THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503250461
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
About the only thing neither Connecticut's Jim Calhoun nor UCLA's Jim Harrick have accomplished at their respective schools is to take a team to the Final Four.
For one of them, that stigma will be removed today with the West Regional final at 3:40 p.m. at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The No. 1-seeded Bruins - the nation's top-ranked team - meet second-seeded UConn - which spent one week at No. 1.
Both have been this far in recent years. UConn, a Sweet 16 team four of the last six years, lost in a regional final to Duke in 1990 on an off-balance Christian Laettner shot at the buzzer in overtime. That's the closest the school has been to a Final Four appearance.
``Our objective is to keep knocking on the door until the door opens, and we're knocking very loudly right now,'' Calhoun said.
Harrick, meanwhile, has been knocked plenty in seven years in Westwood. He has the best winning percentage of any UCLA coach in his first seven seasons - yes, even better than the legendary John Wooden - and has been to seven consecutive NCAA tournaments. But tournament failures have tainted his tenure in the eyes of some UCLA fans, who often call for his ouster.
``There are only four or five schools that have been to seven straight NCAA tournaments,'' Harrick is quick to point out.
But he conveniently leaves out a related salient point: The other five - North Carolina, Duke, Arizona, Indiana and Arkansas - have all been to at least one Final Four in the past seven seasons. The closest Harrick has come is a regional final loss to Indiana in 1992.
Anything short of a Final Four season is a failure in the eyes of some UCLA fans, who are spoiled by the most Final Four appearances (13) and national titles (10) of any school. This is the 20th anniversary of the Bruins' last title, won in Wooden's final season.
ON THE RUN: The game should feature a fast tempo, lots of points and a slew of great players, headlined by UCLA All-American Ed O'Bannon.
``It's going to be fun in the open court,'' O'Bannon said.
UConn's pressure and fast break may be a bit quicker than the Bruins are comfortable with, just as the Huskies were too fast for Maryland on Thursday.
``Their running game is as good as any you'd ever see in college,'' Harrick said. ``It's a beauty to watch when they're rolling and going real good.''
TIP-INS: Sophomore forward Ray Allen is UConn's third-team All-American, but third-team All-Big East senior forward Donny Marshall has carried the Huskies in the tournament, leading them in scoring in each game. Marshall has 74 points (24.7 per game) in his last three outings and is shooting 54 percent from the field and 83 percent from 3-point range in the tournament. . . . UCLA's 16-game winning streak is the longest in Division I. . . . UConn has a 57-9 record over the last two seasons. Only Arkansas (60-9) has a better two-year mark. . . . O'Bannon needs 13 points to move ahead of Bill Walton into sixth place on UCLA's career scoring charts. . . . ``The Big East is Back,'' trumpeted Sports Illustrated in its preseason basketball issue. But if UConn loses today, the conference will continue to be 0-for-the decade in Final Four appearances. The last conference team to make the Final Four was Seton Hall in 1989. by CNB