Bruins won 20 games and made it to the tournament, each for the fifth consecutive time under Harrick. “Had we won that Michigan game, we could have made some noise in the NCAA tournament,” Harrick said. “We were knocking on the door.”

Maybe this time they will get inside before the door shuts. When they talk about a banner year at UCLA, it means only one thing.

UCLA Notes

The Bruins are ranked No. 13 in the Associated Press poll. Defending NCAA champion North Carolina is No. 1 and Kentucky No. 2. . . . UCLA will play the Lafayette Hustlers, an AAU team, in an exhibition tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins then open the season against Loyola Marymount at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley. . . . Jim Harrick on freshmen Charles O’Bannon and Cameron Dollar, and next year’s freshmen omm’A Givens, Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson: “That’s the future of UCLA basketball and the future is in good hands.” . . . UCLA will begin a four-year series with Duke next season. In 1995-96, UCLA and Kansas will meet in a two-year series.