Who Goofed? It Couldn’t Be Wooden

John Wooden, interviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS last week, said he is still haunted by UCLA’s double-overtime loss to North Carolina State in the 1974 NCAA tournament semifinals at Greensboro, N.C.

The Wolfpack overcame a seven-point deficit in the second overtime to win, 80-77, on a short bank shot and two free throws by David Thompson. It ended a string of 38 consecutive NCAA tournament victories for UCLA.

“I goofed,” Wooden said. “I should have called a timeout, and I should have had David Meyers guarding Thompson. Meyers was guarding [Tom] Stoddard.”

Bill Walton and Bill Russell were also part of the show.

“You weren’t the reason we lost that game, Coach,” Walton said. “We didn’t need a timeout.”

Walton explained. “It was Coach’s philosophy that a timeout was an admission of defeat and also that it gave the other team a chance to regroup.”

*

More Wooden: He told Rose why he decided to retire after the Bruins defeated Louisville in overtime in the semifinals of the 1975 tournament at San Diego.

“You may not believe this, but nobody, not even my wife, knew I was going to retire,” Wooden said. “I walked off the court after that game--I didn’t feel real good--and I didn’t want to go meet the press. I never felt that way before and I thought if I feel that way, it’s time to get out.”

He said he told his players, who two nights later would defeat Kentucky for Wooden’s 10th title: “Regardless of how the Kentucky game comes out . . . you’re the last team I’ll ever teach.”

*

Unselfish: Walton said Russell and Wooden were similar in that Russell “played basketball to make the other team members stars” and Wooden’s “joy in life comes from the success of others.”

Walton then recited a Wooden saying: “A life not lived for others is not a life, a game not played for others is not a game.”

*

Trivia time: Who is the only person to have coached championship teams in three professional basketball leagues?

*

Politically incorrect: In the HBO documentary, “Playing the Field: Sports and Sex in America,” old footage of a woman discus thrower was shown, and an unidentified sportscaster had this comment:

“They’ve got to be good to throw the discus, and they should be. Maybe girls get that way tossing dishes around the kitchen.”

Imagine the outcry if someone said that today.

*

Learning curve: Comedian Harry Shearer, appearing on Fox Sports Net 2’s “Sports Roundtable,” had this to say about Shaquille O’Neal receiving his degree from Louisiana State:

“Shaq is very inspirational. It gives me hope that maybe he will learn to shoot free throws.”

*

Occupational hazards: Shearer on professional boxing: “It is a way out of the ghetto for a lot of kids. But so is drug dealing. And they usually end up with their brains intact more than boxers do.”

*

Trivia answer: Bill Sharman coached George Steinbrenner’s Cleveland Pipers to an American Basketball League championship in 1962, Sharman’s rookie season as a coach. Then he coached Bill Daniels’ Utah Stars to an ABA title in 1971 and Jack Kent Cooke’s Lakers to an NBA title in 1972.

*

And finally: Walton said Wooden told him to get a shave and haircut after he showed up for his first practice his senior year at UCLA. “We were in the middle of our 88-game winning streak, we had won two straight titles and I was the two-time player of the year, and he was going to tell me how to wear my hair,” Walton said.

Wooden recalled saying, “You’re right. I can’t tell you how to wear your hair, but I can determine whether you play here or not.”

Walton said he got on his bicycle, headed straight to the barber shop, then hustled back to practice.