Kansas Game Keeps UCLA From ’96 Wooden Classic

The third Wooden Classic, which will be Dec. 7 at The Pond of Anaheim, will be without UCLA, according to school officials.

Though former UCLA Coach John Wooden remains involved, the Bruins will not be among the four men’s basketball teams participating in the 1996 Wooden Classic. Bruin officials said they have a previous commitment to play Kansas that weekend in Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA has played in the first two Wooden Classics, beating Kentucky in 1994 and Purdue in 1995.

“The contract [to play Kansas] was already in place before the first Wooden Classic,” said Jim Milhorn, associate athletic director. “We’ve had nothing but a great experience playing in it, but it is not a ‘UCLA Invitational.’ There was never any guarantee we’d play in the Wooden Classic every year.”

Losing the Bruins could hurt the event significantly. The UCLA ticket office sold 2,600 tickets for this year’s games. Villanova sold approximately 600, Maryland 350 and Purdue 200.

Game officials announced a crowd of 17,330 fans for UCLA-Purdue, which was the second half of last month’s doubleheader. Officials announced a crowd of 11,582 for Villanova-Maryland.

The 1994 event drew an announced crowd of 18,307.

Kent Atherton, head of Atherton Communications, which promotes the event, said his company again will attempt to select four teams representing different geographical regions. The 1996 participants will be announced before or during the NCAA tournament, Atherton said.

It is unlikely another team from the West would draw as well as UCLA.

“It’s hard to determine whether they are the [West Coast team] that draws the most fans,” Atherton said. “When they play at home, you can’t get a ticket. But a lot of that is season ticket holders.

“UCLA does bring a lot of fans. But we’ve seen teams in the regionals come to the West Coast and bring thousands of fans.”

Those games, though, have been in the NCAA tournament. Whether large numbers of fans will travel to Orange County for a regular-season game in early December is unknown.

“Orange County fans love to see a good game,” Atherton said. “They support the event. Although there were a lot of UCLA fans this year, by and large, the majority were college basketball fans.”

Atherton also said there was still a chance the Bruins would play in the 1996 event. The idea of moving the Kansas game to The Pond for the Wooden Classic has been brought up. Atherton said television may dictate such a move, but UCLA officials deny such a scenario.

Moving the game to The Pond would cost UCLA a big gate and its home-court advantage. The Jayhawks defeated the Bruins, 85-70, in Lawrence this season. Milhorn said the Kansas game is a big part of the team’s season-ticket package.

Milhorn said UCLA will play in the 1997 Wooden Classic, but has not committed to the 1998 game.