CHAMPIONS!!!
UCLA captures school’s 11th NCAA crown with 89-78 victory over
Hogs
By Randy Satterburg
Daily Bruin Staff
SEATTLE, Wash. — For 20 long years since the great John Wooden
helped UCLA win its last basketball national championship, the
shadow of greatness that the former Bruin head coach cast over the
program proved a burden more than a blessing.
Monday evening here at the Kingdome, with Wooden himself in
attendance at the title game for the first time since 1991, the
UCLA Bruins stepped out of the shadows.
Now, after UCLA’s 89-78 win against the defending champions
Arkansas Razorbacks, the Bruins return to their familiar role atop
the college basketball world as the 1995 National Champions.
Make room in Pauley Pavilion for another championship banner
 No. 11 to be precise.
"It’s a great feeling to know we accomplished the goal we set
out to do early in May," sophomore point guard Cameron Dollar said.
"We raised the 11th banner. We brought (the national championship)
back to UCLA."
It is an accomplishment that is all the more special for UCLA
because of the way it was done. There were some who did not give
the Bruins much of a chance to knock off the defending champs
 who had all five starters back  with a healthy Tyus
Edney, let alone without him.
But that is exactly what happened. Edney’s three minutes of game
action aside, UCLA took its best six remaining players and went
straight at the Razorbacks’ much-celebrated 10-deep rotation, never
backing down, and never wearing out.
"I couldn’t believe that we beat them with six people," senior
center George Zidek said. "I don’t think anybody has any doubts now
about what Bruin pride means."
There was much speculation leading up to tip-off about the
severity of Edney’s sprained right wrist, which was heavily wrapped
for the game. Edney drew the starting nod, but UCLA head coach Jim
Harrick had an idea he could not go the whole way in warm-ups. That
suspicion was confirmed in the game’s first three minutes when
Edney had difficulty handling the ball with all the padding on his
hand.
From that moment on it became Dollar’s game, and he did not
disappoint. The Bruins trailed 12-5 when Dollar subbed for Edney.
Dollar began auspiciously by dishing a firm pass to Ed O’Bannon for
a score and sparking a 20-9 run over the next 10 minutes that put
the Bruins ahead 25-21 with just over seven minutes remaining in
the first half.
At the same time, UCLA’s defense picked up the pace, swarming
around Arkansas’ Corliss Williamson, with two, three and sometimes
four men. Williamson looked strong with four early points, but
scored just one point the rest of the half, and finished with just
12 points on three of 16 shooting.
"My plan was to push him outside, and when he catches the ball,
have a gap so he doesn’t go by me," said Zidek, who along with
freshman J.R. Henderson was most responsible for shutting down
Williamson. "And I wanted to move my feet so that every shot he
would shoot would have to be a shot over me, so he would never
score around me."
With UCLA leading 29-26, freshman Toby Bailey scored the next
six points for the Bruins, punctuated by a step-and-dunk, after a
feed from Dollar on a three-on-one break. Bailey finished with an
unexpected 26 points on 12 of 20 shooting after scoring just two
points in UCLA’s semifinal win. Bailey added the scoring punch the
Bruins so desperately needed with Edney and his 14.7 points per
game average on the bench.
"Toby Bailey was absolutely incredible," Harrick said. "When you
open up the court on him, he’s a very fine athlete."
Bailey agreed that Arkansas’ pressure defense suited his style
of play perfectly.
"I knew it was going to be the style of play that is
complementary to the way I play," Bailey said. "Coach (Harrick)
said ‘just attack’ and that is what I am best at so that was what I
was trying to do."
With the help of Bailey’s 12 first-half points, UCLA was able to
take a slim 40-39 lead into the break.
In the second half though, the Bruins went to their senior Ed
O’Bannon to put the Razorbacks away. UCLA took a nine-point lead
with eight minutes left in the game on an O’Bannon layup, but when
Arkansas answered with six consecutive points to pull within three,
the Bruins turned to O’Bannon once again, this time for a soft left
hook in the paint that got UCLA back on track. Time and again down
the stretch, when the Bruins needed a score, O’Bannon was there. He
finished with a game-high 30 points and 17 rebounds and was named
the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
"(O’Bannon) I think is the best player in America, bar none,"
Harrick said. "Thirty and 17 in the championship game, and he is a
guy who refused all year to let us lose, always finding a way to
win."
O’Bannon, overcome by emotion after his last game in a UCLA
uniform, knelt mid-court, surrounded by photographers trying to get
a picture of the man who is one of the primary reasons why the
Bruins once again rule the college basketball world.
"It was very important for our three seniors, myself, Tyus and
George to go out as winners," O’Bannon said. "And we did it. So it
was sweet."