Myers Is Messenger for UCLA

Ladies, gentlemen and shocked basketball observers of all kinds, introducing the newest, distinctly earthbound UCLA basketball hero for these confusing times:

Bob Myers.

A career-high 20 points, five rebounds, two steals. The starters struggle, the Myers unit puts the Bruins ahead. The starters get booed, Myers gets roars and a final standing ovation.

In a stunning 22-minute performance Saturday, everybody’s favorite former walk-on and 12th man moved from cult appreciation and in-joke chants to a higher, happier place.

Instead of being an oddity among the Bruin thoroughbreds, the broad-shouldered, 6-foot-6 Myers was merely the, gulp, best player on the floor, jump-starting a listless UCLA team past Oregon State, 69-60, before 11,280 at Pauley Pavilion.

“It was funny,” Myers said, “in the second half, when I got cut [while being fouled] and it looked liked I might have to come out, one of the Oregon State players said, ‘Yeah, anything to get him out of the game.’

“I didn’t expect to hear that.”

Did anybody?

Myers, who played the first significant minutes of his 2 1/2-year Bruin career in the team’s last two games, came into Saturday’s game with the score tied, 7-7, against a talent-starved Oregon State team that had lost its last six in a row.

With 12:08 left in the half, the Bruin starters once again were struggling with turnovers, and Coach Jim Harrick was looking for some spark from his second unit.

For most of the next nine minutes, Harrick kept Toby Bailey, Kris Johnson, Jelani McCoy and Charles O’Bannon--J.R. Henderson was sidelined early because of a back injury--on the bench and went with Cameron Dollar and Brandon Loyd at guards, omm’A Givens at center and Myers and Kevin Dempsey at the forward spots.

“I just wanted them to basically watch Bob Myers play,” Harrick said. “He’s someone who plays smart and does what you tell him in practice. Sometimes, we play too fast, we’re off-balance and out of control.

“It’s funny how when you do things properly, they pay off for you.”

The play was not pretty, and nobody threatened to break down a backboard, but by the time the starters checked back in--to loud boos--with 3:48 to play in the half, the Bruins (15-5, 8-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) were up, 22-17.

Scoring on a succession of offensive rebounds, layups and free throws after hard fouls when other Bruins penetrated and dished off, Myers had 10 points by halftime, already a career high.

Then, inserted quickly in the second half, Myers was a go-to guy, finding lanes to the basket and watching his NBA-style teammates get him the ball.

Myers scored 10 more against the Beavers (3-15, 1-8) in the second half. He would have had more if he hadn’t blown a couple of layups.

“Charles [O’Bannon] told me, ‘You’ve got to start dunking it,’ ” Myers said. “I said, ‘One step at a time. Let’s not get carried away.’ ”

Harrick said he put Myers in and left him in to send a message to his more-talented players: Do the simple things, and you will win.

“I’m not sure what the message was, but Bob was outstanding,” O’Bannon said. “Now the crowd knows what kind of player he is--he isn’t just someone they’re chanting for. He can play.

“They’re going to expect it from him now.”

While the Pauley crowd clearly enjoyed its Myers moments, the Bruin first-teamers did not look at all pleased hearing themselves get booed. But, after the game, they said that it’s just part of life amid the high UCLA expectations.

“I don’t play for the crowd, I play for myself and for the team,” said Bailey, who had seven points, four assists and five turnovers.

“It’s all about us, and nothing else. Because we know that if we lose a few games, those fans who booed us won’t even be here, anyway. We know it’s like that at UCLA. If you lose a couple of games, the world’s coming to an end.”

Said Kris Johnson, who, in Henderson’s absence, took over as the team’s primary low-post scorer and scored 18 points: “I was disappointed they were booing us. We had Kansas down 19 at their place, and their fans were cheering them on to come back. I guess the fans in L.A. are kind of spoiled. So we take that with a grain of salt.”

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Bruin Notes

J.R. Henderson said that when he reached for the ball early in the first half, he aggravated a back muscle injury he first suffered in the summer. Henderson did not return to the game, and said he will have to start undergoing treatment on the back. Coach Jim Harrick said he does not expect Henderson to miss this week’s Northern California swing.