Road to the Final Four
By Randy Satterburg
and Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
SEATTLE — As the lone No.1 seed to advance to the Final Four,
UCLA, with its average margin of victory hovering just under 15
points through five games, appears to have cruised through the NCAA
tournament field with relative ease. The Bruins did in fact enjoy
some comfortable wins, but the words "4.8 seconds" are more than
enough to remind UCLA that it was not an easy road to the NCAA
Finals here in Seattle. Here is a recap of all the Bruins’
tournament action, from Boise to Oakland.
* March 17, at Boise, Idaho (NCAA West Region first round), UCLA
92, Florida International 56:
BOISE — Perhaps reserve forward Kevin Dempsey summed up this
game best when he said that the Bruins’ bottom five could have
defeated the Golden Panthers. UCLA was able to erase any unpleasant
memories of previous first round struggles by exploding for a 92-56
win, the second largest margin of victory in this year’s
tournament. Every Bruin in uniform scored at least two points in
the game, led by J.R. Henderson with 16 points coming off the
bench. UCLA made 41 of 68 shots, good for a scorching 60.3 percent
clip. The Bruins’ 18 field goals in the first half was just one
less than the Golden Panthers (19 of 56 FG) managed the entire
game.
Said Florida International head coach Bob Weltich: "I always get
a little worried with teams that dribble the ball faster than we
can run."
* March 19, at Boise, Idaho (NCAA West Region second round),
UCLA 75, Missouri 74:
BOISE — With just 4.8 seconds left between UCLA and tournament
heartbreak, Tyus Edney delivered the biggest shot in years for the
Bruins. Four-and-eight-tenths seconds is barely enough time to
blink twice, and yet Edney was somehow able to scoot the length of
the court, dribble behind his back to elude a defender and bank in
an improbable game-winner with no time left on the clock over the
outstretched arm of a 6-foot-9-inch defender to single-handedly
keep the Bruins’ title hopes alive.
This second round game was expected to be a rematch of the 1992
West Regional Finals between UCLA and Indiana, but instead Missouri
advanced and gave the Bruins more trouble than anyone expected. The
Tigers were unconscious from beyond the three-point line, where
they buried 12 of 19 attempts, including five of six treys from
Paul O’Liney, who finished with 23 points.
The Bruins were forced to battle back from a first-half deficit
that grew to as many as nine points on one occasion. UCLA led by a
point inside of a minute remaining until Missouri’s Julian Winfield
worked his way underneath for a lay-up to put the Tigers ahead by
one with 4.8 seconds left.
It was more than enough time for Edney.
"It was basically the biggest shot of my life so far," Edney
said of his tourney-saving lay-up. "It’s just a great time of year
to make (a big shot) because it could have been our last game."
* March 23, Oakland, Calif. (NCAA West Region Sweet 16), UCLA
86, Mississippi State 67:
OAKLAND — Not surprisingly, criticism surrounding the UCLA camp
reached a new height after the one-point squeaker in Boise. The
Bruins, many people thought, were nothing more than tournament
chokers who had escaped the second round mostly because of
luck.
For almost a week, it seemed hard to disagree with such logic.
And then UCLA met Mississippi State, which had advanced to the
Sweet 16 with impressive victories over Long Beach State and
Utah.
Eleven minutes into the first half, with his team clinging to a
three-point lead, senior forward Ed O’Bannon re-entered the game
and keyed a 22-4 UCLA tear that left the Bruins up 40-19 at
halftime.
O’Bannon, an Associated Press First Team All-American, scored 10
points in the stretch, including a pair of three pointers and a
running jumper with three seconds left in the half.
O’Bannon finished with 21 points, perhaps overshadowing a
stellar defensive performance by center George Zidek. Zidek held
highly-regarded Bulldog center Erick Dampier to 11 points, while
UCLA held Mississippi State to a 37.1 shooting clip.
"I thought that defensively in the first half was one of the
finest jobs we’ve done all year long," Harrick said. "We took them
out of everything they really wanted to do. I thought George Zidek
was brilliant on the defensive end, and I thought Tyus Edney kind
of dominated the game in the first half."
Edney finished with 10 points, but it was his ability to create
opportunities for other players  as evidenced by his eight
assists  that did the Bulldogs in.
"There were a lot of problems with his penetration," Mississippi
State guard T.J. Honore said. "He plays low to the ground and is
kind of hard to defend when he is knocking down his outside
shots."
* March 25, Oakland, Calif. (NCAA West Region Elite Eight), UCLA
102, Connecticut 96:
OAKLAND — The Bruins’ win over Mississippi State set up a
Regional Championship showdown with No. 2 seed Connecticut, which
had advanced to the Elite Eight with a victory over ACC Champion
Maryland.
The game was tabbed as a classic "East meets West" battle, and
promised to be played with the petal to the metal. The only
question, as usual, was whether UCLA’s perimeter shooting could
overcome UConn’s stifling zone defense.
As it turns out, the Bruins’ outside shooting was marginal, at
best. UCLA connected on just two of its 11 three-point attempts and
missed 15 of its 20 shots from outside the key.
None of that mattered, though, because Edney dismantled the
Huskies’ zone to the tune of 22 points and 10 rebounds.
"I thought that we had a player that was a little bit better
than everybody on the floor … and that was Tyus Edney," Harrick
said. "He just controlled the flow, he created numerous shots for
us, led our break, he keyed our defense, he played 40 minutes.
"He was just a giant today. It’s not anything I haven’t been
telling everybody for three or four years, and I hope everyone
realizes it now."
UConn raced out to an early 15-9 lead, but Henderson’s layup on
an assist from Edney keyed an 8-0 UCLA run, and the Bruins never
relinquished the lead. The first half ended fittingly, as Edney
took the inbound pass and raced across the halfcourt line, pulled
up from 25 feet and buried a jumper that gave the Bruins a
seven-point lead as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Edney would later be recognized as the West Regional’s Most
Outstanding Player, and he was joined on the All-Tournament team by
teammates Ed O’Bannon and Toby Bailey and UConn’s Ray Allen and
Donny Marshall.
Bailey finished the UConn game with 26 points, 16 of which came
in the second half when UCLA was extending its lead to 14 points
with eight and a half minutes remaining. The Bruins sustained that
lead for three minutes, and UConn was forced to foul between three
point attempts. UCLA hit 10 of 13 free throws down the stretch, but
two treys by Connecticut closed the margin of victory.