Wooden’s Presence Makes It a True Classic

Thanks, Coach Wooden. Thanks for being Coach Wooden and hosting an afternoon of basketball called the Wooden Classic.

Top-notch college basketball would be nonexistent in Orange County were it not for the Wooden Classic, played for the sixth year now at the Arrowhead Pond. How a county of nearly three million people, as many as in, say, the state of Connecticut, cannot have at least one NCAA Division I program worthy of invitation to the Wooden Classic is a mystery (Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine both lost to San Diego this month so those invitations for future Classics are not in the mail).

We welcomed instead No. 2-ranked Auburn and No. 9-ranked Stanford in Game 1 of the doubleheader and then No. 16 Duke against local host USC.

Stanford upset Auburn, 68-57. Arizona beat Kentucky impressively on Friday night at the Preseason NIT finals. Pacific 10 Conference basketball has sent a message. It is a good weekend of work to knock off the best of the Southeastern Conference. Then Duke thumped USC, 81-68. OK, you didn’t expect a Pac-10 sweep, did you?

Thanks to Wooden, and his Classic, we were introduced to a 6-foot-10 freshman named Curtis Borchardt, a skinny young man from Redmond, Wash. He plays for Stanford and he swished a nerveless three-point basket just when it seemed the Cardinal might fold. He had 15 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots and his coach, Mike Montgomery, said afterward that “I’d like to talk about a player a lot of you haven’t heard of, Curtis Borchardt.” We’ve now heard.

As impressive as Borchardt was another Cardinal freshman, Glendora High’s Casey Jacobsen. We know Jacobsen as a shooter who accumulated the second-highest point total in California high school history. To his local fans Saturday, Jacobsen showed much more. While he didn’t like the shooting background at the Pond, Jacobsen certainly enjoyed playing rabid defense. Jacobsen was around every loose ball and made every pass to a teammate who was in the proper position.

“You all think of Casey as a scorer,” Montgomery said, “but he’s much more than that. He’s a great all-around player.” Absolutely.

Mike Dunleavy, one of Duke’s talented freshmen, and son of former Laker--and current Portland Trail Blazer--Coach Mike Dunleavy, made two consecutive three-point baskets after a heckler shouted, “Hey, Mike, your father couldn’t make it here and neither can you.”

Wrong. Young Mike, all arms and legs and basketball knowledge, scored 13 points, had five assists and five rebounds in 31 minutes. And he will get better. Quickly.

There is so much to like about college basketball when you get to sit up close and watch. And listen.

Auburn’s Chris Porter, a 6-foot-7 forward who some consider the best college player in the country, was stifled scoring-wise by Stanford and yet, by watching closely, you saw that Porter concentrated hard and played better than might have been expected on defense.

You had to applaud the Trojans. They dived for loose balls, crashed into anyone and everyone to grab rebounds and played fanatical defense. You just wish they’d slow down sometimes and make that third pass instead of taking the quick three, or settle for the layup instead of the tomahawk dunk gone wild.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring you USC’s highlight sequence, 20 seconds of breathtaking brilliance from one gifted athlete.

With the Trojans trailing, 65-53, Jeff Trepagnier, a 6-foot-4 junior from Compton, caught an alley-oop pass from 5-9 guard Brandon Granville. Trepagnier, whose arms were a good foot higher than the basket, slammed home the dunk. Backward. Without looking at the basket. Then Trepagnier forced a Duke turnover, grabbed the loose ball and slammed home another rim-rattler. For the moment the Pond was shaking, the Trojans were embracing, the Blue Devils were quaking.

“That kid Trepagnier’s as good an athlete as we’ve ever played,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “and he’s got courage.”

And, always, it is a pleasure to see the legend. Coach Wooden was gracious in accepting his standing ovation. Even the USC people at the Pond couldn’t help but acknowledge what it is Wooden means to college basketball. USC’s coach, Henry Bibby, played for Wooden and so it was nice the Trojans got to play in the Classic. And Wooden seemed quite pleased with the basketball he saw. He smiled and slapped his thigh a couple of times.

Afterward, the two Duke veterans, Shane Battier and Chris Carrawell, spoke reverently of their postgame introduction to Wooden.

“I felt very honored to be on a Duke team in the Wooden Classic and to meet Coach Wooden,” Battier said. “To shake his hand was an honor for me,” Carrawell said. “He’s a legend and the best coach of all time in any sport.”

Let that be our final thanks to Wooden for today. That he is appreciated by the kids who come to play in his Classic. That he is appreciated by those of us who come and watch his Classic.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.