Tar Heels Leave Big Imprint

ANCHORAGE — Well, now UCLA knows where it stands:

Way, way below the towering North Carolina Tar Heels, so far below that the Bruins looked like Lilliputians staring weakly at the real action up above Thursday night.

The young and heightless Bruins put up a fight early, started getting pounded and never came close to recovery, suffering the second-worst defeat in the program’s history, 109-68, before 8,700 at Sullivan Arena in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout.

You could say the UCLA 1997-98 opener, the Bruins’ third straight season-opening defeat, was the height of embarrassment.

“They were just too big for us tonight,” 6-foot-5 Bruin guard and emergency big man Toby Bailey said. “J.R. [Henderson] and I were talking about it on the bench--their second team was taller than our first team.

“There was nothing we could do.”

Fourth-ranked North Carolina didn’t even start All-American power forward candidate Antawn Jamison, who sat the first several minutes as part of Coach Bill Guthridge’s six-man starting rotation.

But, once the 6-9 Jamison got into the game, teaming with 6-10 Makhtar Ndiaye and 6-9 Ademola Okulaja to give Guthridge three players in the game taller than any on UCLA’s team, the mashing began.

UCLA, substituting a slew of mid- to small-sized freshmen to try to counter the Tar Heel towers, fell behind by 21 at halftime, and trailed by 30 early in the third quarter. The Bruins face Alaska Anchorage at 3 p.m. today in the losers’ bracket.

“I told the team that we can’t get bitter, we’ve got to get better,” said Bruin Coach Steve Lavin, who also coached the Bruins to their worst loss, by 48 points to Stanford on Jan. 9 of last season.

“The good thing is we turn right around and have a game in 17 hours, it’s not like we lost and have two weeks to have this taste in our mouths.”

Jamison, who had a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds, freed up things for 6-5 swingman Vince Carter, who flew over 5-10 Brandon Loyd and 6-4 Billy Knight for a handful of dunks on his way to 22 points.

“They just wore us down,” said Henderson, whose early energy and nine points led UCLA to a brief, 19-15 lead in the first quarter. “They’d make a sub and you’d think they’d have to get smaller, only they’d get bigger. ‘Man, they’re bringing another big guy in?’ They’d take a guard out for a 6-10 guy or a 7-footer.”

With Henderson as UCLA’s only dangerous post player, the Tar Heels sank back into a zone late in the first quarter, watched Henderson tire, pick up his second foul, and basically erased him from then on out.

Henderson finished with 12 points, one behind team leader Baron Davis, who also had seven assists. Bailey scored 10 points on three-of-11 shooting and suffered bruises to his elbow and lower back that may keep him out of today’s game.

North Carolina (4-0) finished the quarter on a 9-1 run to take a four-point lead, and carried that over to the second quarter, when it outscored the Bruins, 29-12.

Once Henderson picked up his second foul--and was replaced by a series of 6-4 or smaller players--North Carolina romped on the offensive boards--picking up three baskets on rebounds of missed Tar Heel free throws in the span--and finishing the half on a 17-3 tear.

The Tar Heels, who shot 62.7% for the game by virtue of their inside dominance, had more offensive rebounds, 13, than UCLA had total rebounds, 12, in the first half and outrebounded UCLA, 45-28, in the game.

“We tried, but they were 6-8, 6-9, 6-10 and we were 6-3, 6-1, 5-10,” Loyd said. “It’s kind of frustrating, you feel helpless when they’re getting rebound after rebound after rebound.”

Midway through the third quarter, Carolina had stomped to a 67-37 lead. Guthridge pulled his stars with more than eight minutes left, and emptied the bench soon after.

“I feel sorry for Coach Lavin and their team,” Guthridge said. “I think if they get those two players back, they’ll probably be national contenders.

“I didn’t think it would be that easy, but UCLA was outmanned.”

So what happens now? Does UCLA face this kind of thrashing every time it faces a team as big as North Carolina--a list that could include conference foes Stanford and California?

Henderson said the Bruins cannot just sit and wait for suspended players Kris Johnson and Jelani McCoy to return to the fold.

“We can’t rely on that because we don’t know when they’re coming back,” Henderson said. “We’ve just got to play, we can’t make excuses.”

Said Bailey: “I think we can compete with a lot of ranked teams in the nation--as long as they’re not as big as Carolina is.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Worst Losses in UCLA History

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Year Pts. Score 96-97 48 Stanford 109, UCLA 61 97-98 41 North Carolina 109, UCLA 68 88-89 38 Arizona 102, UCLA 64 85-86 37 North Carolina 107, UCLA 70 37-38 36 Stanford 69, UCLA 33 39-40 34 USC 60, UCLA 26 38-39 33 USC 69, UCLA 36 36-37 33 Stanford 69, UCLA 36 34-35 33 USC 55, UCLA 22 51-52 31 Kentucky 84, UCLA 53 38-39 31 USC 57, UCLA 26

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