Candygate - Feb. 1, 2003
The game began with a beautiful pass from Luke Walton to Rick Anderson for a layup.
The second half began the same way - Walton to Anderson for two.
But other than that, Luke was rather un-Waltonesque in Arizona's 95-80 breeze past California Saturday.
Bill Walton's curly-headed boy did wind up with six assists, but he grabbed only two rebounds and scored not a single point in only 13 minutes of playing time against Cal.
The reason: frustration and foul trouble.
Easy-going, polite and patient with the media even after bitter defeat, the big kid was really hurt by being wrongly accused, he said, in the alleged "candygate" incident last weekend in Lawrence, Kan.
"I was p.o.'d having my name in the paper over something I had nothing to do with," Walton said after Saturday's game.
It was his first meeting with the press this week. He and teammate Salim Stoudamire, also initially accused of taking candy from a vending machine in Lawrence without paying for it, left without talking to the media following Thursday night's loss to Stanford. The accuser said he did not recognize Stoudamire, but that it was someone wearing a goatee.
"It frustrated me, sure," Walton said. "Some guy said he saw me. But I don't do stuff like that - and I absolutely did not do anything.
"I got my name in the paper anyhow, and I got a call from my grandma. Then I had to answer all these questions."
Asked if he would pursue legal action against the 30-year-old Chicago man, a Kansas graduate, who made the accusations, Walton said:
"No. There's really nothing to do but let it go and get on with the basketball season.
"I just hope these people (the 14,582 spectators at McKale Center and all Wildcat fans) realize that I had nothing to do with that stuff."
Wildcat assistant Josh Pastner, who coaches the big guys, said Walton "wants to do so well, I know this thing has bothered him - because it has bothered me, too."
"You drag somebody's name through the mud publically, over something he didn't do and it is bound to bother him," Pastner said.
"I know Luke was stressing at times in the past two games. He probably forced the issue at certain points on the court. But he means so much to this team. Even when he's on the bench and has limited playing time because of the foul situation, the other guys still feed off him.
"Good game or not, Luke Walton is very, very important to this team."
Two of Walton's four fouls were unwisely spent. "His first one was a silly push," head coach Lute Olson said. It happened when the game was only 19 seconds old.
"His second (with 11:51 left in the first half) happened when somebody had Luke by the shirt," Olson said. "Luke couldn't move and he used his elbow to get free. We tell the guys never to retaliate because they (referees) always call the second foul."
Center Channing Frye turned in a stellar performance for the Cats with 12 rebounds, 12 points and three blocked shots.
"We needed to go out there and play aggressively," said Frye, a sophomore from Phoenix. "Everybody was crashing the boards this time and that makes a huge difference."
The Wildcats improved to 16-2 overall and are alone at the top of the Pacific-10 Conference Standings at the halfway point in the second, with an 8-1 record.
Cal dropped to 14-4 overall and 7-2 in the league.
"I'm happy that we're all by ourselves (in first place), but not happy with that one loss," Olson said.
"If we learn from the loss, though, we'll be much better off."