UCLA Tough Talk Didn’t Work Last Time Against USC

J.R. Henderson isn’t the first UCLA player to demean a USC basketball team, providing bulletin-board material for the Trojans.

After USC had beaten UCLA, 86-82, in the first meeting between the schools at Pauley Pavilion in the 1991-92 season, Bruin forward Don MacLean said:

“To lose to a team like this in our gym is a joke and there’s no way that should happen. They played well, but on their best day they shouldn’t be able to beat us.”

George Raveling, USC’s coach at the time, then had MacLean’s statement printed on T-shirts to be worn under the Trojan players’ jerseys for the next meeting, which USC won at the Sports Arena, 83-79.

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Trivia time: What is the lowest winning score in the UCLA-USC men’s basketball series?

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Guess columnist: After Arizona had routed USC, 101-77, Saturday in Tucson, Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star wrote:

“When did USC last win a road game that mattered? Wasn’t it 1974? Wasn’t Paul Westphal the last guy to rally USC in a late-season, stay-in-the race road game?

Yo, Greg. Westphal was playing with the Boston Celtics in 1974.

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Calculated risk: Boston Celtic Coach M.L. Carr challenged Miami center Alonzo Mourning to a fight during a recent game. He did the same to Toronto’s Cliff Rozier.

“There are two reasons for that,” Carr said. “One is to let the guys know I’m fighting for them. The other is to try to break the other guy’s concentration. But if someone calls my bluff, I’ll go sit down and be quiet.”

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New breed: New Jersey Devil forward Steve Thomas, on the size of players today: ‘The players are so much bigger than before. I go to peewee and squirt games and they’re all 6 feet tall and have beards.”

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Ye olde Rams: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Coaching a young man’s game? Three NFL bosses--Dick Vermeil, Marv Levy and Ted Marchibroda--were all members of George Allen’s Ram staff more than a quarter-century ago.”

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Charles’ choice: Houston’s Charles Barkley is impressed with Vancouver’s Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the former California standout player, saying, “He’s the real rookie of the year. Allen Iverson is the playground rookie of the year.”

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For the record: Kevin McHale was given an inadvertent promotion in Monday’s Morning Briefing. He is a vice president with the Minnesota Timberwolves, not the president.

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FYI: Joe Goldin of Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va., broke the NCAA Division III record for consecutive three-point baskets in a game when he was 11 for 11 Sunday against Emory & Henry.

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Trivia answer: UCLA won, 19-17, in 1932 at Olympic Auditorium. The Trojans led at halftime, 5-2, in a half marked by stalling tactics.

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And finally: When asked whether the Chicago Bulls will dominate the 1990s the way the Boston Celtics did in an earlier era, Bill Russell said:

“No. It’s too late. We won nine times in the ‘60s. There’s not enough years left for them to do that.”