By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter
The Sweet 16 isn’t so sweet for UCLA head coach Steve Lavin.
The King of Controversy has reached the prestigious plateau five
times in his head coaching career, but has only advanced past that
point once.
And in the last three years, he has coached one of the final 16
teams every time, but has never coached one of the final eight.
"In our last few Sweet 16 losses, we haven’t made the plays down
the stretch," junior forward Jason Kapono said. "It’s something
we’re going to have to do to get over the hump."
Lavin should be given credit for consistently making it to the
Sweet 16. He and Duke head coach Mike Kryzewski are the only
coaches to make it in five of the past six years.
And Lavin’s predecessor at UCLA, Jim Harrick, only made it once
in his eight years of coaching the Bruins.
But that once, in 1995, was when UCLA won its last national
championship.
So the question becomes, is it good enough to consistently get
make the Sweet 16, but never get past it? Or, is it even Lavin’s
fault that his players seem to collapse in after two NCAA
tournament games?
"This is a big time level," freshman forward Andre Patterson
said. "We played too tentative. It has nothing to do with the
coaching."
Patterson’s teammate, sophomore forward T.J. Cummings, agrees
that Lavin isn’t to blame for the team’s incessant collapse at the
Sweet 16.
"I wish I knew the answer," Cummings said. "When it comes down
to it, it is all about the players. There is no blame. Missouri
played a magic game tonight."
This season is over for the Bruins. UCLA failed to past the
Sweet 16.
But Lavin can take what he learned from this year and apply it
to helping future teams get over the hump and make the Elite Eight,
make the Final Four and even win a national championship?
"In the offseason, we have to evaluate our personnel because you
want to play to your personnel’s strengths," Lavin said. "After we
watch film, there is going to be things we’re going to look back
on."
The freshmen also plan on applying the lessons from this season
to help get them past the Sweet 16 next year.
One obvious lesson comes to mind for freshman point guard Cedric
Bozeman.
"Sustain. Sustain," he repeated, as if in a trance. "Forty
minutes. This was a big time learning experience."
And for the Bruins, it was a learning experience that will
hopefully pay dividends for them when next season rolls around.
Cummings is confident it will.
"Next year, we’re going to do some big time things," he said,
already dreaming of March Madness 2003.