Dollar to Have Hand in It

Those pesky eggheads from Princeton will be in his face all night long, probably talking particularly articulate trash, when junior guard Cameron Dollar runs the UCLA offense in tonight’s opening round of the NCAA basketball tournament’s Southeast Regional here.

Unlike other Indianapolis events, this one will not have a fast pace. Princeton has three speeds--slow, slower and slowest--and it will be Dollar’s responsibility on defense to draw these Ivy League tortoises out of their shell.

Good thing he’s up for it. Dollar finally practiced Wednesday without that adhesive pad on his left hand, the one protecting his dislocated little finger. He also peeled off the tape that bonded his right ring finger to his other pinky, which has a torn ligament.

According to Dollar, who sat out only one game this season, “The pain’s still there. The limited range of motion’s still there. But, in a way, it’s like I finally have my hand back.

“It’s funny, though. With that pad gone, I feel like my hand is now too big for the ball.”

The last time a UCLA point guard felt pain before an NCAA tournament game, Dollar was killing time in a hotel near the Seattle-Tacoma airport. It was one morning last April when up walked teammate Tyus Edney, flexing his right wrist.

Edney looked Dollar in the eye and said, “I don’t think I can go.”

Dollar said, “Yeah, right.”

In the Bruin locker room Wednesday at the RCA Dome, Dollar recounted that conversation from the day of the UCLA-Arkansas national championship game, as well as the strange and wonderful events that followed.

Pointing to a blue drape along the wall, Dollar said, “There was a divider like that in the locker room, and Tyus kept to himself, on the other side of it. I had no idea how much his hand hurt. Even during the warmups before the game, I was kind of oblivious to everything else, getting all caught up in the excitement myself.

“I thought he was kidding when he said he couldn’t go. At no time did it occur to me, ‘You know, maybe I’ve got to start.’ ”

He didn’t. Edney gave it the old college try. He and Coach Jim Harrick rationalized that adrenaline might overcome disability. Not three minutes into the game, however, it was clear to everyone in the Seattle Kingdome that there was no way Edney could continue.

Other games, other seasons, Harrick said, he might have left Edney in out of sheer desperation. But with Arkansas ahead, 10-5, Edney was called back to the bench by Harrick, who deliberately avoided curling his arm around Edney, saying, “Take a seat, son,” and pretending nothing unusual had happened. Privately, the coach would admit much later, Harrick was “devastated, just devastated,” but couldn’t permit his players to see this.

He told Dollar to get in there.

Before he could get to the scorer’s table, Harrick stopped him:

“Cameron, you know why you’re on scholarship, don’t you?”

Dollar didn’t answer.

Harrick said, “To get the ball to Ed O’Bannon.”

Laughing at the memory of this, Dollar said he didn’t need to be reminded that the senior, O’Bannon, was the star of UCLA’s show. On the other hand, it did help him stroll into the game with a smile on his face.

“I always try to enter a game laughing, especially a big game like this one,” Dollar said, on the eve of another tournament. “Maybe it’s an L.A. mentality that I’ve picked up. To subconsciously relax, be cool and not worry that if something goes wrong, it’s the end of the world.

“The thing is, I actually felt sadness during some of that Arkansas game. The ideal championship experience would have been for me to contribute a little and to have Tyus out there leading us to the title. I felt pretty down that Tyus couldn’t be a part of that.”

Poised as he was, Dollar was promptly stripped of the basketball by Arkansas’ Clint McDaniel the first time he ran UCLA’s half-court offense. McDaniel drove the length of the court and scored, making it Arkansas, 12-5.

Analysts began saying that UCLA was done, without Edney to run the floor. Harrick even thought to himself: “This could get ugly.”

That’s when Dollar took charge, playing a textbook game and leading the Bruins to a stunningly comfortable victory and the championship.

He likes fooling those analysts.

“It offends me at first, then it amuses me,” Dollar said. “Experts really aren’t experts. It’s cute when they’re proven wrong. In fact, if you see one, tell him Cameron says, ‘Thanks, appreciate it, pick against us again.’ ”