Bruins and Harrick Finally Get Their Due

UCLA in the Final Four again. I Wooden have believed it.

DWIGHT CATES

Ventura

*

Here’s to Jim Harrick, a class act. After Saturday’s victory, he had the chance to really stick it to all those detractors who have called for his job the last several years. But instead of gloating, castigating, or I-told-you-so-ing the Harrick bashers, he thanked the fans for their support. In this age of self-centered, overblown sports figures, it is great to see a man who can win with humble pride. Coach, you are a credit to UCLA.

SERGIO ANGULO

Los Angeles

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Now that UCLA has reached the Final Four, I keep reading and hearing how Jim Harrick deserves an apology. I think not. He is to be congratulated for his accomplishments, but they do not erase the past underachievement of his teams.

I believe he has improved as a coach as evidenced by the improvement of Edney, Zidek and Ed O’Bannon since they were freshmen. Players like MacLean, Murray and Tarver were no better when they left UCLA than when they arrived.

And Harrick actually makes game adjustments (Dollar to guard O’Liney of Missouri) that he didn’t in the past.

RONALD A. LEDERKRAMER

Los Angeles

*

If the greater UCLA community had stopped harassing Jim Harrick and supported him more in years past, UCLA would have been in the Final Four three years ago. All the backbiting merely serves to distract coaches and players, and let’s face it: What blue-chipper needs to enter an environment in which they are constantly criticized and denigrated? Do you think that happens at North Carolina?

CARL E. OSSIPOFF

Walnut