ATLANTA — Gene Bartow has a simple message for those who maintain that he was the wrong man to replace the legendary John Wooden as UCLA's basketball coach:

Maybe you were right.

"There are certain people out there who might have adjusted and reacted a little better than I did," said Bartow, suggesting that J. D. Morgan, the late Bruin athletic director, might have been better served by a stronger, more assertive coach. "J.D., I'm sure, probably studied things pretty carefully. Why he tabbed me, I'll never know."

Bartow was rarely happy in his two years in Westwood, resigning after the 1976-77 season, he said, because the pressure was too great.

Hired to start a program at Alabama Birmingham, he has had almost nothing to do with UCLA in 13 years, but on Sunday Bartow and the Bruins were thrown together again by the NCAA tournament selection committee.

Alabama Birmingham (22-8) will play UCLA (20-10) at the Omni tonight in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The matchup has rekindled not-so-fond memories for Bartow, who once said of his time at UCLA: "There is no doubt I became paranoid. I wasn't even worried about getting fired. Now \o7 assassinated, \f7 that's a different thing."

But as he sat Wednesday in his spacious office in the two-year-old UAB Arena in Birmingham, Bartow said that some of his comments were made in jest.

"I received no threats while I was there," he said.

But neither, he said, was he encouraged to stick around.

Bartow took the Bruins to the Final Four in 1976 and was 52-9 at UCLA--Wooden was 54-7 in his last two seasons in Westwood--but was unfairly criticized, he said, for not living up to the standards set by Wooden, whose teams won 10 NCAA championships in his last 12 seasons.

He decried the "kook element" in Los Angeles, including the letter writers whose barbs appeared in The Times.

After his second season, Bartow met with Bill Shirley, former sports editor of The Times, and asked why the newspaper continued to publish letters criticizing Bartow after the season had ended.

Said Bartow: "I asked, 'You having fun with this controversy?' "

Criticized on the air as he took calls on a radio talk show, Bartow snapped at a caller, "Hogwash!" and stormed out of the studio.

His players saw the strain.