Thursday, March 13, 1997
Year of dips and valleys helps Bruins mature as a teamBy
Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Staff
1996-1997 has been a Colossus-like season for the UCLA men’s
basketball team. Colossus, not because it had another successful
season, winning its third-straight Pac-10 Championship. But,
Colossus, because this season has had as many dips and peaks as the
Magic Mountain roller coaster.
But if there is to be a corny cliche to sum up the current Bruin
squad, it would have to be that they have had the ability to bounce
back like, well, what else  a basketball.
"This whole season has been a season of resiliency," UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said. "It’s just a team that just keeps coming
back, which says a lot about their character, their heart, their
toughness, their mental toughness.
"This team more than any other team that I have been around has
this amazing type of resiliency."
Hopes were high before the start of the season. The Bruins
(21-7, 15-3 Pac-10) were returning an experienced team with all of
its talent intact from the previous year. The team was ready to
redeem itself from its first-round NCAA Tournament loss to
Princeton last March. The polls reflected these expectations,
placing UCLA fifth in preseason rankings.
But then the big drop came.
Nov. 6, 1996. Though it seemed that then-UCLA head coach Jim
Harrick had dodged the NCAA probe of recruiting violations in
regards to his selling a used car to a prospective recruit’s
sister, a bombshell rocked the UCLA team just two weeks after that
investigation ended uneventfully.
Harrick, only one and a half years removed from winning UCLA’s
11th national championship, was abruptly dismissed. On Oct. 11,
Harrick took some prospective recruits to dinner, and by allowing
too many current players to be present at the dinner, he broke NCAA
rules. The Bruins were suddenly without their mentor and anchor
only two weeks before their season opener.
It was first assistant Lavin that inherited the role of interim
head coach. And in Lavin’s first game as head coach, it was
apparent that the tumultuous events off the court had an effect
inside the lines. The Bruin players showed their support for
Harrick by writing his name on their shirts and shoes, and they
proceeded to fall to underdog Tulsa in overtime, 77-76.
UCLA followed the loss two weeks later with a 95-73 drubbing of
Cal State Northridge, but the real test would come four days later
against top-ranked Kansas.
Could UCLA prove itself against such a tough opponent?
The answer: a 96-83 loss, in a game where the final score should
not have been so close. Kansas led by as many as 30 points in the
first half.
On national television. In Pauley Pavilion. To sum it up in one
word, it was embarrassing.
And that’s when questions about UCLA’s team began to really take
off. Cynics began to count 1996-1997 as another disappointing Bruin
campaign. By this time, UCLA had dropped to 23rd in The Associated
Press poll and had completely fallen out of the USA Today/CNN
rankings.
After easy home victories over Ohio University and Jackson
State, UCLA faced Illinois in its first road contest of the
season.
The trip was a disaster.
Losing to Tulsa could be attributed to first-game jitters or the
shock of losing a coach. Kansas, was No. 1 in the country, so a
loss to the Jayhawks was forgivable. The 79-63 loss to Illinois at
the United Center in Chicago, however, might be considered the
Death Valley of the season.
"When we lost to Illinois we felt like we were a better team
than they were," junior guard Toby Bailey said. "It was a chance
for us to beat a good team on national television and we just
didn’t play well at all."
As a result, Lavin made some changes in the lineup and in the
game plan. Senior point guard Cameron Dollar was taken out of the
starting lineup and junior guard/forward Kris Johnson filled the
spot. The high post offense was history for the Bruins and the zone
defense would start to appear.
The adjustments seemed to take to the Bruins, who for the first
time started to make strides in the right direction.
After a victory at St. Louis and home wins over Morgan State and
the Washington schools, the Bruins looked as if they were finally
settling down from the chaotic events that had plagued their
season.
But then it happened.
Jan. 9. Palo Alto, California. Maples Pavilion. Forty-eight
points. 109-61. Worst loss in school history.
UCLA scored only one point in the first five minutes, and before
they could blink, found themselves trailing by 16 points. It never
got better for the Bruins. UCLA couldn’t shoot and Stanford refused
to miss, putting a stain on the Bruins that just can’t be
forgotten.
But while the Stanford loss was certainly a low for the team, it
also may have come as a blessing in disguise.
"I think following that Stanford loss was a little bit of a
crossroads for the team and a crossroads for the season," Lavin
said. "We knew we were going to either band together or it was
going to break us, and we banded together."
Less than 48 hours after becoming a footnote in history, the
Bruins traveled to the Cow Palace (and to the lovely smell of
livestock) and salvaged the road trip with a 64-56 win over
California.
Resiliency.
The Cal game could be seen as a turning point not just for the
team, but for forward Charles O’Bannon. The senior, who took
control of the game with a career-high 16 rebounds, found that he
fit nicely in the role of a team leader and has been providing that
leadership ever since.
"After the Stanford 48-point loss, it was the low point for the
season for us and from that point on I saw a completely different
Charles O’Bannon," Lavin said. "And it’s from that point that our
team has really taken off."
Armed with a senior leader, the Bruins faced their biggest
conference rival  Arizona. And for the first time, not only
was UCLA competitive with a ranked opponent, but the Bruins emerged
victorious in a nail-biting overtime thriller at Pauley
Pavilion.
The Bruins would follow the big victory with a road win over
USC. By then, UCLA had matched its longest win streak of the season
at four.
But the Bruins’ roller coaster still had more dips in store for
its passengers. Within the next four games, the Bruins lost to
Louisville, Oregon and Cal  all by a combined eight points.
The losing streak dropped UCLA to 12-7 overall. With only nine
games left in the season, it looked like the Bruins  who had
made eight NCAA Tournaments in a row  might have to cancel
their annual trip to the tournament.
Resiliency. With their tournament hopes in serious doubt, the
Bruins turned around their season and did not lose the remainder of
the season.
Feb. 8. Less than one month after the pummeling by Stanford, the
Bruins had a chance to meet them again  this time in their
own backyard. The Bruins managed a 67-point turnaround, defeating
the Cardinal 87-68.
Stability would finally come to the program three days later
when the "interim" tag on Lavin’s title was removed. For the first
time all season, the players knew that their Lavin was not a
stop-gap solution. He was signed to a four-year contract, and the
players could finally count on Lavin being there for the long
haul.
Has the stability helped the team?
Two days after the hiring, UCLA invaded McKale Court and handed
Arizona its only home loss this season. It was a basket-for-basket
type of game, where neither team could pull away from its opponent.
But Charles O’Bannon came up clutch possession after possession,
and J.R. Henderson knocked down a game-clinching shot with 10
seconds remaining in the game. Soon thereafter the Bruins were
celebrating their biggest victory of the season.
The Bruins completed the nearly impossible Arizona sweep two
days later with a victory over Arizona State.
"I don’t think many people expected anyone to (go into Arizona
and win two)," Bailey said. "When we did that, it was pretty
big."
The next week, UCLA hosted cross-town rival USC amid all the
hoopla concerning J.R. Henderson’s comments that the Bruins were
playing "just SC." UCLA backed up Henderson’s comments with a
22-point victory. But sixth-ranked Duke loomed large on the
horizon.
Feb. 22. It was a game that showed how far the Bruins had come,
not only since the beginning of this season, but since the ending
of last year.
In front of a raucous crowd and a national television audience,
the Bruins responded to the pressure by defeating Duke, 73-69,
prompting the student section to rush the court.
It was a far cry from last year’s 19-point embarrassment in
Durham.
Riding the crest of a five-game winning streak, including three
wins against Top 25 teams (Stanford, Arizona and Duke), the Bruins
found themselves occupying the No. 10 ranking in the AP poll. It
was the highest the Bruins had been in the polls since their No. 5
preseason rank.
A third consecutive conference crown was now in reach. But, like
the entire year, it would not be easy to reach the summit.
The Bruins had to overcome a 16-point deficit en route to
defeating Oregon on March 1, ensuring the Pac-10 championship and
an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
"I thought that it was great that we were down 16 because it has
been like the whole year," Lavin said. "It wouldn’t be right unless
we had to fight, scratch and claw, and be resilient and bounce back
to get a piece of the Pac-10 championship. So it is only
appropriate  poetic justice."
While some may see having such an emotionally draining season as
a hindrance, it has helped in the development of a team that many
last year saw as immature.
"I think (the ups and downs) have helped us mentally," O’Bannon
said. "I think the fact that we’ve lost a coach, (that) we faced a
lot of adversity and faced a lot of ups and downs, it has only made
us stronger as a team. It has brought us closer together."
And perhaps all the turmoil and all the highs and lows will
prove to be an advantage for the team during the NCAA
Tournament.
"Because we’ve been spun around, turned upside down, kicked in
the teeth and have been through the peaks and the valleys and
everything in between," Lavin said, "I don’t think that March
Madness will affect us very much, because the whole season has been
madness. And we’re stronger because of the madness."
The Bruins have made the ascension from a deep valley, and they
now have the ultimate peak  a national championship Â
within sight.
But, the Bruins know just how quickly an apparent clear road to
the top can lead to a cliff.
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
(Top) Steve Lavin (l.) confers with John Wooden prior to his
debut as head coach. (Left) Nate Johnson of Louisville celebrates
after J.R. Henderson trips in a last-second effort to win the game.
(Above) Rodrick Rhodes and USC are smothered by UCLA, 82-60.