Barrett Attended Pauley Practice

Among those watching practice at Pauley Pavilion this week was Pat Barrett, the Orange County youth basketball coach who has been accused of lavishing cars and cash on his players.

That Barrett attended practice is not particularly newsworthy in the opinion of Bruin Coach Steve Lavin, who said it’s important to maintain strong relationships with high school and Amateur Athletic Union coaches in order to successfully recruit top talent.

Guard Cedric Bozeman, who played on Barrett’s teams, will play for the Bruins next season. Other Barrett players include Jamal Sampson (California), Josh Childress (Stanford) and Chris Burgess, who began at Duke before transferring to Utah.

“Pat Barrett will always have a great number of top prospects from Southern California,” Lavin said. “As a result, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky and other elite programs will continue to recruit members of his summer teams. I’m not doing my job as a head coach if I’m not cultivating relationships with high school coaches and AAU coaches.”

It was Barrett whom Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone was trying to call after Sampson picked Cal over UCLA. Malone, using Lavin’s cell phone, accidentally and unwittingly dialed Sampson and left an embarrassing message on his answering machine. The Pacific 10 Conference viewed that call as a secondary recruiting violation.

That wasn’t the first time Barrett’s relationship with UCLA has come under scrutiny by the Pac-10. In 1995, Barrett signed over a Honda Accord he had purchased for $13,265 to Olujimi Mann, one of his best players. Mann announced two months later that he would attend UCLA. That prompted an investigation by the conference that lost steam when Mann’s academic problems kept him from enrolling.

UCLA broke rules after the 1994-95 season when then-coach Jim Harrick presented an NCAA championship ring to Barrett, a central figure in an article in this week’s Sports Illustrated concerning unscrupulous recruiting tactics in Southern California.

TODAY

at Oregon State, 3

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* Site--Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Ore.

* Radio--KXTA (1150).

* Records--No. 15 UCLA 18-6, 11-2; Oregon State 10-16, 4-10.