A Grudge Match at Harmon Arena : Basketball: UCLA’s Don MacLean is still fuming over the way in which he was handled by Cal Coach Lou Campanelli in the Olympic Festival last summer.

BERKELEY — It will be a reunion of sorts today for Coach Lou Campanelli of California and forward Don MacLean of UCLA.

Don’t expect them to embrace.

MacLean didn’t like the way he was used last summer when he played for Campanelli in the Olympic Festival at Oklahoma City.

At the time, MacLean said that Campanelli held a grudge against him because, in two Bruin victories last season, MacLean averaged 26 points and nine rebounds against the Golden Bears.

Campanelli indicated that he had a more plausible reason for benching MacLean at crucial times for his West team.

“You are useless on defense,” he shouted at MacLean.

Whatever the reasons, MacLean was angered by the way he was treated and said the other day that he will be especially motivated this afternoon when the Bruins play the Golden Bears at Harmon Arena.

“I’m not really as mad as I was,” he said, “but I still want to play really well against him, and I still really want to beat them. I’m sure once I get up there and see him, I’ll really be fired up to play.”

Campanelli doesn’t understand the fuss.

Regarding MacLean’s contention that Campanelli had personal reasons for benching the Bruin forward, Campanelli said: “That’s absolutely ridiculous. There’s nothing further from the truth. I wanted them all to do well.”

According to festival rules, teams were divided into two units of six players, with each platoon scheduled for 10 minutes of play in the first half and six in the second. Free substitution was allowed in the last eight minutes, which is when Campanelli benched MacLean.

“I’m not his college coach,” Campanelli said. “I don’t have to cater to him and tell him he’s the star and he’s the man. I’m just a college coach who was asked to come in and try to develop players.

“I don’t think Don quite understood that there were other great players there. It wasn’t like a high school situation or college situation where he was the ‘go-to guy.’ They were all great players. Don couldn’t quite understand that. Maybe it was his ego, but all the other players understood it.”

While MacLean sat and stewed, Campanelli used forwards Adam Keefe of Stanford and Reggie Smith of Texas Christian.

“I really don’t know what he felt,” MacLean said of Campanelli, “but I felt I was one of the best players, if not the best, and he didn’t play me.

“I couldn’t understand why because I was working as hard as anybody else in practice. No way those guys were as good as I was.”

MacLean, though, said that he never confronted Campanelli.

“He didn’t really talk to the team,” MacLean said. “He never said, ‘Don, you’ve got to pick up your game,’ or, ‘You’ve got to start working harder.’ So, I figured he just had something against me.”

Not so, Campanelli said.

Explaining his reasoning at the time, Campanelli said of MacLean, who established a Pac-10 freshman scoring record last season: “He’s had some problems on defense and basically that’s been it.

“You try to go with the most complete guys at crunch time--guys who can rebound and block shots, not just score.”

Campanelli held no grudge then, nor does he now, he said.

“I wish Don nothing but the best,” Campanelli said.

MacLean wouldn’t say the same about his one-time coach.