Seen and heard in Westwood: No Walton again, final Arizona-UCLA meeting at Pauley, 'Tuscon' alert, more

LOS ANGELES — A no-brainer to work the final Arizona-UCLA Pac-12 regular-season game as an ESPN analyst, Bill Walton didn't make it to Pauley Pavilion.

The legendary former Bruin missed a second-straight scheduled broadcast of a UA game, and both times he was replaced by a former Wildcat.

On Feb. 28 when UA played at ASU, Matt Muehlebach filled in; Thursday in Los Angeles it was Richard Jefferson on ESPN's broadcast.

Fortunately for ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Dave Pasch, working with Jefferson was nothing new. The two have worked both college and NBA games together, while Jefferson even joined Pasch and Walton once during a UA-UCLA game at Pauley.

“He’s done a lot of games now and he has a great personality,” Pasch said. “He definitely can bring that out but he can also talk basketball and be serious.”

Another last time

While Arizona and UCLA have discussed continuing to play each other during the nonconference season, Pasch isn’t likely to be doing any Bruins’ games at Pauley Pavilion because the Big Ten media rights are held by Fox and Peacock.

“I’m gonna walk out of here tonight and may never be back,” Pasch said. “Who knows?

“I hope this rivalry continues. I think it will. I do. I think they're gonna find a way to continue to play and they should. If there’s one series you want to continue (from the Pac-12), it’s this.”

Plenty of excuses

Three primary reasons likely accounted for the fact that Pauley Pavilion’s 13,800 seats were less than half full Thursday.

The first problem was that Thursday’s game was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. local time on a weeknight, when fans anywhere outside of West L.A. can’t make it if they work a normal business day.

The second was that a late-afternoon thunderstorm screwed up traffic even worse, potentially discouraging ticket-holders from bothering to show up.

And the third reason, of course, was that the Bruins lost four straight games to sink below .500 overall entering Thursday’s game — before they fell apart after the first 10 minutes Thursday.

Students spared

While the thunderstorm hit Pauley Pavilion just two hours before gametime – with people scurrying madly when thunder boomed almost immediately after lightning struck nearby - UCLA allowed students waiting outside to take cover inside.

There were only hundred or so students lined up early, anyway, again thanks to the Bruins’ play of late.

UCLA senior Bryan Espinosa said he arrived at 5 p.m., having seen a big student crowd line up before the Bruins’ Feb. 24 game with USC – but not so much after UCLA lost that one.

“There have been some hiccups,” he said.

Fours Up

UCLA students were given shirts with the words “FOURS UP” on them, a nod to UCLA’s hand gesture. While those shirts were draped over student-section seats, non-student fans in an adjacent courtside section were given microfiber towels with the logo of “Men of Westwood,” the name of UCLA’s NIL collective.

Double agent

By taking a courtside seat not far from where Pasch and Jefferson sat while calling the game for ESPN, Jason Ranne had two roles to fill: He’s a former Wildcat walk-on guard who was there to support his former team — and a representative for UA coach Tommy Lloyd.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Ranne is the chief operating officer and executive VP at Wasserman, the agency that represents Lloyd and negotiated Lloyd’s recent contract extension.

Ranne said he has attended UA’s games at UCLA when in Southern California but that he and Lloyd also have a strong bond.

“It’s a genuine relationship,” Ranne said.

On the other side of the court, behind the UA bench were UA president Robert Robbins and new athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois, who made the trip to Los Angeles as part of her first official week on the job.

Did we mention traffic?

Count the Wildcats among those who have made concessions to Los Angeles’ stifling traffic.

For the second season in a row, they opted to move their pregame shootaround earlier Thursday from Pauley Pavilion to a high school located near their Santa Monica hotel.

They did get some shots up at Pauley instead on Wednesday evening, after arriving from Tucson — and after the traffic let up a bit.

Dirt-y digs

The writers for UCLA’s Dirt Sheet, a list of “news” items about the visiting team left on every student section seat, took a shot at former Wildcat guard Kerr Krissa again this season even though he isn’t on the team anymore.

“It’s time to move on from the days of Kerr. Yippee!” it said.

The Dirt then took shots at both leading scorer Caleb Love and the UA itself, noting that Arizona had been Love’s “dream school ever since he didn’t get enough transferable credits to get into Michigan.

“It’s OK, though. Arizona is used to being No. 2. Do you remember when they were a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament last year? The Princeton Tigers proved to be the superior cats.”

Tuscon alert

For the second straight year, the Dirt spelled UA’s location as “Tuscon,” and, later in the newsletter, noted how it was roasted on Twitter last year for doing the same thing. In that reference, the Dirt spelled the city intentionally as “Twosawn.”

The big number 

16: Pac-12 shared or outright regular-season championships by Arizona, the most of any team since the Wildcats joined the conference in 1978-79 (UA also won two others that were later vacated because of NCAA sanctions).

Quotable 

"We can’t guard Arizona. They’re just better than us. They’re better than us on the backboard, they’re better than us on offense, they’re better than us on defense. They’re much better than they were last year–at all five starting positions and the bench."

— UCLA coach Mick Cronin

Photos: No. 5 Arizona defeats UCLA 88-65 to clinch 2024 Pac-12 regular-season men's hoops crown