Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

Post by pc in NM »

The last regularly-scheduled UCLA visit to McKale is this week. From the first UCLA conference game, under Coach Fred Snowden (January 18, 1979, U of A 70 - #3 UCLA 69) throughout the history, this has become the biggest rivalry in the West.

The Athletic has a pretty good article about the rivalry, and my most gut-wrenching loss in that series - please forgive my indulgence, it's pretty long:
The UCLA-Arizona rivalry: The McKale mystique, a hated villain and a thriller that never will be forgotten

Image

Once it went final, with the crowd at Arizona’s McKale Center stunned and silent, Don MacLean ran off the court because he didn’t know what would happen. The cocky UCLA forward, who had just played the game of his life, bolted into the visitors’ locker room and collapsed in the showers, exhausted.

On Jan. 11, 1992, the Bruins celebrated in Tucson like they had won a national championship. In some ways, their 89-87 win might have been more difficult. They had just snapped Arizona’s 71-game home win streak in one of the great contests in conference history.

Guard Darrick Martin, who had hit the winning shot, ran around pumping his fist. Forward Gerald Madkins dropped to the court, raised his arms and yelled. If a snapshot summing up the UCLA-Arizona rivalry exists, this was it. The energy, the emotion, the stakes. An unforgettable moment. One worth looking back on three decades later.

On Saturday, the rivalry continues with UCLA’s visit to Arizona, only this time it will have a different vibe. A new chapter is about to begin. Next year, the Bruins will dribble off to the Big Ten, and the Wildcats will head to the Big 12. While both schools wish to schedule a non-conference series, the rivalry will change. For those involved, it’s disappointing.

For years, UCLA-Arizona has been the West’s premier showdown. For a significant stretch, the road to a conference title went through one of two places — Westwood or Tucson. The rivalry has been so rich, players from both sides have discussed a “30-for-30”-like documentary to remind folks that rivalry passion extends beyond Duke–North Carolina.

“The rivalry, it just goes so deep,” former Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire said. “There was genuine respect, but I also think there was genuine hatred.”

The 1992 game was a classic. The Bruins entered as the nation’s No. 2 team. The Wildcats were No. 6. The combined rosters that afternoon included 15 future NBA players. Thirteen played. (Future All-American Ed O’Bannon, a freshman, sat out because of injury.) The game featured an incredible 27 lead changes and 14 ties.

It was personal. Not just for UCLA coach Jim Harrick and Arizona’s Lute Olson, but for the players. As always, the familiarity ran deep. UCLA’s Martin and Arizona’s Matt Othick had come out of high school as the nation’s top point guards. UCLA’s Tracy Murray and Arizona’s Wayne Womack had grown up in the same California neighborhood, just three houses away. Coaches from both schools had recruited nearly every player on the court.

“I played against a lot of those guys in the summer,” said Womack, who considers Murray a brother. “It just made the competitiveness that much stronger, just knowing those guys and being able to go back to Cali, and say, ‘Yo, we beat the hell out of you guys twice this year.’ A lot of it was bragging rights, but it was also a sign of respect.”

After beating the Wildcats, the Bruins took the celebration onto the flight back to Los Angeles. The conference season had just started, but they knew a win over Arizona in McKale would make a statement. Then turbulence hit. The plane shook. Players bounced. O’Bannon yelled. The contrast in feelings was not lost to those on board.

“We were like, ‘We just won the biggest game of our lives at UCLA and we’re about to go down?”’ former UCLA guard Mitchell Butler said.

“Worst plane ride ever,” assistant coach Tony Fuller said.

Said Murray with a laugh: “I’m just glad we lived to tell the story.”

Today, Arizona has one of the top home courts in college basketball. In 1992, McKale Center was even better. Louder. More intimidating.

UCLA’s Shon Tarver had experienced it for the first time the previous season. As a freshman from Portland, he wasn’t ready. Not for the talent around him. Not for the Arizona crowd. For the first time in his basketball life, Tarver felt overwhelmed.

“It was the loudest my eardrums had ever heard in my life,” Tarver said. “I equate it to standing next to an airplane with the engine roaring. My ears were vibrating.”

From 1987 to 1995, Mark Gottfried worked as a UCLA assistant under Harrick. He would go on to become head coach at Alabama and North Carolina State, programs that had annual stops at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and Kentucky’s Rupp Arena. Neither environment, he said, topped what he experienced in McKale in the 1990s.

“First of all, it’s a sea of red,” Gottfried said. “And I don’t know that they ever sat down, at least during our games. There were times, like in your timeouts, you couldn’t even hear each other hardly.”

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Othick, who played four years at Arizona, said he got chills almost every time he took the court at McKale. He recalled a non-conference game against Billy Tubbs and Oklahoma his sophomore season. After a late Sooners rally tied the game, Arizona’s Matt Muehlebach hit a 3-pointer. Othick canned one. Jud Buechler buried a 15-footer.

“It was back-to-back-to-back, and I swear it felt like the roof was going to come off,” Othick said of a 1990 win that extended Arizona’s home win streak to a national-best 41 games. “It was just indescribable.”

This mystique wasn’t always there. In 1984, Olson’s first season, UCLA and freshman guard Reggie Miller went into Tucson and won in front of an announced crowd of 7,683. But slowly things started to change. In 1985, Arizona beat the Bruins for the first time in nearly six seasons, planting a rivalry seed.

The streak sprouted during Olson’s fifth season. On Dec. 4, 1987, an Arizona team featuring Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr routed Long Beach State. The Wildcats that season won 35 games, advancing to the Final Four. From there, Arizona wouldn’t lose another home game for three more years, beating ranked teams such as Duke, Oklahoma and UNLV.

“Our fans, they were starving for a winner,” said Elliott, who in 1989 broke Lew Alcindor’s Pac-10 career-scoring record in a 102-64 rout of UCLA at McKale. Asked if it meant more that the milestone moment came against the Bruins, Elliott laughed.

“Oh, yeah. You better believe it,” he said. “By that time, my senior year, a lot of guys on our team didn’t like UCLA at all. ‘Hate’ is a pretty strong word, but it was close. For me, what more could you want? It could not have set up any better.”

Image

On Saturday, the rivalry continues with UCLA’s visit to Arizona, only this time it will have a different vibe. A new chapter is about to begin. Next year, the Bruins will dribble off to the Big Ten, and the Wildcats will head to the Big 12. While both schools wish to schedule a non-conference series, the rivalry will change. For those involved, it’s disappointing.

For years, UCLA-Arizona has been the West’s premier showdown. For a significant stretch, the road to a conference title went through one of two places — Westwood or Tucson. The rivalry has been so rich, players from both sides have discussed a “30-for-30”-like documentary to remind folks that rivalry passion extends beyond Duke–North Carolina.

“The rivalry, it just goes so deep,” former Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire said. “There was genuine respect, but I also think there was genuine hatred.”

***********************************************

MacLean finished his college career as the Pac-12’s all-time leading scorer, an achievement he still holds today. After a nine-year NBA career, he worked as a basketball analyst, first for UCLA, then for the Pac-12 Networks.

When MacLean first returned to McKale, more than 10 years after his college days, he could tell the Arizona fans still fumed. “Nobody ever said anything, but they looked at me with hatred in their eyes,” MacLean said. “Literally hatred.”

**********************************************

“I look at my four years of college,” Stoudamire said. “We won the Pac-10 twice, they won the Pac-10 twice. We went to a Final Four, they won the national championship. It’s over, man. It’s disappointing. But I don’t think you can get it back. Again, you could play it, but once a year? Who cares. I just don’t think the game will have the same cache it once did.”

Othick recently expressed similar thoughts to his 14-year-old son, who suggested Arizona might be better off in a new conference with different opponents. Responded Othick: “Yeah, but there’s nothing like a great rivalry. And it starts all over. All these teams they’re about to play (in the Big 12), there’s no history.”

That’s what makes this difficult to digest.

“The way it was, no matter if coaches liked each other or the people running the schools are mad, it didn’t matter, you still had to play each other,” Othick said. “There’s something to that. And that part of it is really sad, that it’s going away.”
“If you have the choice between humble and cocky, go with cocky. There's always time to be humble later, once you've been proven horrendously, irrevocably wrong.”

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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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Re: 1992 game

Too soon
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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To the dustbin of history. We also had a pretty good rivalry with UNLV and Tark, but they eventually fizzled out. Nothing lasts forever. Memories and history are nice, but in the here and now, I'd say the rivalry with Kansas will nicely take the place of UCLA. Any two schools who want to set up a long-term home-and-home can always do so, but the party that doesn't fare as well as they'd like always seems to call it off. That's what happened to UCLA/Notre Dame in hoops, as well as Arizona/Duke.
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Post by Merkin »

Recall reading one time about the John Wooden era when UA came to LA. Wooden didn't even scout Arizona, he just had his players show up.

Shows how much the game has changed. Now every team even scouts exhibition opponents.
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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84Cat wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:16 am
Man...what a shooter!!!
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Post by TheCatInTheHat »

Merkin wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:30 am Recall reading one time about the John Wooden era when UA came to LA. Wooden didn't even scout Arizona, he just had his players show up.

Shows how much the game has changed. Now every team even scouts exhibition opponents.
Really a different era. UCLA played at the old Sports Arena.

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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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TheCatInTheHat wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:47 am
Merkin wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:30 am Recall reading one time about the John Wooden era when UA came to LA. Wooden didn't even scout Arizona, he just had his players show up.

Shows how much the game has changed. Now every team even scouts exhibition opponents.
Really a different era. UCLA played at the old Sports Arena.

Is that before Pauley opened in 1965?
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Post by Merkin »

Next month will be 101 years since the first meeting.

https://arizonawildcats.com/sports/mens ... y/ucla/288
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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UAEebs86 wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:56 am
TheCatInTheHat wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:47 am
Merkin wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:30 am Recall reading one time about the John Wooden era when UA came to LA. Wooden didn't even scout Arizona, he just had his players show up.

Shows how much the game has changed. Now every team even scouts exhibition opponents.
Really a different era. UCLA played at the old Sports Arena.

Is that before Pauley opened in 1965?
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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2003, after Arizona went on a 21-0 run, Jason Kapono coined the phase, "spurt of death." chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://wc.arizona.edu/papers/96/96/cover.pdf
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

Post by AZCatGirl »

Tommy insists the rivalry will continue eventually, but I don't think it'll be quite the same as when we shared a conference. So glad I have a ticket for tomorrow and I hope the team goes off and ends things on a high note in Tucson.
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Post by Merkin »

I was looking at tickets for the Pauley game, and was pretty shocked how high the official ticket prices are. Cheaper on the secondary market, but still pricey for not very good seats.
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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Mathurin being inducted into the ring of honor. Awesome TJ will be there as well.
“The reality is that the hardest games to win are over teams on their home court. Teams that don’t play those games can spin it however they want, but what they’re saying is, ‘We don’t want to lose in our non conference season.’" - Sean Miller
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

Post by KaibabKat »

"I Was There" - still have the little pin from the first game with UCLA in McKale. We also beat USC that weekend and IIRC that was the bigger game.
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Taking my dad to this one. He got me hooked on UA basketball in the mid-late 80s and I've been on board since. Got my undergrad at UA in the late 90s on my Dad's dime. He's lived and breathed the UA/UCLA rivalry since before I was born. He hasn't been to many games over the last decade as he's gotten older (he's turning 80 this year). He took me to the McMiracle game in what was that 86? That may have been our first game together at McKale. Hard not to become a fan after that initiation.

This game was a Christmas gift for my father. I'm looking forward to beating down the Bruins, and hanging out with dad at McKale like it was 1987 and I was 10 years old.
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Awesome UAdevil!

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gouacats wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:37 am
84Cat wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:16 am
Man...what a shooter!!!
I know this might sound like I'm dreaming but next year we have a guy coming in named Phillips (think that is his name) that is about 3 inches taller than Salim but from what I have seen shoots just as good. When I saw clips of him it was startling.
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84Cat wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2024 10:16 am
It's crazy how ahead of his time Salim was. Imagine if he had played 10 years later. An undersized 2 with basically unlimited range, and he was a good defender too. What could have been.
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

Post by Beachcat97 »

Meh...I'd rather we schedule non-conference games against better programs. ucla has been unranked (and effectively irrelevant) a LOT during the Cronin Administration, and I don't expect that to improve when they're playing in a better league.

Would rather see us scheduling Gonzaga.
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Related.

Dribble Handoff: Arizona, UCLA among most impactful college basketball realignment moves for 2024-25 season

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... KlrrO-_KIA
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Merkin wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 9:53 am Related.

Dribble Handoff: Arizona, UCLA among most impactful college basketball realignment moves for 2024-25 season

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... KlrrO-_KIA
Anyone else catch that they call Tommy the best coach among teams moving to new leagues? Pretty cool.

I'm glad we'll finally get to see ucla for what they are. Once removed from this watered-down Pac, ucla's mediocrity will be much easier to recognize.
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It really sucks we won’t face ucla twice a year most years anymore
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UCLA and USC are dead to me.
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

Post by Chicat »

FUCLA
Of the 12 coaches, Rush picked the one whose fans have the deepest passion, the longest memories, the greatest lung capacity and … did I mention deep passion?
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Post by Merkin »

Same. They are going to get their collective butts kicked in the B1G and I will be glad to see it. Larry Scott might have been the beginning of the end for the PAC, but USC and UCLA put a dagger into it. Want nothing to do with them ever again.

Especially with that toad Mick. Don't think I have disliked an UCLA basketball coach more. Actually liked a few of them, Lavin, Howland and so on.
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Merkin wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 2:29 pm Same. They are going to get their collective butts kicked in the B1G and I will be glad to see it. Larry Scott might have been the beginning of the end for the PAC, but USC and UCLA put a dagger into it. Want nothing to do with them ever again.

Especially with that toad Mick. Don't think I have disliked an UCLA basketball coach more. Actually liked a few of them, Lavin, Howland and so on.
I'll just always think it's amazing that he was their 4th choice for the job after firing Alford. There's no better indication of a program's current status than the ease with which they can hire their top choice for the job. Ucla has now had two successive hires who weren't even in the their top 3 targets.

And I know very few of us even knew Tommy Lloyd's name before Miller was fired, but in hindsight, that's turned into one of the best hires any program has made over the past five years. And he was our top target.
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Beachcat97 wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 5:52 pm
Merkin wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 2:29 pm Same. They are going to get their collective butts kicked in the B1G and I will be glad to see it. Larry Scott might have been the beginning of the end for the PAC, but USC and UCLA put a dagger into it. Want nothing to do with them ever again.

Especially with that toad Mick. Don't think I have disliked an UCLA basketball coach more. Actually liked a few of them, Lavin, Howland and so on.
I'll just always think it's amazing that he was their 4th choice for the job after firing Alford. There's no better indication of a program's current status than the ease with which they can hire their top choice for the job. Ucla has now had two successive hires who weren't even in the their top 3 targets.

And I know very few of us even knew Tommy Lloyd's name before Miller was fired, but in hindsight, that's turned into one of the best hires any program has made over the past five years. And he was our top target.
So UA was a bottom of the barrel program in 2009 because several people turned it down before Miller accepted it after originally turning it down?
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Re: Arizona-UCLA Rivalry - Legendary

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PHXCATS wrote: Sun Aug 18, 2024 4:16 pm
Beachcat97 wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 5:52 pm
Merkin wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 2:29 pm Same. They are going to get their collective butts kicked in the B1G and I will be glad to see it. Larry Scott might have been the beginning of the end for the PAC, but USC and UCLA put a dagger into it. Want nothing to do with them ever again.

Especially with that toad Mick. Don't think I have disliked an UCLA basketball coach more. Actually liked a few of them, Lavin, Howland and so on.
I'll just always think it's amazing that he was their 4th choice for the job after firing Alford. There's no better indication of a program's current status than the ease with which they can hire their top choice for the job. Ucla has now had two successive hires who weren't even in the their top 3 targets.

And I know very few of us even knew Tommy Lloyd's name before Miller was fired, but in hindsight, that's turned into one of the best hires any program has made over the past five years. And he was our top target.
So UA was a bottom of the barrel program in 2009 because several people turned it down before Miller accepted it after originally turning it down?
:lol:

Yeah, man. That's exactly what that means.
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