Maegan Carberry Carberry is a third-year
political science and English student. You can e-mail her at
maegs@ucla.edu.
Click Here for more articles by Maegan Carberry
So goes the traditional chant: “Is this a basketball? Yes,
that’s a basketball. Is that the court? Yes, that’s the
court. Is that the winning team?” Well, you never can be too
sure anymore. Cal State Northridge is, after all, an up-and-coming
powerhouse
These days it almost pains me to attend UCLA men’s
basketball games. When I was a freshman, these sporting events were
the greatest thing about college life. I used to wait out with my
friends for priority numbers and rush down to the floor for a
three-hour session of unparalleled amusement: heckling, chanting,
slam dunks, the super shot, cheerleader stunts and a spicy halftime
show by the dance team clad in black cat suits with lots of pelvic
thrusting and hair flipping.
It was so exciting. You never knew what Baron Davis was going to
do next, and you sat at the edge of your seat while Earl Watson
tossed up one of his classic alley-oops to JaRon Rush for a dunk
that was guaranteed to have even the most uppity of alumni hooting
and hollering from the stands.
But over the last couple of years, the pizzazz and
crowd-pleasing appeal of Bruin basketball has seemed to dwindle.
Not only do the players (both new and experienced) look
uncomfortable on the court, they aren’t getting any
better.
 Illustration by ERICA PINTO/Daily Bruin Ray Young came in
as one of the best offensive players in the United States, and some
days I leave Pauley Pavilion thinking he should reconsider this
whole college gig and seek employment outside of the court.
Jason Kapono, our “biggest offensive threat” as a
shooter, played great all season, but then when crunch time rolled
around and championships were on the line, he was nowhere to be
found. He scored only seven points against Stanford, yet still
seems to think that he can leave early for the NBA draft.
Dan Gadzuric played the game of his life against Arizona on a
Thursday and then scored something like two points the following
Saturday. Not to mention the fact that he continually makes contact
fouls look like a medieval flogging of some sort and then only
plays for five minutes a game because he can’t stop making
stupid mistakes. (And they are stupid, not aggressive).
It just makes no sense. Who are we supposed to count on to win
games for us? The coaching staff always tells the media that these
inconsistent performances are a result of the fact that it is not a
selfish team and that each week a different guy steps up to get the
job done. I prefer to look at the truth of the situation: we have a
group of erratic basketball players who couldn’t do the same
thing twice in a row if their lives depended on it.
When Earl Watson ships out of Westwood this Spring, we
won’t have a single player left that we can count on. We
can’t be expected to rely on the unpredictable play of
“veterans” Gadzuric, Barnes, Kapono and Young to lead
the charge.
It’s almost depressing to look at former UCLA basketball
coach John Wooden, sitting quietly behind the Bruin bench. He
watches the program that he established as the pinnacle of college
athletics fumble around with the ball like a teenage boy on his
first date.
I tried to be positive this year. I was so enthusiastic when the
winning streak came, and I wanted so badly to support Head Coach
Steve Lavin while he was under fire because I thought it was tacky
to talk about replacing him in the middle of his season. But we
went from a Pac-10 Championship contender to third place in the
span of a week. We barely squeaked through a tournament where at
one point a halftime score was actually 31-17 ““ and not
because both teams were playing such great defense.
If Lavin was trying to convince us of the fact that our Bruins
were a changed group of basketball players after the addition of
the full-court press, it sure ended with a big flop. But it looks
like that won’t matter because Coach Lavin will have another
opportunity to redeem himself, much to the chagrin of many irate
fans out there.
I’m really undecided as to whether or not he deserves
another crack at it. He’s had all our starters since they
entered the university and hasn’t seemed to help them improve
yet, but maybe the players just aren’t very good at making
adjustments. You never know since most of us aren’t out there
observing practice.
I just want back the days when it used to be exciting ““
when players made it fun for you with flashy passes and that extra
effort to drive to the basket. I want players who can actually make
the foul shot to complete the three-point play. I want to say
confidently that we can beat Cal State Northridge.
So, what is going on with UCLA basketball? Why aren’t we
consistently finishing in the Elite Eight or Final Four ““
where I believe most fans expect us to be?
Maybe it’s because college basketball itself has changed.
How do you maintain a program at all anymore when most blue-chip
college basketball players are only putting in one or two years
before heading out to the NBA? How do you develop individual role
players or emphasize a team environment if you’re always
catering to superstars who have no sense of loyalty?
You start to think that way, but then you catch yourself. Why?
Because players don’t leave Duke. They have an allegiance to
the school, and they don’t just treat it like a layover
before their big NBA debut. I think that’s all in the
coaching.
Obviously there’s something wrong on that end for us when
two of our best players can’t start in the Sweet Sixteen
matchup because they ditched study hall. That’s a reflection
of how little respect those players have for team procedure and
their coach.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that
Lavin’s every move was publicly criticized for all of them to
see, but it’s not an excuse for the fact that players
aren’t focused at the most important part of the season. And
it’s not like that’s a big surprise. We weren’t
ready to go against Cal (a loss of almost 30 points ““ only to
beat #1 Stanford two days later), Cal State Northridge or
Washington. We gave up 20-point leads against DePaul and various
other teams that we should have beat soundly.
It’s just embarrassing. It’s the job of the coach to
make sure that players are ready to be competitive. It’s not
like this is a group of friends who meet a couple of times a week
to shoot hoops. This is UCLA basketball. Everyone expects to win
““ or at least be competitive ““ all the time.
That may sound demanding or difficult, but that’s what
Division I high-level sports are like. UCLA basketball is a name
that should be associated with excellence and bring fear into the
eyes of opponents.
If the people we have involved in it now can’t live up to
those expectations, we need to find new ones. And we need to find
them soon because it is a disgrace to that man who sits so quietly
and observantly behind their bench every Saturday. He was something
more than this. He deserves something more.