It Becomes a Crummy UCLA Day

Six times before Saturday, Denny Crum, who used to really like it here, brought Louisville into Pauley Pavilion. Six times, with Cardinal teams great and mediocre matched against his alma mater, Crum lost.

And on the seventh, Crum’s suspension-depleted, centerless Cardinals rose up to pester, pass, then finally defeat No. 15 UCLA, 78-76, before 11,978 Saturday at Pauley.

“It’s been a while,” Crum said with a crooked smile after it was over, “since I’ve had one this good.”

It took a while, and it took some woeful UCLA ballhandling--the Bruins committed 25 turnovers--and a Cardinal team whose speed and energy outweighed the indefinite suspension of star center Samaki Walker.

And, finally, after a frantic UCLA charge erased a late eight-point deficit to regain the lead, 76-75, with 34 seconds left, it took reserve forward Brian Kiser burying a three-point basket with four seconds to play.

It took Kiser having a career day--he was six for six from three-point distance, for a career-high 20 points--and, after Charles O’Bannon stole a DeJuan Wheat pass and flew downcourt for a slam that put UCLA ahead, it took Crum’s decision to wind the clock down and try to either win or lose on a last-second shot.

“We’ve brought a lot of teams in here which weren’t better than this one, and didn’t win,” said Crum, whose behavior in receiving a second-half technical foul for yelling at referee Charlie Range probably did not please his mentor, John Wooden, sitting in the stands. “This is not an easy place to win at full strength. So, imagine how it feels for us at half-strength.”

In addition to Walker, whose acquisition of a car is being investigated for possible improprieties, Louisville is playing without forwards Jason Osborne and Alexander Sanders, both academically ineligible.

“We took them for granted today,” said O’Bannon, who led UCLA with 23 points. “A lot of their team was out for disciplinary reasons, and we didn’t really focus on them as someone who could beat us.”

UCLA (13-5) suffered its first home loss of the season, and, after last Saturday’s loss at Arizona, lost for the second time in three games. It was UCLA’s first nonconference Pauley defeat since losing to Duke, 75-65, during the 1991-92 season.

On a positive note, with California’s loss to Washington, the Bruins took over first place in the Pacific 10.

As in the Arizona game, when the Wildcats gained extra possessions by UCLA carelessness and made the Bruins pay with 13-for-20 three-point shooting, Louisville made 13 steals and was 12 for 25 from three-point distance (nine for 14 in the second half).

After O’Bannon and Kris Johnson carried the Bruins to a 36-22 lead with 2:58 left in the first half, a flood of turnovers, including four in the opening 2:30 of the second half, triggered a prolonged 32-8 run by Louisville (14-6), giving the Cardinals a 59-47 lead with 13:49 left.

Wheat, who had a game-high 25 points, harried the Bruin dribblers--he and forward Alvin Sims combined to make nine steals. O’Bannon and Johnson had five turnovers apiece, and Henderson, Cameron Dollar and Toby Bailey had four.

“Some of our passes are just ridiculous,” said Henderson, who had 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. “I think we’ve got it in our minds that we want to be spectacular, to score real fast, to put teams away quickly, and we get undisciplined.

“We have a lot of talent, and we tend to, how do I say it, want to over-use it. We try no-look passes when the simple pass would be better.”

Even in many of their victories, the Bruins have been reckless with the ball, and are averaging an alarming 18.5 turnovers a contest. In their five defeats, that number is 19.8.

“We’ve got to find a solution for this,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said. “It’s nothing new for this team, we’ve been doing this all year. But I don’t see it getting any better. That’s what’s so sad.”

Harrick tried to jump-start his bench production by inserting rarely used forward Bob Myers in the first half, but still got only four points combined from his reserves.

Even after all that, after Louisville clawed out a 73-65 lead with 1:46 to play, UCLA turned up the defense and got five consecutive fastbreak baskets to take its last lead.

Coming out of Louisville’s timeout, the Bruins expected Wheat to take the last shot--or at least penetrate against Dollar and pass off to someone cutting to the hoop.

“We were all sitting in the key waiting for Wheat to drive and take the last shot,” Henderson said. “That’s probably why Kris was a little late coming out on Kiser.”

Said Johnson, who admitted he was gesturing toward the clock as it ticked down right when Kiser made his break: “They probably had everybody in the place fooled. I was trying to be ready and help out on Wheat, then I saw Kiser make his break out of the corner of my eye, and by that time it was too late.”