Tarver Counts His Blessings as Captain of No. 1 UCLA

Four years ago, Shon Tarver pulled out of an oral commitment to attend Nevada Las Vegas on a basketball scholarship in favor of UCLA. Today, life is so good in Westwood that decision seems like decades ago to Tarver.

“I’m blessed,” Tarver said. “How often can you be a senior captain of a highly ranked team, graduating with a degree from a highly regarded institution like UCLA. Living in Southern California.”

Tarver, who played at Santa Clara High, omitted that he is playing for the No. 1 college basketball team in the country. On purpose.

“It’s great to be in the situation we’re in,” Tarver said. “We’ve worked hard as a team. We just want to be consistent, and we’re improving. The No. 1 ranking is more for the media and the fans. It’s more important for us to win the Pac-10.”

Tarver, a 6-foot-6 guard, has been around long enough to know No. 1 rankings are fleeting. The Bruins (14-0, 7-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference), winners of 10 NCAA championships, haven’t been at the top of the poll since Feb. 1, 1983.

Tarver also knows that rarely does a team win a Pac-10 championship by going undefeated. The Bruins are likely to lose one game in conference play and yield their top ranking at the same time. That’s OK.

“We’re not worried about being undefeated,” he said. “We just want to win the Pac-10 and get the No. 1 seed in the (NCAA West Regional.)”

Including Thursday night’s 69-65 victory at Stanford, UCLA leads the Pac-10 in six of 12 statistical categories, including field-goal percentage (51.5%), rebounds per game (45.1), average margin of victory (19.0 points) and field-goal percentage against (39.3%).

Two years ago, Tarver played on a team that reached the West Regional final--a team that included future NBA players Don MacLean, Tracy Murray and Mitchell Butler. But Tarver hints that this one--with forward Ed O’Bannon, who ranks in the top five in the Pac-10 in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, and point guard Tyus Edney, second in the conference in assists--is better.

“My sophomore-year team had the most straight-up talent,” Tarver said. “But this year we have talent, work ethic and we just want to win. No one’s worried about their stats. I guess that’s why we’re in the position we’re in.”

Tarver’s statistics--14.1 points and five rebounds per game, a field-goal percentage of 46.8%--have suffered slightly because he suffered a sprained ankle in the Dec. 18 Louisiana State game that developed tendinitis. But Tarver said he finally is approaching peak form.

“The best is yet to come,” he said. “Even last week (in big victories over Arizona and Arizona State), I was just starting to move around. Once I can push off and really explode off that ankle, I will make an impact in every area: driving, passing, deflecting passes, blocking shots. My shooting will be better. I’ll be able to run the point if we need it.”

Against Arizona, Tarver scored 11 points and added five rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and a steal while holding Khalid

Reeves, the Pac-10’s second-leading scorer at 23.2 points, to 13. Two days later, Tarver scored 17 and held Arizona State point guard Stevin (Hedake) Smith to six points two days after he scored 35 against USC.

At the same time, Tarver is within range of some UCLA luminaries on the school’s all-time scoring list. He ranks No. 16 with 1,370 points, one behind Curtis Rowe, 10 behind Kiki Vandeweghe and 31 behind Walt Hazzard.

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Hitting home: Among the local athletes touched by tragedy because of the Northridge earthquake was David Muir, who led area City Section passers in 1992 as quarterback of Chatsworth High.

Muir, a redshirt freshman at Washington State, received a telephone call Jan. 17 informing him that his 30-year-old stepsister, Karen Osterholt, was killed along with her fiance when the Sherman Oaks home they were living in collapsed.

“I was just shocked,” Muir said. “I had to break the news to my brothers (in Michigan and Massachusetts) and they took it hard. I realized I had to go home for the funeral and see what I could do.”

Muir spent five days in the Southland helping his family recover. Muir said Washington State coaches graciously arranged for his trip home. “I told them my mind really wasn’t on football and they understood,” Muir said. “I helped clean up the house and put together some of the pieces. I felt like I was a calming figure because I hadn’t been through it. I guess my family kind of rallied around me.”

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Checking the fax: St. Mary’s forward Ali Peek (Hart) is averaging 4.6 points and 3.3 rebounds per game but hit career highs in both scoring (14 points) and rebounds (11) in a recent game against Sonoma State. . . . Marion Jones (Thousand Oaks) scored 20 points to lead fourth-ranked North Carolina to a 71-48 victory over Florida State last week. The freshman point guard wasn’t pegged as a starter before the season but eventually earned the role after she was put into a game and recorded steals on seven consecutive possessions.

Shannon Martin, a volleyball and basketball standout at Hart High, will continue to play both sports at Point Loma Nazarene College. Last spring, Martin accepted a volleyball scholarship to Arizona but left the Wildcat team late in August and transferred to the NAIA school in San Diego. Martin, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, helped Point Loma Nazarene to a fifth-place finish in the NAIA tournament. She is taking a redshirt year in basketball but plans to play both sports next season.

In football, defensive back Eliel Swinton (Montclair Prep) was named Stanford’s freshman of the year. He started five games, three at cornerback, two at strong safety.