Hoops to face Fullerton before finals
Motivated Bruin squad preps for Pac-10 season
By Randy Satterburg
Daily Bruin Staff
The most recent Associated Press Top 20 has the UCLA men’s
basketball team ranked No. 2 in the nation after its 82-81 win
against perennial power Kentucky last weekend. At Cal State
Fullerton, on the other hand, the big news is that Titans’ head
coach Bob Hawking won his first game as a collegiate head coach a
few weeks back, an 80-71 triumph against perennial non-power,
Northridge.
Excuse the Bruins if they aren’t exactly foaming at the mouth in
anticipation of going toe-to-toe with the Titans, Saturday in
Pauley Pavilion. After all, on five different occasions Cal State
Fullerton (1-2) has given it the old college try against UCLA in
Pauley, with nothing but a big, fat goose-egg in the win column to
show for it.
Will UCLA head coach Jim Harrick do anything different to get
his team motivated to play the Titans?
"I won’t do anything special," Harrick said. "Sometimes you just
have to come out a little cold-blooded, and just execute and play
basketball for the love of playing. I think players get excited
about playing games (no matter who they are against), at least I
would hope they do."
* * *
Following the Fullerton game, UCLA has just three more games
before the Pac-10 season starts up, Jan. 5, at Oregon. Over the
holiday break UCLA travels to Baton Rouge, La., to face a
much-improved LSU team (Dec. 17) that has blue-chip guard Randy
Livingston back from a season-ending injury last year. George Mason
and North Carolina State come calling to Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 22
and 28, respectively.
* * *
With 12 players waging an everyday battle for playing time in
the Bruins game-day rotation, it wouldn’t be surprising to witness
some jealousy being directed toward freshman J.R. Henderson for
sinking the game-winning free throws in front of a national
television audience. But everyone in the UCLA locker room expressed
nothing but genuine satisfaction for Henderson as he enjoyed his
moment in the sun.
While a throng of media gathered around Henderson’s locker,
across the room fellow first-year man Toby Bailey dressed in
relative quiet, after being the media darling the previous game.
Said Bailey, who had one point in 10 minutes of action against
Kentucky: "We kind of have a rivalry going on between the different
classes, freshman, sophomores and so on, so anytime somebody on the
team does something good it pleases me, but especially when its
another freshman."
Ed O’Bannon, a senior, had no problem with a freshman stealing a
bit of his thunder.
"I was happy to see Henderson at the line," O’Bannon said, "he
was the only one that hadn’t missed. He was cool as ice. To be
honest I probably would have been all shaken up."
* * *
Even though it was only his second college basketball game at
UCLA, one that featured two top-10 teams squaring off in front of
millions of people not only across the nation but the world as
well, Henderson approached the game no differently than he did for
one of his East Bakersfield High School games vs. Arvin.
"I’m not one to get too excited much, whatever team we’re
playing," Henderson says.
His more excitable teammate Bailey just found that out about
Henderson.
"He’s always calm, that’s just his personality," Bailey said. "I
tried to pump him up (the night before the Kentucky game) but
nothing I said worked."
* * *
Aside from Henderson’s heroics in the final seconds, it was Ed
O’Bannon that really gave the Bruins a chance to win against
Kentucky. His game-high 26 points (9 of 17 shooting) served notice
that he has the ability to carry a team on his back when need
be.
"He was certainly our leader out there, and kind of a warrior,"
Harrick said. "He made about three big-time shots that I don’t know
I’ve seen him make before. I think he’s a much more polished player
than in the past."
"I was just trying to score points for us any way I could,"
O’Bannon said.
* * *
A game ball should probably be saved for George Zidek as well,
who scored 16 points and hauled in 10 rebounds against the
Wildcats. Zidek has shown that he can dominate inside against the
Cal State Northridges of the world, but his play against Kentucky’s
big men inside spoke volumes about the improvements in his
game.
"I thought he was a tower of strength," Harrick said. "I don’t
think they had anybody in the game who could handle George, and I’m
not sure George feels anybody can handle him right now."
Actually, Zidek is more modest about his game, choosing to give
praise to the UCLA fans that made Anaheim’s Pond a
home-away-from-home for the Bruins, rather than patting himself on
his back.
"The crowd was amazing," Zidek said. "I really want to thank all
the people who supported us (Saturday). They never gave up on us
the whole game. They were our sixth man."
* * *
The only person who made more noise at the Pond was Charles
O’Bannon, who picked up his fifth foul fairly early in the second
half trying to guard Kentucky’s All-American candidate Rodrick
Rhodes. After he left the court, O’Bannon momentarily strayed into
the deep reaches of the Pond’s tunnel network where he let out some
yells that brought security personnel by to see what was going
on.
"This is the game I had been waiting for since we scheduled it,
and all of a sudden I can’t play," O’Bannon said. "I was hurt
emotionally and that’s why I ran off the court  to regain my
composure."