For Wooden's Great-Grandson, Basketball's a Bruin

PHILADELPHIA

Tyler Trapani remembers coming home from his 8-and-under basketball game 11 winters ago feeling as if he hadn't played very well that day. Upon returning from the game, Tyler decided to shoot a few baskets on the family's outdoor hoop while his parents and his great-grandfather went inside the house.

"After a little while my great-grandpa came out to watch me," Trapani said Thursday night, standing in a corner of the UCLA locker room after the Bruins held off Virginia Commonwealth, 65-64, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. "He started telling me what he thought I could do to shoot the ball better and dribble better. I remember saying to my parents later, 'Why is Papa telling me about basketball? I mean, what does he know?' "

Paul Trapani laughed at his son's question.

"Tyler," he said. "You may not understand this now, but someday you will. Your great-grandpa is John Wooden."

"I know that," Tyler answered. "He's my great-grandpa. What does that have to do with basketball?"

Now almost 19 and a freshman walk-on at UCLA, Trapani understands fully what John Wooden has to do with basketball. If he ever forgets for a moment, his teammates quickly remind him by calling him "Little Wooden."

John Wooden is 98 now and hasn't been in good health this basketball season, spending several weeks in the hospital recently. He's home now, feeling better, and his great-grandson hopes their talks about basketball and life will resume once UCLA's season is over.

"It's actually kind of hard to get him to talk about basketball," Trapani said with a smile. "I want to go into coaching, so whenever I sit with him at a game, I'll ask him what he thinks about how to handle a certain situation or what he did when he was a coach, and he'll give me an answer and then start talking about what classes I'm taking or ask me if I'm keeping my GPA up. If he's ever pushed me at all, it's been about academics, not about basketball. From what I've heard, he was that way with his players when he coached."

Wooden must have done a little bit of pushing when it came to basketball, winning 10 national championships before he retired in 1975, 15 years before Tyler was born. Trapani has seen tapes of his great-grandfather coaching and says what he enjoys most is watching the pregame ritual: wrapping the game program in one hand then turning to his wife, Nell, whom Tyler never met, for a wink or a wave before the game began.

"Obviously, I understand now what it means to be his great-grandson," Trapani said, "There were a few times in high school when people would ask me questions about him all the time, and I would say, 'By the way, my name's Tyler,' but I'm way past that now. I'm really proud to be related to him, and I love the time I've been able to spend with him."