Thursday, November 7, 1996
HARRICK:
His sojourn as the second-winningest coach of UCLA history was
as embattled as bracingBy Mark J. Dittmer
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Jim Harrick’s firing Wednesday ends an eight-year run at UCLA
that can be described as successful, but could just as easily be
called embattled.
Harrick’s career record of 191-63 gives him a career winning
percentage of .752 at UCLA. His teams won 20 games for every one of
his eight seasons here, a feat only accomplished by two other
collegiate coaches in history.
But through his first six seasons, Harrick was more often
criticized than appreciated. His teams underachieved, people said,
pointing to his top-seeded team in the 1992 NCAA Tournament that
fell one game short of the Final Four and the young team seeded
fifth in its region in the 1994 NCAAs only to fall in the first
round to Tulsa.
But in the 1994-95 season, Harrick’s Bruins threw off that
"underachiever" label. That team won 31 of 33 games and captured
UCLA’s first national championship since the end of the Wooden era,
20 years earlier.
The 89-78 win over Arkansas in the tournament final of 1995
would be Harrick’s second-to-last postseason game. His last was a
43-41 loss to Princeton in the first round of the 1996
Tournament.
It’s hard to say which would have been a more fitting
finish.
UCLA Sports Info