Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504050044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium
With injured point guard Tyus Edney leaving the Kingdome floor less than three minutes into the NCAA basketball championship game Monday night, the Bruins' chances to win their first national title in two decades didn't seem worth a Wooden nickel.
``He couldn't dribble,'' said UCLA coach Jim Harrick. ``He couldn't handle the ball.''
Harrick didn't have to be the Wizard of Westwood to realize those were ingredients the Bruins would need from their point guard.
So, he reached for a Dollar, and also found a real money player in freshman Toby Bailey. And the list of coaches who have guided UCLA to NCAA championships no longer begins and ends with John Wooden.
Wooden watched, smiling from the stands, as the Bruins rolled past defending champ Arkansas 89-78 for the Los Angeles school's 11th NCAA crown. And oft-criticized Harrick's seventh Bruins team accomplished something no Wooden club did.
It won a 31st game.
Maybe UCLA (31-2) was ranked No.1 and maybe the Bruins were three-point favorites, but the way they grabbed the crown from the Hogs' heads to finish the season with a 19th consecutive victory was improbable.
On the game's eve, forward Charles O'Bannon considered what a night against Arkansas might be like without Edney, who had sprained his right wrist in Saturday's Final Four triumph over Oklahoma State.
``Edney is like the head of our body,'' O'Bannon said. ``You cut off the head, which is Tyus, and the body will die.''
Maybe the Bruins lost their head, but they didn't lose their heads. There would be no length-of-the-floor Edney drives through the Arkansas pressure, the kind of stunning stuff that beat Missouri in the second round of the tournament.
``I think [Edney] had the best tournament of any player of the 64 teams up to tonight,'' Harrick said. ``Right before he warmed up, I knew he couldn't play. I started him, but I knew he couldn't play.
``What a gutty performance by the rest of our guys. They ran everything we wanted and guarded the 3[-pointer].''
Dollar, the sophomore who two years ago was the backcourt mate of Virginia's Curtis Staples at St.John's Prospect Hall prep school, can't play like Edney. So, he didn't try.
``I had all the confidence the guys could get it done,'' said Edney, who started every UCLA game in his final three seasons. ``I have a lot of confidence in Cameron. We knew he could play. He's played like this before.''
Against the Razorbacks' trapping and chasing, Dollar committed only three turnovers in 36 minutes.
``Tyus really motivated me to play,'' said Dollar, who made only one field goal but was superb with the ball. ``When he couldn't go, I knew I had to step up. Tyus has really taught me a lot in two years.''
Bailey, who didn't become Edney's backcourt starting partner until Feb.22, jumped over the Hogs for a career-high 26 points - and it wasn't George Mason he was hooping it up against this time.
``After the first couple of points, they started talking to me, saying I was a freshman and it was luck,'' Bailey said. ``I think they might have overlooked me.''
No, the way the 6-foot-5 Bailey jumped, he mostly overlooked the Razorbacks.
O'Bannon's older brother, Ed, had a huge double-double, with 30 points and 17 rebounds. He was the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association player of the year. Who says sportswriters don't know anything?
Ed O's night was as large as the defensive job George Zidek did on Arkansas star Corliss Williamson.
``George checked him pretty well,'' Edney said.
Or was that Czeched him?
With his hands extended and without leaving the floor so he wouldn't foul in an inconsistently officiated game, the 7-foot pivotman from Prague used his 5-inch height advantage - and sagging help from both O'Bannons - on Williamson.
The Razorbacks' scoring leader had only one field goal in the final 36 minutes after entering the game averaging 22 points in the tournament.
Arkansas was getting him the ball, because its perimeter game was destitute. The Hogs finished the season with a nation-leading 361 baskets from beyond the arc, but UCLA guarded them at that distance.
Scotty Thurman, whose late jumper won the title for Arkansas over Duke last season, finished a miserable Final Four with a five-point game. Thurman had 11 points in two Kingdome games, going 4-for-19 against North Carolina and the new champs.
The Bruins turned the 57th NCAA final into a half-court game, then pigged out on the boards. Not only did UCLA grab 50 rebounds, it also outscored Arkansas 27-8 on second-chance opportunities. The Razorbacks (32-7) didn't get a hoop following an offensive rebound until the final 14 minutes.
``They just played the lights out,'' said Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson.
You'd never have known they played with their point guard out, too.
by CNB