UCLA Looking for Some Basketball Revenge

Just over a year ago, three days after North Carolina had handed UCLA its worst defeat in history, Walt Hazzard sifted through the wreckage of the 107-70 loss and found these words:

“I’ll have to swallow the bullet this time, but I’ll have my shot. They’ll be back here next year without Brad Daugherty, Warren Martin and Steve Hale.”

They’re here.

Next year arrives tonight in Pauley Pavilion. The team the Bruins say they have been waiting for, the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, are back, and just as Hazzard said, they no longer have the 7-0 Daugherty, the 6-11 1/2 Martin or even Hale.

No, but in their places are such players as Joe Wolf, Dave Popson, J.R. Reid and Scott Williams, respectively 6-10, 6-10, 6-9 and 6-10.

This will be a tall order for the Bruins. The Tar Heels’ height gave them big, big trouble last year when Jack Haley was getting rocked around the clock, all by himself.

How bad was it?

“I was thoroughly beaten up and dominated,” Haley said.

And what about this time?

“If we are very close at the half or even, we’ll win the game, no doubt about it,” he said.

After what happened last time, it may be difficult to see the logic behind such optimism.

The Tar Heels had such an overpowering edge in height, their final 37-point margin of victory might have been larger, although Hazzard surely didn’t think so at the time.

It all got kind of confusing and messy at the end, mostly on the UCLA side, and especially when Hazzard said he felt that Tar Heels Coach Dean Smith was running up the score by leaving in some of his starters too long, then was quoted as saying he might cancel the remaining three games in the series.

Hazzard, however, has now distanced himself from both of those statements and explains that whatever he said at the time was merely a result of just having watched his team being reduced to floor dust.

“When you lose by 37 points, you are not going to be happy,” Hazzard said.

“We didn’t play well and it was on national television, but what went on between Dean and myself was blown out of proportion by people trying to create a total adversary relationship between me and Dean Smith,” he said.

Smith said the game got out of hand so quickly, he was unable to get the tree line of Martin and Daugherty out of the game fast enough.

“I remember a point where I thought, ‘OK, the game is won,’ then we go crazy and get about 14 points in a row,” Smith said.

“Certainly, I have never run up the score on anybody,” he said. “I was even getting ready to call a timeout to get the starters out of there. Walt was just so discouraged after the game. I told him he was good for college basketball.”

So the coaches are saying they are at peace after last season’s apparent falling-out. No hard feelings and all that. But, wait. What about the UCLA players?

Reggie Miller is still kind of upset.

“I was out there getting pushed around and my feelings were hurt,” he said. “So you see, there’s a little payback, a little redemption in the back of my mind.

“All I remember is getting beat by 37 points. If they were running up the score, so what? That’s the killer instinct and that’s what basketball’s all about.”

If the Bruins have a chance at upsetting the Tar Heels this time, they must hope that their big men do a better job.

Last season, it was strictly no contest.

“I’ll give you a good example,” Hazzard said. “Our only front line sub was Gerald Jones, which meant that Craig Jackson (a 6-8 forward) had to move to center. They had Popson, Daugherty and Martin, and when I looked for Jones, I couldn’t see him.

“I asked ‘Who’s playing Martin?’ Then when Martin shot, I saw Jones underneath him,” Hazzard said.

Against Santa Clara during a 76-62 victory Saturday night, Miller had 10 rebounds, which equalled his career high, and Jackson had 11, both performances probably a little too much to expect nightly.

The Bruins are going to have to rely on extended help from Haley as well as their three freshmen, but Trevor Wilson, Greg Foster and Kevin Walker combined for just three rebounds, all by Foster, in limited playing time against Santa Clara. Walker played only two minutes.

On the other side of the court, Smith may start the same front line that he used in North Carolina’s first two games of the season in Hawaii--Wolf and Popson, both seniors, along with Reid, a freshman.

But Smith said he is considering starting Williams against UCLA because Williams, another highly touted freshman, was a local high school player at Hacienda Heights Wilson.

North Carolina’s starting backcourt returns intact. Kenny Smith is back for his senior year and is paired with sophomore Jeff Lebo.

At this point, there is no way to predict how the Bruins will fare against the tall and talented Tar Heels, certainly not after UCLA got outrebounded by Santa Clara in the opener.

In any event, Smith is wary of the Bruins and plans to treat them with respect.

“They are so explosive and we’ll be at their place,” Smith said. “I’m also a little concerned about coming in after Hawaii. They’ve got great shooters in Reggie and Montel (Hatcher) and Pooh has unbelievable quickness. They’re going to be real tough.”

How tough? Hazzard would only say that UCLA would be tougher than the last time these teams met.

“We’ll give them a game this time,” he said.

Bruin Notes

Tipoff for tonight’s game is at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion, which is not yet sold out. . . . The Tar Heels opened the season by beating Hawaii, 98-78, Friday night and then beat Hawaii Loa, 118-80, Saturday night. . . . Tar Heel Coach Dean Smith on his team’s preseason No. 1 ranking: “We finish third in the conference, lose three starters and we’re thought of as the best in the country. I think that’s kind of humorous.” . . . Should the Bruins be concerned about their defensive rebounding? UCLA’s victory Saturday did not impress Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams. “We rebounded well on the offensive boards and maybe exposed some weakness in their game there,” he said.