HURT: Not a marquee matchup, but Alabama will take win over UCLA
Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
The two teams haven't played often enough to call it a "series."
They haven't ever met outside the environs of sunny California, at least not until today. But for all its infrequency, Alabama and UCLA have played a couple of significant games in Crimson Tide basketball history, so perhaps today's game, on a cloudy day in the shadow of the football playoff and no more at stake than a possible precarious foothold on the NCAA Tournament bubble will be another small piece of history.
The first time the two programs met, there was a different kind of football shadow over the game. The Crimson Tide travelled to Pauley Pavilion in late January of 1983, a time when the Bruins' home court was the most feared venue in America, more than Rupp or Cameron, the aura of John Wooden still strong.
In those days, college basketball wasn't the constant presence on television that it is today, so the late-night CBS telecast was a rarity. But two days before the event, Alabama's legendary football coach, Paul Bryant, passed away, shaking the state.
But behind magical point guard Ennis Whatley, just inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame last week, and a little-used post player named Mark Farmer, the Crimson Tide pulled off a 74-69 win over the Bruins, a great win in what was a golden age of SEC basketball.
It's not singling out Alabama to say that those days, when the SEC was awash in NBA talent, seem distant now. Many of the league's programs (there were only 10 in those days) are looking to regain their stature from the 1980s: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Georgia and the Mississippi schools all occupy a seat on that same boat. Where have you gone, Buck Johnson and Jeff Malone, Charles Barkley and Vern Fleming and Rudy Macklin?
Alabama was still a prominent name in college basketball more than 20 years later, when the two teams met in the 2006 NCAA Tournament in San Diego.
The Bruins had Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo but Alabama again had a great sophomore point guard from Birmingham, Ronald Steele, and he had the ball in the air for what would probably have been a game-winning 3-pointer - but it hit the front of the rim and fell short. Steele, who had injury problems ahead, was never the same player again. Alabama has never been so close to the Sweet 16 again.
The two teams did meet last year, but it was a game memorable only as one of a series of Alabama near-misses on the road recently and for Bill Walton's color commentary, if "tie-dye" is a color.
Fast forward to the present. Both Anthony Grant and Steve Alford are working to regain Sweet 16 stature, but neither team ranks there at the moment. UCLA is coming off a scourging at the hands of No. 1 Kentucky. No one is really as bad as Kentucky can make you look.
Despite two home wins in the interim, Alabama still seems to be bothered by a late-game loss at Wichita State. Winning this one game won't erase any of that - but it would be a small step in the right direction.
UCLA needs a road win. Alabama needs any win against a recognizable opponent and UCLA's name still carries weight. I don't remember any football opponents treating wins over Alabama as "insignificant" when the Crimson Tide was struggling.
It might not be a blip on the storied UCLA radar, and it might not be as big as some past UCLA games have been for Alabama. But for these players and coaches, it will definitely matter.
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