Charleston Southern Should Try Some Tape Over Mouths

For a 15th-seeded team, Charleston Southern wasn’t very deferential to the second-seeded Bruins, and the UCLA coaching staff made sure the players knew about it--putting together a videotape of some prime Buccaneer comments for viewing earlier this week.

Though it almost certainly had no effect on the outcome, the UCLA players admitted they had extra motivation.

“Guys were mad, something clicked inside of us when we saw that tape,” said UCLA forward J.R. Henderson. “I was surprised they’d say things like that, like we weren’t one of the elite teams, that they were excited they were playing us.

“It was like we were some last-place team in the West. I didn’t understand it coming from a 15-seed, didn’t understand it at all.”

Buccaneer forward Robert Hourruitiner was especially vocal in the days leading up to the game, saying CSU was “fortunate” to have drawn UCLA, instead of a “team like North Carolina.”

“I didn’t anything of it, really,” said Bruin guard Cameron Dollar, who read that Buccaneer forward Jeff Daniels said that Dollar couldn’t shoot.

“It’s like the stuff that happens in high school, when you’re so much better than somebody, it’s kind of like a bluff--and when you square up, he backs down.

“He was probably just trying to fire up his guys, I have no problem with it.”

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UCLA’s first reaction to Saturday’s matchup with high-speed, full-court pressing Xavier?

“It’s going to be exciting,” Dollar said, “it’s going to be a fun game.”

Said Toby Bailey: “We just have to make sure we stay under control and don’t throw the ball away too many times, and we’ll be all right.”

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Charleston Southern’s injured point guard, senior Errol McPherson, got his wish and got into the game with 3:16 left. UCLA Coach Steve Lavin made sure McPherson, who partially tore the anterior-cruciate ligament in his left knee late in the regular season, scored by ordering his players to foul him in the final minute.

--TIM KAWAKAMI

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Murray State Coach Mark Gottfried, an assistant under Jim Harrick at UCLA, said Thursday that if he had still been on Harrick’s staff the former Bruin coach would not have been fired last fall.

“I think if I had been there I could have helped Jim Harrick survive,” Gottfried said at a press conference at the Charlotte Coliseum where his team will play Duke today. “Part of being an assistant coach is being loyal. Maybe there have been some mistakes that wouldn’t have happened.”

Gottfried, who is in his second season as coach of the Racers, also said current Bruin Coach Steve Lavin will have a harder time finding success in the future.

“Steve inherited what may be the most talented team one through six in the country,” he said. “It may be a lot more difficult [for Lavin] having to go out there and recruit and compete against the Bobby Knights and Dean Smiths of this game.”