The Grand Pooh-Bah : UCLA Basketball Team Points to Its Leader: Guard Jerome Richardson

What do you do with Pooh? At UCLA, they give him the basketball, then wait for further instructions from their leader, one Jerome (Pooh) Richardson.

Do you desire a drive to the basket and require that the basketball arrives on time at the proper coordinates? Say two words and it is done.

Home, Jerome.

“Jerome is there,� Bruin Coach Walt Hazzard said. “He’s always there.�

Actually, Pooh hasn’t always been there. Until recently--he came to UCLA last season as a freshman point guard--he was in Philadelphia. That’s where he really made a name for himself.

But Jerome didn’t just jump off the pages of a children’s storybook and become Pooh all by himself. His grandmother, who thought he looked like Winnie the Pooh, did it for him.

“With my great-grandmother and great-grandfather and my grandmother, I’m Pooh,� Richardson said. “No one ever calls me Jerome. Pooh, that’s all I hear. In high school, junior high and elementary school, my teachers always called me Pooh.�

And now, some years later, the Bruins have learned that calling Pooh ‘Pooh’ is fine, but calling on Pooh is more rewarding. Richardson has already had a profound effect on the Bruins.

Sure, with Pepperdine coming up tonight at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins have already beaten top-ranked North Carolina and own a 2-0 record, victories in which Richardson was directly involved.

But there’s more. Consider how much Pooh has changed the language of basketball.

When Pooh is credited with an assist, it is now listed on the official UCLA play-by-play sheet as a Poohpass.

There are other possibilities. Pooh could shoot a jumPooh from the corner. After the game in the shower, he could shamPooh his hair. And, of course, defensively, you would never want Pooh on you.

Reggie Miller refers to Pooh as Poohski, adding a touch of familiarity, and those familiar with Richardson’s game believe that he is much better than last season, when he had 179 assists, the second-best one-year total in UCLA history.

Hazzard said there is only thing he likes better about Richardson than his hands.

“His head,� said Hazzard, who is one of the few who calls Richardson Jerome, not Pooh. Name-calling, properly, is an old habit for Hazzard.

“To this day, Coach (John) Wooden still calls me Walter,� Hazzard said. “I guess it carries over. When I was at Compton, I had a player from New York and everybody called him Cosell because he talked all the time. I always called him Anthony.�

Hazzard even had his own nickname in the pros. Elgin Baylor gave it to him. “Pork Chop Charlie, because I used to eat so much,� Hazzard said. “I can’t eat as much anymore.�

But Pooh remains in style, both as a nickname and as a point guard.

As with all point guards, Richardson’s job is extremely important but sometimes underestimated.

Pooh brings the ball upcourt each time, most of the time under heavy pressure from the other team’s best defender, then gets the ball to a scorer, such as Miller, and then drops back to play defense.

Against the Tar Heels, Richardson had a defender with him from the time he first touched the ball, then was double-teamed as soon as he crossed midcourt.

“They were just trying to wear me down,� Richardson said. “I saw Magic Johnson before the game and he told me that they would probably try to do that, shoot guys at me, so I was prepared.

So what was Pooh’s plan to escape?

“Keep your eyes on the court and on your teammates and just protect the ball,� he said. “And don’t let nobody get it.�

North Carolina Coach Dean Smith assigned Kenny Smith, an All-American candidate, to Richardson, but Hazzard said Pooh managed to control the ball anyway.

“They were snapping at him in the trap,� Hazzard said. “I don’t know if he’ll ever get any more defensive pressure than he got from Kenny Smith either.

“But I don’t think you really want to pressure Jerome. That’s playing into his hands. He takes it personally. He gets tougher.�

Richardson finished the North Carolina game with only 6 points in 37 minutes, but he also had 6 assists to lead the Bruins and his 6 rebounds were second only to Miller, who had 9, even though Pooh is only 6-1.

And although he scored only three baskets, each was timely.

With 27 seconds left in the first half, Richardson scored UCLA’s only basket in the last five minutes, just after North Carolina’s 11-0 streak had brought the Tar Heels within two points at 39-37.

Early in the second half, Richardson cooled another North Carolina rally when he dropped a 10-footer from the baseline.

Pooh’s last field goal, a 14-foot jump shot, ended a Bruin span of nearly four minutes without a point and kept UCLA ahead by nine.

But Pooh doesn’t care much about scoring. In fact, he pooh-poohs it.

“If I’m after points, I could get 20 a game,� he said. “I’m not after points.�

Even so, Hazzard said that Richardson will have a number of high-scoring games. “Maybe one of them will be against Pepperdine,� he said.

It’s always a Poohsibility.

Bruin Notes

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick, a former assistant to UCLA’s Gary Cunningham from 1977-79, has led the Waves to a 2-0 record with home victories over Oklahoma State and McNeese State of Lake Charles, La. . . . Harrick said the Waves are not going to make too much of playing UCLA. “We’ll try to treat it as just another game,� he said. “Of course, (UCLA) played an awesome game against North Carolina. I’m not sure if North Carolina had Polynesian paralysis or not, but UCLA played a great, great basketball game. UCLA has probably the best talent in the West, and they’re in the top five talent in the country.� . . . Last season’s West Coast Athletic Conference champions, the Waves have both starting forwards back from their 25-5 team. Eric White (6-8) and Levy Middlebrooks (6-7) are the two top Wave scorers and rebounders. . . . UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard--on the importance of the victory over North Carolina: “It won’t mean a thing unless we play well against Pepperdine. It would only mean a game where we just got lucky. I’d like for us to prove we’re consistent. I want to make sure we didn’t win on adrenaline.� . . . Reggie Miller moved to No. 7 on UCLA’s career scoring list, passing Sidney Wicks in the North Carolina game. Ahead of him are three college players of the year: Lew Alcindor three times, Bill Walton twice, and Marques Johnson; two consensus All-Americans: David Greenwood twice, and Gail Goodrich; and a Pac-10 player of the year: Kenny Fields. Miller has 1,444 points. Fields is just ahead with 1,638.