Courtquake in the West

At this point in the basketball season, the teams of the Pacific8 conference are accustomed to watching U.C.L.A. move toward another first-place finish. The last time a John Wooden squad failed to win the conference championship, Lyndon Baines Johnson was President and gasoline cost 31.90 per gal. The team's eight-year reign may finally be dribbling to an end. In a season of surprises on the West Coast, all but two of the conference's eight teams are in a scramble for the top spot.

The wide-open race began with the graduation of U.C.L.A. Center Bill Walton, whose teams lost only two games in three years of conference play. Though this year's U.C.L.A. team is by no means a pushover--in 17 games it lost only twice--it is no Wooden juggernaut. "We can beat anyone--absolutely anyone," says Realist Wooden, "but lots of teams can beat us."

Fast-Break Offense. Many of those teams are in Wooden's own conference. With an impressive 75-20 record against nonleague opponents, and with four teams ranked among the nation's top 20, the Pac8 has become one of the toughest leagues in the nation. The strength starts up north at Oregon State, whose team, expected to fight for the cellar, was instead tied for first place with U.C.L.A., going into last weekend's showdown with the Bruins. The Beavers are led by 6-ft. 8-in. Sophomore Forward Lonnie Shelton, who is racking up 18 points per game. Oregon, nicknamed "the Kamikaze Kids" for the squad's aggressive physical play, is another contender, led by Guard Ron Lee, who tops the Pac8 in assists. Southern Cal, perennial runner-up to U.C.L.A., is also making a potent bid with its fast-break offense. Even longtime loser Cal has taken to winning.

The big surprise, though, is upstart Stanford. On a campus where football has long been the sport and athletics in general do not have a high priority, the basketball team has suddenly become a contender. It was Stanford that last month threw the conference into its current disorder with' back-to-back victories over U.C.L.A. and Southern Cal. Those upsets, dubbed "the Maples Miracle" (after the team's home court), marked the emergence of 7-ft. Senior Center Rich Kelley as the Pac-8's overbearing figure. In the two games, Kelley hit for a total of 52 points, hauled down 28 rebounds and subjected opponents to intimidating defensive play.

Kelley, a low-key psychology major, is averaging 20 points per game, leads the conference in rebounding, and also paces Stanford in assists. Says John Wooden: "Kelley is every bit as valuable and as important to Stanford as Walton was to U.C.L.A."

Kelley himself is happy to be out of Walton's shadow. "This year we're playing against someone we think is human," he says, referring to Walton's successor Ralph Drollinger, 7 ft. 1 in. "Now people go out onto the court and play to win. They used to play to stay close."

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