COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : Wooden to Take His Wizardry to Seattle for the NCAA Final

John Wooden, the man who personifies UCLA’s mystique and national championship tradition, has changed his mind and will travel to the Kingdome to watch the Bruins play Arkansas for the NCAA title tonight in the 20th anniversary season of his last championship.

Wooden, 84, had earlier said he wouldn’t come because the last Final Four he attended with his wife, Nell, was in 1984 in Seattle, before she died in 1985. Since then, Wooden has attended only one Final Four, in 1991, in Indianapolis, when his home state paid tribute to him.

“Yes, I plan on flying up there in the morning,” Wooden said Sunday in St. Louis during CBS’ broadcast of a high school charity all-star game. “I’ll get back to L.A. this evening, and go up in the morning.”

UCLA embraced the idea of Wooden, who won 10 titles in 12 seasons before retiring in 1975, watching in person.

“It will be a great thrill for me personally and I think our university and our players involved because he is a big part of what UCLA really is,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said.

Would the players want Wooden to give them a pregame pep talk?

“I will be honored to hear whatever he would have to say to us,” sophomore forward Charles O’Bannon said. “I mean, he has won 10 national titles. I think he knows a little bit about what to say before a game.”