THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050617
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
How could we have been so wrong?
Here was UCLA, which had come into the NCAA tournament as the nation's No. 1-ranked team and with an 18-game winning streak going into the championship game.
And here was Arkansas, which had struggled to survive Texas Southern in the first round and had to fluke its way past Syracuse in the second round.
It should have been a simple call, and most of us thought it was: Arkansas by a quick knockout. The Hogs were going to blow out the Bruins.
That's what I thought. So did a lot of others.
Twenty-five experts were asked who they thought would win the final, and 20 picked Arkansas.
Arizona's Lute Olson said he favored the Bruins because Tyus Edney would break down Arkansas' pressure defense.
That was before Lute and the rest of us knew Edney, UCLA's superb point guard, would play only three minutes because of a sprained wrist.
Take Edney out of the mix and what do you have? An Arkansas blowout, right?
``Arkansas has all the answers,'' Seton Hall coach George Blaney said.
All the answers?
Monday night, when it got down to quiz time, Arkansas was clueless in Seattle.
UCLA 89, Hogs 78.
Hoo-boy. We were so wrong.
Digger Phelps, who couldn't win a national title at Notre Dame, didn't win this one, either.
``With Corliss Williamson inside and Corey Beck with the ball, if Arkansas is in it in the last five minutes, they will win,'' Phelps said.
Williamson was inside, Beck had the ball and Arkansas was in it with five minutes to go.
But the Hogs didn't win. Beck had only two assists, Williamson only three field goals.
Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson must have known he was in trouble when he learned that ESPN commentator Dick Vitale also was going Hog-wild.
``Whatever Vitale says, I want the opposite to happen,'' Richardson had said on Sunday.
``I hope he isn't picking us.''
But, Dickie V was just as wrong as the rest of us, ba-beee.
``I'm going with the Razorbacks,'' Vitale said. ``I've gone with them all the way, and I'm not going to change now. Hog fans should be going bananas Monday night.''
Going bananas, huh?
Well, he might have been close on that one. If they weren't going bananas, they certainly were going nuts Monday night.
How could so many of us have been so wrong to think Arkansas was going to blow by a legitimately No. 1-ranked UCLA team?
I think I know the answer.
As good as UCLA proved to be, we needed to be convinced that the Bruins could win a championship without John Wooden on the bench.
Maybe they still can't win one without him at least in the building.
But maybe the Hogs can't win one without President Clinton in the building.
We needed to be convinced, too, that Pac-10 basketball no longer is a joke, especially after Arizona lost to Miami of Ohio in the first round and UCLA squeaked by Missouri in the second round.
We were foolish to believe that UCLA's stars were fans in the stands.
Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton and Kevin Costner were in the Kingdome, but they didn't glitter nearly as much as Ed O'Bannon and Toby Bailey.
After Edney left the game because of an injured wrist, UCLA played only one reserve the rest of the way.
The Hogs had promised us no team without a deep bench could withstand their ``40 minutes of hell,'' and we bought it.
UCLA proved them wrong and proved a crowd of others wrong, too.
In fact, I was wrong twice.
I thought if North Carolina had gotten by Arkansas in the semifinals that the Tar Heels would beat UCLA for the title.
But the Heels wouldn't have had a chance, either. Not with John Wooden in the house. by CNB