Arizona Has Some Technical Difficulty

Lute Olson had won 500 games, Jim Harrick 350, going into Thursday night’s game at Pauley Pavilion. At various times, each coach has probably thought to himself: “I’ve seen it all.”

But they haven’t been thinking this lately.

Both coaches were left shaking their heads after UCLA’s 76-75 victory over Arizona, after a game the Bruins nearly blew by having too many players on the floor (never a good idea), then the Wildcats blew by committing a foul with 0:01 on the clock (an even worse idea).

In Olson’s previous game, his Arizona team won when one of his players sank a 65-foot shot.

In Harrick’s previous home game, his UCLA team won when a bench warmer came in and scored more points in one game than he had all season.

Game plans are great, but no coach ever really knows what to expect.

For example, neither Olson nor Harrick could have expected:

--That UCLA wouldn’t score a basket for the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game.

--That UCLA would go down the court six consecutive trips without getting off a shot, committing a turnover every time.

--That Arizona would be leading, 35-16.

--That Arizona’s center, Ben Davis, would have 21 points by halftime.

--That Kevin Dempsey, of all people, would bring UCLA back to life with a tomahawk dunk.

But, most of all, few among those at Pauley Pavilion could have projected what would occur in this game’s final 26 seconds.

With the score tied, who would have expected that the UCLA five could have nearly blown the game by turning out to be the Bruin six?

Six players reported into the game for Harrick, and NCAA rules are funny about this. It isn’t allowed. “I’ll have to take responsibility for that,” Harrick said.

Olson was able to laugh about it, at least.

“We were trying to deny them the inbounds pass, until we saw there were too many of them to deny,” Olson said. “I finally counted them on my hand and got to six.”

That was unpredictable. So was what happened next.

Not only did Arizona get possession of the ball, it got a technical foul. Miles Simon stepped to the free-throw line to put UCLA out of its misery.

But the same guy who bombed home that 65-footer against Cincinnati was not so effective standing still. He clanked both free throws.

That was unpredictable enough, but then came what Harrick termed “the bizarre ending.”

It isn’t so much that Arizona missed its last shot and committed a foul in the process. It is that the foul came with one second remaining on the clock.

And ending up on the line for UCLA was, wouldn’t you know it, Kris Johnson, who was in the game only because center Jelani McCoy had been injured minutes earlier.

McCoy had been carrying the Bruins through most of their comeback.

“Jelani was the difference for them,” Olson said. “He wasn’t the best player on the floor tonight, because Ben Davis was that, far and away. But Jelani makes people think every time he’s out there.”

With one second remaining, McCoy wasn’t out there.

But Johnson, who during the first half was quite simply the worst player on the floor, was given another chance, this time to win the game . . . which he did.

“I don’t know what was going on with me,” Johnson said of his first half, when he personally committed as many turnovers (six) as did Arizona’s entire team.

Cameron Dollar had to come off the bench and run the Bruin offense, with the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand taped together. He quickly scored UCLA’s first field goal of the game, at the 14:29 mark, after Johnson and Toby Bailey had spent the game’s first 5 1/2 minutes throwing the ball all over Westwood.

Lesser teams would have folded. But UCLA often compensates for its impatience and immaturity with great gobs of talent, and that’s what brought the Bruins back.

Harrick said, “I also reminded them that Duke had been down by 17 at home last night at halftime, and came back to beat Virginia. If Duke can do it, so can we.”

Ah, the confidence of a national champion.

Bailey stirred the crowd with a thundering dunk to make it 47-43, getting UCLA back in the game. Just that quickly, Arizona broke it open again to 60-49.

In came Dempsey for Johnson. Wide open for a 20-footer, Dempsey faked, ducked under his defender and attacked the basket with a Brent Barry-like fury, dunking in a crowd. McCoy’s twisting layup. A three-point shot by Dempsey and a monster dunk by McCoy brought the Bruin fans to their feet.

“UCLA showed tremendous character,” Olson said. “It certainly didn’t look good for them in that first half.”