Gone are Matt Barnes, Dan Gadzuric and Billy Knight.
Sam Clancy, Brandon Granville and David Bluthenthal are off to
different pastures.
The names that have defined the UCLA-USC rivalry over the past
three years have given way to new ones ““ like Bozeman,
Thompson, Patterson, Craven and, well, Craven.
“This is the beginning,” said Andre Patterson, one
of three Bruin sophomores who will start in tonight’s game at
Pauley Pavilion. “This is what we dream about. It’s our
turn now.”
Their turn comes at a crucial junction early in the Pac-10
season. The Bruins are 4-5 overall but 2-0 in the conference, fresh
off wins at the Washington schools where they looked much improved
from an abysmal 2-5 start.
USC (5-4, 1-1 Pac-10) has a youth movement of its own but
setbacks that mirror the Bruins’ early struggles. The Trojans
blew a 20-point lead at Washington and lost 76-72, and they fell to
UCSB in a December non-conference game.
“Obviously, this is a rebuilding year,” USC
administrative assistant Bob Cantu said. “When you lose your
best players, you’re asking a lot of sophomores and junior
college transfers to really carry the team.”
USC starts four sophomores and a junior, and the Trojans’
three seniors average just 11.5 minutes per game combined.
The Bruins are in slightly better shape and still retain visions
of solid basketball by the season’s end. Senior Jason Kapono
averages 18.2 points per game, and reserve senior Ray Young has
been a constant defensive presence.
But the losses of Barnes, who was the team’s emotional
leader, and Gadzuric, who banged with the nation’s best in
the paint, have been significant blows to a team still searching
for an identity.
“We both basically lost five starters over the last two
years,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. “But I really
like the pieces that we have. The challenge is putting them
together.”
Lavin has tried five different lineups but recently settled on a
starting five of Patterson, Kapono, TJ Cummings, Ryan Walcott and
Cedric Bozeman. The team is 2-1 when the five start.
Noticeably absent from the lineup is sophomore Dijon Thompson,
another member of the new guard. While nursing a knee injury (he
says that it feels about 90 percent), Thompson has seen his minutes
diminish despite ranking second on the team with 15.3 points per
game and showing signs of much-needed leadership abilities.
Thompson played only 14 minutes in the win over Washington
State, and Lavin says he expects to bring him in off the bench once
again tonight.
Despite the preponderance of sophomores on the UCLA team, an
old-timer made his presence known last weekend. Kapono earned
Pac-10 Player of the Week honors just weeks after one of the worst
shooting downswings in his career.
“It’s felt like a drastic turnaround,” said
Kapono, who scored a career-high 44 points against Washington
State. “But it’s just two games, and we need to put
them into proper perspective.”
The two teams will likely etch memories for the years to come
from the strokes of the up-and-coming youngsters, but
Kapono’s outlook going into his seventh UCLA-USC game might
prove most useful.
“With this game, it always comes down to playing harder
than them,” Kapono said. “When they beat us at the
Forum last year, they really outbattled us.”