Harrick Wouldn’t Object To Payback
Jim Harrick’s athletic director at Pepperdine approached him with a plan to play Tulsa back in the 1980s.
“He said they’ll pay us this sum, which was unheard of at Pepperdine at the time,” Harrick said. “My A.D. said, ‘Why don’t you go play ‘em?’ That means, go play because we need the money.”
It turned out to be a hard way to make a buck.
“They beat the crap out of us,” Harrick said of a Tulsa team led by then-coach Nolan Richardson. Harrick’s Bruins and Richardson’s Arkansas Razorbacks meet in tonight’s NCAA championship game at 5:40 in the Kingdome.
“We got down 30, cut it to 20 and he put his guys back in and we got beat by 30.”
More Harrick
No matter the outcome tonight, Harrick has basked, appropriately, in his team’s march to the title game. In the first half of Saturday’s North Carolina-Arkansas game, he munched popcorn with CBS analyst Mike Krzyzewski, waving to coaches passing below who would have given up their shoe contracts to be in Harrick’s seat.
Harrick said he had a couple of rough years at UCLA, particularly when talk radio was popular, but has otherwise enjoyed Westwood, despite unfair comparisons to Bruins legendary coach John Wooden.
“This has been a very special time for me,” Harrick said.
Asked about his pregame rituals, Harrick joked, “I don’t have any. I save my thoughts and my voice … to help the officials.”
“He’s a coach’s player,” said sophomore forward Charles O’Bannon, inadvertently twisting a well- intentioned phrase. “He doesn’t gripe at you. He pats you on the butt.”
Wooden will be in attendance tonight, and may address the Bruins in pregame.
“He is the greatest coach of all time,” O’Bannon said. “He has won 10 national titles so I think he knows a little bit about what to say before a game.”
Iron man
Arkansas forward Corliss Williamson, 6-foot-7 and 245 pounds, was gangly in high school. He’d go in the weight room, dab water on his forehead and try to fool his coaches into thinking he’d worked out.
He no longer kids around in the weight room. In fact, he lifts so much and so often, Richardson has had to tell him to quit hoisting before games.
“He’s the only guy, the only one I hope to ever know, that can work out 15 minutes before the game and still play,” Richardson said. “He got so mad when I took him off. You’d have thought I’d taken his whole life away.”
Ever come across anyone as strong as Williamson, Nolan?
“Not on this earth.”
Williamson has. As a ninthgrader, he played against Shaquille O’Neal, then a high school senior.
“He caught the ball in the lane and dunked so hard,” Williamson said, “I thought the gym was going to fall down.”
To 3 or not to 3?
Arkansas coaxed North Carolina into taking 28 3-pointers on Saturday. Arkansas put up 34.
The Hogs have attempted 889 3s this year, UCLA 339.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen to us,” UCLA freshman Toby Bailey said. “We’re not just going to pull up on the break and take 3s. That’s not what got us here.”
Cautioned Arkansas’ Clint McDaniel: “I don’t think there’s a team in the country that can play the kind of traps and constant pressure we do.”
Predictions
Washington State coach Kevin Eastman: “I hope UCLA, but I think Arkansas is finally playing the way it’s wanted to play all year.”
Former WSU coach Kelvin Sampson, now at Oklahoma: “Nolan’s one of my best friends in coaching, but I’m pulling for the survivor (Harrick). Nolan’s already won one and I’d like to see Jim get on top once.”
USA Today’s Steve Wieberg: “There’s been a tendency to write off Arkansas all season. They may ride that tendency to a championship. Arkansas, 88-82.”
The New York Times’ William Rhoden: “It’s the game everybody wanted to see. I can’t really make a prediction. I just hope it’s 130-125. In double overtime.”
We’ll go with Arkansas, 85-79.
A real cutup
UCLA’s Bailey on why Cameron Dollar is such a good defender: “Because he hacks you. He scissors your arms.”