UCLA, the ‘Best Team in the Pac-10,’ Meets Second Best in Big Sky

After a season’s sabbatical, UCLA is back in postseason play, and although the Bruins are playing in the NIT and not the customary NCAA tournament, nobody in Westwood is complaining. In fact, in this rebuilding season, one year after rejecting the NIT as unworthy, the Bruins are delighted to be invited anyplace.

“We want to keep on playing,” said UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard, who was hoping for an NCAA bid. “We deserve that opportunity. . . . At the end of the season, we were the best team in the Pac-10.”

And so tonight at 7:35, the best team in the Pacific 10 not invited to the NCAA tournament opens NIT play at Pauley Pavilion against the Montana Grizzlies, who never get invited anywhere. This is the third consecutive season that Montana (22-7) has won 20 or more games and been overlooked by the NCAA tournament selection committee. That’s OK. The last two seasons, the Grizzlies, runners-up in the Big Sky, were overlooked by the NIT, too.

“I’m not surprised we have to open at Pauley,” Coach Mike Montgomery told a group of writers Wednesday at the weekly UCLA breakfast via telephone hook-up from Montana. “They are going to make us prove we belong in postseason play.”

What kind of team is Montana?

“We have the kind of players you’d expect to play at Montana,” Montgomery said. “You won’t find any of our kids out at Hollywood Park.”

In other words, Montana is slow, as Montgomery will say whenever asked, but the Grizzlies are also hard-working, tough inside and have one outstanding player in 6-9 forward Larry Krystkowiak, a mouthful and a handful.

The Grizzlies are also excited to be playing against UCLA, which they realize usually plays in slightly faster company.

“I think this basically fills out UCLA’s schedule,” Montgomery said. “St. John’s, Memphis State, DePaul and now Montana.”

Montgomery, after pausing for the laugh, added, just to make sure everyone understood: “I’m being facetious, of course.”

UCLA (16-12) hardly resembles the championship teams of old, but neither are these Bruins in ruins. The Bruins have won seven of their last eight, the one loss coming in four overtimes to USC. They have also won 13 of their last 19, and five of the six losses were either by one point or in overtime.

“When we were 3-6, yes, I was looking for a place to hide,” Hazzard said. “But I knew we’d get better.”

And they figure to match up pretty well with Montana, which plays a zone defense because, as Montgomery says, the Grizzlies “don’t have the people to play one-to-one defense.” UCLA, with Reggie Miller and Montel Hatcher shooting long range, has been death to zones all season.

But UCLA also has a matchup problem with Krystkowiak, a surprise nominee by Coach Bob Knight for the Olympic trials who kept on surprising by making the first cut, from 75 players to 30. Among those who didn’t make the cut were A.C. Green, Pearl Washington and Charlie Sitton. And Krystkowiak might have made the second cut if he hadn’t come down with the flu.

“People were saying he had a legitimate chance to make the cut to 20,” Montgomery said. “He had a real advantage playing for Knight. He’s Knight’s kind of player . . . big forward, tough kid who will give you 100%. If you sit him, he won’t bitch about not playing. If you say jump, he’ll say how high. He’s a tough kid who will take the charge, get his knees dirty, and if he has to, he’ll take an elbow and give it back.”

Krystkowiak, whom Hazzard likened to USC’s Wayne Carlander, is averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds a game. He led the Grizzlies in both categories in 26 of 29 games and has scored in double figures in 48 consecutive games.

“I think he has a little more physical ability than Carlander,” Hazzard said. “He jumps a little higher--about half an inch.”

Carlander, of course, scored 38 the last time against the Bruins, who aren’t sure yet whom they’ll match up against Krystkowiak. Montana also has a physical center in 6-10 Larry McBride, who averages 11 a game. The Grizzlies play four guards, each of whom averages between 5.7 and 7.7 points a game.

UCLA is favored, and that’s how Hazzard likes it. This is his first season as coach, and he’s ready for the postseason, no matter what they call the tournament.

“We think it’s very important,” Hazzard said. “We’d like to win it.”

Bruin Notes

The winner of tonight’s game will play next Wednesday or Thursday, site and opponent unknown because the NIT makes up its tournament as it goes along. The third round will be March 23, and the final four teams will play in Madison Square Garden on March 27 and 29. . . . Montana center Larry McBride is from Anchorage. What kind of player is he? “‘He plays like you’d expect a guy from Anchorage, Alaska, to play,” Montgomery said. “He’s not very quick.”. . . McBride has a bad left ankle. Reserve guard Todd Powell (ankle) is questionable, and reserve forward Bruce Burns (finger) has been out two weeks but should play. . . . UCLA forward Craig Jackson had the cast removed from his left hand Wednesday and could possibly play again before the season ends if UCLA wins a few games. . . . UCLA will open its next basketball season in Chapel Hill, N.C., to help North Carolina open its 25,000-seat arena. Others new on the schedule are Temple, Cal State Long Beach and Loyola Marymount.