Williams Staying Focused

Questions about whether Kansas Coach Roy Williams might become a candidate for the UCLA job persist, though it might be only wishful thinking among Bruin fans.

This time, Williams had a ready answer.

Asked if the UCLA talk was any distraction, Williams said a firm no.

“My team believes me and believes my focus is on Kansas, and that’s where it is,” he said. “It’s not a distraction to me. I haven’t talked to UCLA. It’s not a distraction to my guys.

“If it was Elle MacPherson and I was talking to her, that would be a distraction.”

Point guard Aaron Miles said he wasn’t concerned about Williams and UCLA.

“If he’s not going to take his dream job at North Carolina, where he grew up and played, he’s not going to take the job at UCLA,” Miles said.

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Fans are advised to arrive for today’s games 90 minutes before tipoff because of extra security measures that will include bag inspections and electronic wand checks, NCAA West Regional officials said.

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With Arizona playing Notre Dame, someone asked Luke Walton if his father, Bill, ever talks about the Irish ending UCLA’s 88-game winning streak in 1974.

“Yeah, he talks about it all the time. He says that game ruined his life,” Walton said, drawing laughter. “But for me, none of that has anything to do with the game coming up.”

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Notre Dame’s Jordan Cornette is the brother of Butler’s Joel Cornette, whose team plays Oklahoma on Friday in the NCAA East Regional at Albany, N.Y.