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Wooden Still on the Move, Even if the Bruins Aren’t

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A week ago John Wooden, 90 years old, brought 20 members of his extended family back to his home.

Coach Wooden gave his children and grandchildren a tour of Martinsville, Ind. He showed them the gym named after him. Wooden showed off the farm where he grew up. “The farm hasn’t changed much,” Wooden said. “The outhouse is gone, though.”

He showed them the town square where the courthouse stands and where Wooden hung out as a teenager, taking his dates to the popcorn stand. Wooden took his family to the cemetery where his parents are buried and to the church where he and his beloved late wife, Nell, were baptized.

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Wooden took them all to Indianapolis too, to the Conseco Fieldhouse, where another college basketball classic named after him was played. Conseco Fieldhouse was sold out. “I hope to see the same at the Pond,” Wooden had said before the Wooden Classic was played in Anaheim on Saturday. “We have a few more people to draw from than they do in Indiana.”

There was a gentle smile accompanying Wooden’s hopeful prediction. He knew better. There were not 18,000 people at the Pond on Saturday, only 15,286, and it was just as well. Wooden can’t make all of us learn from his wisdom. He can’t make all of us come to the Pond and he can’t make UCLA his program ever again.

The Bruins are 2-3 now. They lost, 72-67, to a particularly untalented Georgia Tech team. Tech, though, has a bright young coach named Paul Hewitt. Hewitt is in his first season at Tech and his predecessor, Bobby Cremins, apologized for the bad team he was leaving behind.

But Hewitt’s team played smart and hard. It ran plays that worked. It had a clue. Steve Lavin’s UCLA team would need to find a clue to have no clue.

Lavin walked off the court at halftime and was booed. And this was while UCLA was actually beating Georgia Tech.

Then the same fans stood and applauded Wooden, who walked unaided onto the same court and presented four high school students with John Wooden medals for achievements both academic and athletic.

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It is wrong to mention Lavin and Wooden together in any context and so, instead of burying the Bruins, let’s celebrate Wooden.

In the last week, Wooden, besides traveling to Martinsville and Indianapolis, followed Tiger Woods on Thursday for 18 holes at Woods’ own tournament in Thousand Oaks. On Friday, Wooden was at the Pond at 8 a.m. to give tips to some Special Olympics basketball students. The Special Olympics is the charity that will benefit from this year’s Wooden Classic. Wooden always makes it clear that there would be no Wooden Classics anywhere were there no charities benefiting.

And at 11 a.m. Wooden spent over an hour gently giving us all lessons about basketball, politics, how to conduct ourselves, the importance of both having roots and being able to look forward.

Wooden spoke about the political history we are all witnessing. Frankly, Wooden said, he had not been thrilled with either presidential candidate-- George Bush and Al Gore. Until now.

Now, Wooden said, one of the men had raised himself. One of the men had conducted himself with dignity and class through the mess of indecision and one of the men had not.

Wooden paused then. He made us ask. Which man did he admire now? “Who do you think?” Wooden said. Always the teacher, Wooden wanted us all to stop and think for a moment. The correct answer was Bush. George W. may never get a higher endorsement.

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With Lavin sitting next to him, Wooden took time out to praise USC Coach Henry Bibby several times. This Wooden Classic, he said, was particularly meaningful to him because Bibby’s team was in it. Wooden said that Bibby had played ferocious defense and spirited offense for him at UCLA and he saw the same qualities in Bibby’s USC team now.

Wooden reminisced joyously about his playing days in Martinsville. While he appreciates the new gym that has his name, “The one I played in was bigger,” Wooden said. “There were 4,800 people in Martinsville and the gym seated 10,000. And it was always full.”

He would live in Martinsville now, Wooden said, if all his children and grandchildren weren’t in California. But Wooden doesn’t live in the past. He spoke eloquently about his fear that college basketball will become too much like the pro game--”Where brute strength matters the most,” he said.

Widening the lane to international standards and moving back the three-point line might be worth trying, Wooden said. He thinks it would not be terrible if the dunk were outlawed again. Maybe some other skills might be relearned.

Those other skills are missing from UCLA. They are part of the USC game, though. USC, ranked No. 15, beat No. 18 Utah, 65-60, even though Jeff Trepagnier, one of USC’s stars, was suspended for a rules violation. The Trojans played ferocious defense and relentless offense. Just the way their coach teaches. Just the way their coach was taught.

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

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