Misstep Nimbly Avoided

The weather was freezing and the roads icy Thursday as the UCLA basketball team began a quest for the school’s 12th national championship. It would be nearly midnight here before the Bruins could close out a 109-75 victory over a college that sounds like a railroad, Charleston Southern, and be glad this day was over.

Everybody in the Bruin family knew what a big step this first one was, and nobody wanted to miss it. Donald Dollar, father of senior guard Cameron Dollar, drove a car all the way from Atlanta to see UCLA play. Rachel Lavin Moore, sister of Coach Steve Lavin, gave birth at 12:16 p.m. to a lucky-numbered, 7-pound 11-ounce girl, Jessica, but sent word that she and husband John, coach at Westmont College, would be watching the Bruins play on TV.

They liked what they saw. This would not become one of those nightmare nights that the UCLA players would need the next 12 months to live down. This time, they didn’t mess around.

When you’re hot, you’re hot--it was the Bruins’ 19th victory in their last 23 games.

“It’s nice to continue this snowball in the right direction,” said Lavin, a new uncle and undefeated NCAA tournament coach, all in one day.

Some sensational shooting--the starters alone hit 33 of 54 shots--carried UCLA to the next round of the Midwest Regional and a Saturday date with Xavier, a strong team with only five losses all season. The first round was the one UCLA’s players and fans were dreading, but they can breathe easier now, even here in Michigan, where you can see your breath.

Twice in the past three years, the seniors on this squad, Dollar, Charles O’Bannon and Bob Myers, flew home from the first round of the NCAA tournament with a taste in their mouths worse than airline food. Each of them enjoyed what happened in between--the 1995 NCAA title--but O’Bannon was not oblivious to the past, warning before this game, “Our seniors are one for three in first rounds, and we definitely don’t want to be one for four.”

Thursday was a good day to stay indoors and think about other things. UCLA’s players huddled at the hotel with a traveling academic counselor during the daytime, cramming for exams. No sense sitting around worrying, while TV commentators blabbed on for hours about UCLA’s previous NCAA disasters with Tulsa and Princeton.

These defeats were never far from anyone’s mind.

As soon as Charleston Southern’s players got their knees to stop knocking over their first NCAA tournament appearance, and narrowed UCLA’s advantage to 19-14, Gus Johnson, the CBS-TV broadcaster doing the game, couldn’t resist wondering aloud, “Now, the question is, will UCLA start thinking about last year?”

“No doubt about it,” analyst Quinn Buckner said.

True or false, the Bruins never let Charleston Southern see them sweat. They put together a 53-point first half, Jelani McCoy keeping everyone in the Midwest awake with primal screams that followed his dunks. Dollar did a no-look, yo-yo breakaway move that Magic Johnson’s family in Michigan would have been proud of, one that made Dollar’s dad glad he made the trip.

A defeat against a Tulsa or even against a Princeton is something that even a team like UCLA can find ways to justify, but a defeat in this game would have been humiliating, Charleston Southern having lost games this season to the likes of Yale, Radford, Liberty, the Citadel and University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Tom Conrad, the Buccaneer coach, tried the old they-put-their-pants-on-just-like-we-do pep talk, saying of the Bruins, “They can only play five people at a time, same as us.” Good attitude, but within a few minutes, Charleston Southern’s players felt outnumbered, especially without much help from injured Errol MacPherson, who is a point guard, not a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.

McCoy in particular had a huge game for UCLA, missing only one shot, tallying 21 points in 24 minutes.

“I was focused from the jump,” said McCoy, whose older teammates have shared some of their tournament experiences with him, good and bad.

With 4:25 remaining until halftime, the Bruins had more points (42) than they did in the entire 1996 game against Princeton (41).

The coach felt they tapered off in the second half, but all in all, Lavin said, “I would rather win than lose, rather be ahead than behind, rather be lucky than unlucky.”

Whatever keeps the snowball rolling.