MEDIA PUTS THE L.A. IN THE UC.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

From a coronation to consternation, the local media that was all but ready to cut down the nets for UCLA's 12th national title had to put the scissors away quickly Monday night before they hurt themselves.

It wasn't enough that the promos all day long on UCLA's flagship station, XTRA Sports 570-AM, was toasting the team and practically promising a title come 9 p.m. But when KCBS Channel 2's pregame started at 5:30 p.m., the excitement was just too much to contain some of the on-air talent.

When KCBS anchor on-the-spot Jim Hill, chilling outside the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, pointed out how cold it was, analyst Steve Hartman replied: ``I'm so warm knowing UCLA is going to be ready to play tonight ... I'm very confident Ben Howland is going to have his team ready to go.''

Soon, they jumped to a shot of John Ireland at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. Ireland glowed as he spoke: ``There's nowhere I'd rather be, Jim. My alma mater, Steve's alma mater, and they (the fans) are pumped! ... If the Bruins win tonight, Westwood is going to go crazy. Trust me, the Bruin players are ready to go and so are the students.''

Back to Hartman for his prediction. It took a twist of the arm, but Hartman was going with UCLA, by a 62-54 score. ``As long as the Bruins win by one point, that's all that counts, right?'' asked Hill.

Then, reality hit. This coronation would have to wait.

``I see a little consternation in the eyes and on the faces of UCLA's players,'' CBS analyst Billy Packer noted as the Bruins fell behind 30-17 with about seven minutes left in the first half. ``That was not evident at all throughout this tournament. They seemed to be focused and positive. Now they're wondering what's going on.''

Play-by-play man Jim Nantz, apparently not wanting the audience to feel the same way, accurately pointed out that the Bruins had come from 17 points behind to beat Gonzaga just about a week ago. And within a minute, UCLA was back to within eight.

With UCLA trailing by 11 at halftime, Nantz also reminded the TV audience that the Bruins had come back from 13 at halftime against Gonzaga. Maybe it was also karma that the first commercial after that was John Wooden's words about the value of trust in the Hartford Insurance commercial.

Fast forward to about an hour later: Ireland standing at an empty Pauley Pavilion following UCLA's lopsided 73-57 loss. Ireland reveals that UCLA had scheduled a ``celebration dance,'' covered the basketball court with a tarp, and hired a DJ.

``But no one's dancing, the music has stopped, and needless to say, there will be no celebration here in Westwood tonight,'' said Ireland, as if he was standing outside the UCLA Medical Center following some terrible tragic occurrence.

Hartman, back in Indiana and dispatched to the UCLA locker room for KCBS' postgame show, spoke in hushed, solemn tones as he interviewed Cedric Bozeman, Lorenzo Mata and Darren Collison - a difficult assignment, for sure. But why did it look like Hartman was showing restraint by not giving the guys a hug?

Why not try this next time: Find a few guys, both in the promotions department and on-air talent, without such an emotionally vested interest. It might come across a little more credibly.

--The final say: CBS basketball lead producer Bob Dekas, who has been part of the network's coverage of the NCAA Tournament the past 25 years, expressed a little disappointment after the game in trying to sum up the telecast.

``Nantz said it was one of the best broadcasts he's ever been involved with in any sport,'' said Dekas by phone from Indianapolis. ``I think we had an excellent telecast and we felt everything really came together, but it just wasn't as competitive as we hoped for. That was a little lackluster.''

--Top camera shots: The passionate pregame speech by Florida coach Billy Donovan, which caused CBS studio host Greg Gumbel to remark: ``I don't know how you can't get up and run through a wall after listening to something like that.'' ...

The UCLA team huddle in the tunnel before the second half, when we could see Bruins guard Jordan Farmar was giving his team a pep talk and saying ``we've got each other's backs.'' ...

Florida's Joakim Noah winking and then blowing a kiss toward the UCLA cheerleaders as he was taking the ball out of bounds midway through the second half ...

A four-way screen showing former college basketball stars Bob Kurland, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton in the stands. Packer noted that the four produced nine NCAA titles and eight Most Outstanding Player honors, except he never identified what school Kurland led to titles in 1945 and '46 (it was Oklahoma State). ...

--Did he say that? CBS' Nantz, about as conservative as it comes on a telecast, was describing a clip of Yannick Noah, the father of Joakim, as he was playing in the 1983 U.S. Open. The elder Noah, a former French Open tennis champ, wacked the ball backward between his legs with his racket to save a point in the video clip.

``That was two years before Joakim was born,'' Nantz said. ``Thankfully, he didn't try to hit that a little harder, otherwise Joakim wouldn't have been here tonight.''

Let's see if Nantz can get away with something like that doing the Masters telecast for CBS this weekend.

--Dept. of Rhetoric: This time, it goes to CBS studio analyst Clark Kellogg, who before the game called Florida guard Corey Brewer``as versatile as a potato: he can come baked or hashed, fried or hashed.'' Whatever that means.

Kellogg also noted that UCLA's Arron Afflalo, otherwise known as ``A- squared'' needed to bring his A-game.

It was all apparently worth repeating for Kellogg in the postgame, then added: ``I thought (Brewer's) defense was mashing on Arron Afflalo.''

--Give us a break: On the crawl across the bottom of the screen on ESPN at about 5:30 p.m. came the news: ``ESPN's Andy Katz is reporting that UCLA legendary coach John Wooden was admitted to a Los Angeles area hospital Sunday ...''

In the minute-to-minute media rush to claim ownership for anything, was this really appropriate, especially when it had already crossed the national wire services?

UCLA coach Ben Howland make sure to note Wooden's hospitalization during his obligatory postgame interview with the non-descript CBS sideline reporter. For some reason, Howland did not take credit for breaking that news.