Unspoken Doubts Remain Until Harrick Speaks Up

Jim Harrick wants to talk.

He squeezes his rolled-up set of notes, in and out.

He twists his neck, left to right.

When the head coach is left alone at the UCLA basketball media day, he pantomimes a golf swing, then a side-armed pitch, an explosion inside a sweatsuit.

He wants to talk, to explain his role in the Baron Davis/Chevy Blazer controversy that has trailed him like a bloodhound.

But every time he starts, he is interrupted.

Like during his season-opening news conference Monday.

“Jim, why can you not comment?” he is asked.

He looks at the ground, shifts his feet, clears his throat as if finally ready to clear himself of this horrible mess and . . .

“I asked him not to,” interrupts Peter Dalis, UCLA athletic director. Interrupts, while sitting with other reporters in the bleachers.

“We don’t want anyone involved in the investigation commenting on the investigation until it is completed,” Dalis says.

And up front, Harrick continues to dangle.

One week after revelations that Harrick’s name was on the registration of a 1991 Chevrolet Blazer sold to Lisa Hodoh, sister of top recruit Davis, it seems like Harrick’s biggest nemesis is not enraged boosters, or this newspaper . . . but his own school.

If Harrick had been allowed to address the issue when it surfaced last week, this firecracker might have been a dud.

The story that Harrick’s son Glenn innocently sold the Blazer to Hodoh would have been more plausible had it come directly from Dad.

The stance that the Bruins have nothing to hide would have been more believable if they did not look like they were hiding something.

Spend just 10 seconds with Jim Harrick, as the media did for the first time Monday, and it is obvious he feels he has nothing to hide.

He wants to talk.

But his bosses, even though they have heard every angle of his story in a week’s worth of conversations, won’t let him.

Are they trying to separate themselves from a man who has coached their team incident-free for eight years?

Or do they simply not entirely believe his account?

As long as Jim Harrick is not allowed to speak, there will be unspoken doubts.

Even after the Pacific 10 Conference acts upon its investigation of UCLA--which could happen any day now or not for weeks--the un-aired parts of this laundry will still smell.

Such as:

--Why would Harrick sign a paper transferring title of his car without inquiring about who was making the purchase, knowing his every public action as Bruin coach is under scrutiny?

--How did it happen that his son Glenn made the car available to Davis’ sister in the basketball office, when neither work in the office?

--Why would Glenn sell the car to a sister of a top recruit, anyway? Growing up in a basketball family, and as a production assistant for a TV sports division, surely he was aware of the countless collegians who have been suspended over automobile violations.

--Once Glenn told his father of the sale, why didn’t Jim immediately report it, as he is responsible to do by NCAA mandate?

--Why the strange money order transaction for the car, with Hodoh signing the eight orders with two different names? And why were the money orders made out to Glenn Harrick’s wife, Michelle, in her maiden name, Chisholm?

--Is it yet another coincidence that Hodoh got a job at UCLA last April, in the heart of the basketball recruiting season?

There are reasonable answers for all of the above. At the moment, the only wrong answer is no answer.

The muzzle on Harrick grows tighter, the fit more uncomfortable.

Think his recruiting is being hurt? When asked about next year’s recruits on Monday, he said, “No comment.”

Think his team isn’t feeling the strain?

“There’s like a dark cloud over our program right now,” said forward Charles O’Bannon. “We just have to realize that what’s going to happen, is going to happen.”

Think his players aren’t looking over their shoulders?

“Actually, it hasn’t been so bad, I really expected us to be mobbed with reporters and things,” guard Toby Bailey said.

Harrick has spoken to his team about the controversy.

“He told us, everything will be all right, nothing is going to happen to us,” Bailey said.

Bailey said he and his teammates believe.

Why won’t UCLA give Jim Harrick a chance to convince everyone else?

* READY TO GO: UCLA, USC and other Southland schools officially open practice for the 1996-97 season. C4