UCLA Basketball: Good, Bad and Ugly

The UCLA-USC game was a contest to decide which team could play the dumbest basketball. But while USC led UCLA by a considerable margin, it was the referees that won the match and Terry Christman was the star of the game.

Christman had a bunch of highlights, but his biggest was calling a technical foul on UCLA’s Baron Davis with three minutes to go.

Christman is typical of too many referees whose only thoughts are about starring in the games they officiate.

JACK ALLEN, Pacific Palisades

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Nothing in professional sports can equal the emotions generated by a showdown between UCLA and USC. I have loved it for more than 30 years. The intensity of the rivalry, however, is no excuse for the foul language flowing so freely from the UCLA student section. I must have missed the message when the ending of the eight-clap was changed to “[Bleep] SC.”

Coach Wooden taught his players to respect all opponents and win with dignity. If UCLA students scream obscenities when we win, what will they do if we lose? Shame on those of you who bring disgrace to a great institution.

MICHAEL ROUSE, Torrance

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To have the UCLA-Stanford game at Pauley Pavilion stopped because of debris thrown onto the court by UCLA fans is embarrassing and sad. Pauley Pavilion, the home of Hazzard, Goodrich, Allen, Alcindor, Wicks, Rowe, Walton, Miller and Wooden, is the epitome of class, a shrine to college basketball. Grow up kids, treat this place with respect and maybe you’ll learn to respect yourselves along the way. Don’t let Pauley Pavilion’s tradition be forgotten in the next millennium.

P.J. GENDELL, Beverly Hills

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I have been attending UCLA basketball games since the 1940s. Last Saturday’s game against Stanford was one of the most poorly officiated I have ever seen. Because Coach Lavin can’t comment about the officiating, I feel that I must do so.

How one team can have 49 free-throw attempts and the other team only 15 shows something about the unbalanced officiating. I found it difficult to understand how Dan Gadzuric could be called for a foul when he had both hands on the ball. I found it hard to understand how Mark Madsen, the most aggressive player on the floor, had only one foul, while five UCLA players fouled out.

Something needs to be done to improve the officiating. The players should determine the outcome of a game, not the referees.

PAUL SELWYN, Montecito

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In his Jan. 19 feature where he reminded the world of the 25th anniversary of Notre Dame’s ending of UCLA’s 88-game winning streak, Bill Plaschke conveniently forgot to add that one week later the Bruins blew the Irish out at Pauley Pavilion, 94-75, bringing to an end the Irish’s three-game winning streak.

JOE COHEN, Los Angeles