Basking in the spotlight

Basking in the spotlight

After winning the title, the UCLA men’s basketball team was
hurtled into a media hurricane. Now the Bruins are hailed
everywhere from ‘The Tonight Show’ to the Rose Garden.

By Esther Hui

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Bright lights, live music, crowds, confetti. Sounds like a day
at the circus. Media circus, that is.

Ever since the buzzer blew Monday night, signaling a Bruin
national championship, UCLA’s fans ­ and what sometimes feels
like the entire country ­ have stopped in their tracks. The
spotlight now rests on Westwood’s featured act, the 12 members of
the UCLA men’s basketball team.

It started with the celebration in Los Angeles, described by
KNBC Channel 4 as "the crisis," in which thousands flocked to
Westwood Village to revel in UCLA’s first national championship in
20 years. The day after the championship, the Bruins emerged from
their airplane to cheers from crowds of excited fans, and then
returned to Westwood for a short rest before appearing on "The
Tonight Show."

Wednesday, April 5, the men’s basketball team was given a parade
at Disneyland, followed a few days later by a trip to Universal
Studios. Along with a banner-raising rally in Pauley Pavilion, the
Los Angeles City Council declared Friday, April 7 as UCLA day, and
President Bill Clinton has extended an invitation for the Bruins to
visit the Rose Garden. It’s as if March madness extended into
April.

"I’ve never seen anything like this myself," freshman forward
J.R. Henderson said. "As a freshman you don’t expect anything like
this. It was great to have support, the fans were there to meet us
at the airplane. But it got kind of wild. I expected kind of a
ruckus, but not a riot."

The Bruins do seem to be a team caught somewhere in between
basketball and status as national icons, and dealing with the media
can sometimes be overwhelming. The over-zealous fans of the
University of Connecticut are brought to mind, whose antics to show
support for their team resulted in the coach actually describing it
as a relief that the Sweet 16 round was in Oakland, far away from
the home crowds.

"I try to ignore it as much as possible," Henderson said. "If
you get involved with it too much, you’ll get tired of it really
fast, and you won’t want to do it anymore. You just try to back
away."

The excitement level was high in downtown Burbank, as the Bruins
jogged onto "The Tonight Show" set and threw layups at a makeshift
basket. There were a couple of misses, one apiece by Toby Bailey
and Ed O’Bannon, and two by head coach Jim Harrick, though no one
really noticed. Confetti rained from the stands onto the team, and
host Jay Leno presented the team with an advance copy of Sports
Illustrated, the cover of which featured Ed O’Bannon. One media
relations person remarked that the energy hadn’t been this high on
the show since Howard Stern was there.

Indeed, it is amazing that the Bruin basketball players have
handled the veritable barrage of attention suddenly thrust upon
them so calmly. While Leno joked with Martin Landau, the Bruins
quietly passed the Sports Illustrated back and forth which declared
them the "Wizards of Westwood".

"It’s not bad (dealing with the media)," O’Bannon said. "There’s
not anything wrong with it, we did something pretty special. It’s
everything I imagined. You see different teams win championships,
you hear about how they travel and visit places, and make
appearances. I’m enjoying it, I’m having a good time."

The tournament is over, and eventually the cheers from the fans
and the buzz of the reporters will die down. But the feeling of the
NCAA tournament will probably linger long after the media circus
has dispersed.

"The only overwhelming thing for me was when the game ended,"
O’Bannon said. "I realized that we were the national champions
­ then I was overwhelmed."