wooden classic announcement


	What:	8th Annual Wooden Classic
	When:	Saturday, December 8, 2001
	Where:	The Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
		Game 1: University of Arizona v. Purdue Game 2: UCLA v. Alabama

We just received an announcement that tickets for this year's 8th Annual John R. Wooden Classic will go on sale this Sunday, October 21, at 10:00 a.m. at all Ticketmatster locations around SoCal, as well as at the Pond box office and boy phone. You can order tickets by calling 714-740-2000 or by visiting the Ticketmaster website. Tickets can also be purchased at all Tower Records, Robinson's-May stores, Wherehouse Music stores, Tu Musica, Ritmo Latino, and other locations.

The Wooden Classic folks still have a nice, functional website, but they haven't re-done the logo from last year. Don't be fooled though, while the site has a logo which says "Wooden Classic 2000" the site really does have the current information for the year 2001. The lineup will be great, featuring two of the top Pac-10 teams, one Big 10 and another SEC team. Just about everything in this event points to a tie to the legendary coach John R. Wooden: UCLA of course is where he won 10 national championships in his long coaching career; Purdue is his alma mater, where he earned All-American honors; Alabama has a slight connection too given the fact that head coach Mark Gottfried was formerly a UCLA assistant (albeit long after Coach Wooden had retired). And frankly, other than the fact that Lute Olsen is also certainly destined for the Basketball Hall of Fame, we just can't figure any connection to Coach Wooden....at least not directly.

These will be great matchups. Of course some of the ticket prices are a bit hefty, but what the heck, this will be a great series of games. Tickets are $150, $90, $75, $65, $50, $37.50, $25, $15, and $10.

The Wooden Classic will also once again be the bookmark twin of the "Wooden Tradition" a new sister-event which got its start last year at Purdue in Indiana.

The Arrowhead Pond box office is open Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The box office is also open three hours prior to all events. Children under two are admitted free for most events, but must sit on a guest's lap. Visa, Mastercard, American Express credit cards and cash are accepted, however personal checks are not accepted.