UCLA Has Mystique; Irish Have the Victory

Notre Dame’s Digger Phelps, who hadn’t unduly inconvenienced any UCLA team since Larry Brown was in charge, or two Bruin administrations ago, got back on top Sunday, just the way he wanted to.

In the shrine of shrines, Pauley Pavilion, the house that John Wooden built and Digger is trying to occupy.

Even if it was only by a point.

And even if he could have lost on a lob at the end of the game.

And even if the Bruins got another shot at beating him. That was Gary Maloncon’s desperate 15-footer at the buzzer that banked off the backboard, dropped onto the front rim and then bounced away, leaving the Irish with a 53-52 victory, their first in this series in five seasons.

Phelps has now won 5 of the 20 games the Bruins have lost in Pauley in the last 14 years. You think he minded that it wasn’t by a bigger margin?

Maloncon’s rebound-shot hadn’t stopped rolling when Phelps arrived at mid-court, like the Roadrunner in one one of those cartoons, vibrating because he’s pulled up so quickly. He shook hands with Wooden’s fifth successor, Walt Hazzard. Phelps was beaming. Hazzard was not.

“How do you rank your victories at Pauley?” Phelps was asked later.

“That’s like asking Rockefeller if he values his money,” Phelps said.

This was another classic in Digger Meets the UCLA Mystique. Phelps had warmed up by voicing his opinions, old and new, about Wooden and the Bruin program, including, “Like last year, not going to the NIT. Like UCLA was better than everybody else.”

The student body also had warmed up. Across the street from Pauley, on a fraternity house, hung a banner that read, “Sit Down Digger.” The students altered their pregame cheer to include a chant in which a volunteer cheerleader ran across the floor, pointed to Phelps and asked “Is this a wimp?”

To which several thousand students answered, “Yes, this is a wimp!”

Phelps blew them a kiss.

He went to half-court to meet Hazzard. Hazzard had said he’d smile and wish Phelps good-luck beforehand. Hazzard managed half of it, the handshake. He said later he hadn’t read any newspapers, but things do get around and Hazzard’s reverence for the program in general and Wooden in particular are legend.

“Good luck,” said Phelps, according to a witness on the press table.

“Good luck,” said Hazzard.

“Icy,” said the witness on the press table.

“He said all he needed to say,” Phelps said later.

The Irish started the day 11-5. The Bruins came in 9-8, the eighth loss having come in two overtimes Friday at USC.

Hazzard sent 6-6, 183-pound Nigel Miguel at his biggest quarry yet, 6-10, 220-pound Ken Barlow, the leading Irish scorer. Lo and behold, it worked again and the Bruins shut down Notre Dame’s inside game. The Irish did the next best thing, hitting their first six shots from the outside, grabbing an early six-point lead.

When they started missing, as outside shooting teams do, the Bruins scored nine straight points and took a 31-25 lead. The Irish didn’t get a basket from within 12 feet until David Rivers drove the packed lane with 5:43 left in the half, hit a layup, bounced off Brad Wright, crashed into the basket support, got up and completed the three-point play.

Remember the name, David Rivers. The Irish were all set to disappear, but their hot freshman point guard kept them in. At the half, he had 12 points and four assists and the Irish trailed, 35-32.

He took another fall after driving the lane and rolled half-way to the bleachers. Early in the second half, he hurt himself in a rebound struggle. After that, the UCLA students chanted “Ohhh” whenever he had the ball, which was a lot.

Midway through the second half, he missed two free throws while they were chanting. The rebound was tipped back to him, so Rivers took a dribble down the lane and canned a 10-footer, cutting a UCLA lead to 43-42.

Moments later, he hit a 17-footer to give the Irish their first lead of the second half. Ohhh, indeed.

By now, the UCLA offense was going under, a victim of the physical Irish defense, or the after-effects of the physical Trojan defense, or both. The Bruins threw the ball all over the lot and soon found themselves playing catch-up.

They were down, 53-49, after Rivers went down the lane out of the Irish delay game for a layup with 1:34 left.

They were down, 53-52, when Miguel rebounded a long Reggie Miller miss, tossed in a five-footer, was fouled and made the free throw.

They got the ball back when Miller tipped the ball away from Dan Duff from behind.

They set Maloncon up for a 15-footer, which he took under pressure and missed. The rebound bounced out of bounds, last touched by the Bruins, but Scott Hicks was called for pushing off. Bruins’ ball with :20 left.

They ran the play for Maloncon again. This time the Irish jammed it up. Miller wound up with the ball, with the clock running down, a long way out, for anyone else, of course. Miller fired one off from what must have been 25 feet.

“How far was that?” someone asked later.

“Fifth row?” Phelps said.

The ball rolled into the corner, where Rivers lost it out of bounds with :01 left. Hazzard got one last try. He set up a lob from Miguel, out-of-bounds, to Montel Hatcher.

Hatcher broke from the top of the circle, picking off his defender. Miguel made the toss. Hatcher, who has a listed vertical jump of 43 inches, went airborne at the basket. Miguel’s pass came down, grazed the rim and bounced away.

Maloncon picked it up and got off his last shot, which missed. Miguel said later that referee Booker Turner told him it would have counted, that time hadn’t been in until Maloncon touched the ball.

“We had enough chances to win,” said Hazzard in the interview room, listening to noise from the Irish victory celebration. “Just like Friday. Tough weekend. . . .

“They didn’t win the national championship. They just beat us, by a point. We must be respectable. It still means something to beat us.”

He had that right.

“I want the team at the circle tonight!” Phelps yelled, alluding to a spot on the South Bend campus where teams are traditionally welcomed home. “The students deserve it! Get it on the radio! Get it in the dorms! Call Father O’Shea! Get him off the golf course!

“The temperature? It’s probably in the teens. The first time we won here, we came back home. There were two feet of snow, it was about zero and they were all out there waiting for us. Two kegs of beer at the post office, that’s all they need.”

Digger came. Digger saw. Digger conquered. Digger talked. Digger celebrated.

Final score for 1984-85: Digger 1, Mystique 0.

Bruin Notes In Digger Phelps’ 14 seasons, the Bruins are 8-5 against his teams in Pauley and 199-15 against everyone else. . . . David Rivers: 7 for 12, 18 points, eight assists. He was as good as advertised. . . . For Nigel Miguel, another coup. Giving away four inches and 37 pounds to the 6-10, 220-pound Ken Barlow, he held him to 3 for 10 and six points. Miguel: “I walked out there, I looked at him and I said, ‘My God.’ I didn’t know he was that big.” Miguel had to wear a flak jacket in practice after a game of elbowing with Detlef Schrempf. He played all this weekend with a pulled groin against Barlow and the 6-7, 220-pound Wayne Carlander, wound up going 82 of a possible 90 minutes. . . . Reggie Miller went all 90, scoring 32 points with nine rebounds, though he never had his jump shot going. On Sunday’s last miss: “It hurts when I miss those. Oh man, perfect opportunity to be the hero. . . . I’ve got to go see my dad. Please let him be kind to me.” . . . UCLA goes back to Pacific 10 play this week, at Washington State Thursday night and at Washington Saturday. . . . And a last word from Phelps: “I think four teams from the Pac-10 will make the NCAA tournament: Washington, Oregon State, UCLA and USC.”