BERKELEY “”mdash; In this season full of so many painful tricks,
Steve Lavin and the Bruins got two rare treats Saturday at Haas
Pavillion.
Not only did UCLA play in front of a packed arena, but the fans
at the game actually wanted Lavin to keep his job.
Chanting “We love Lavin” and touting advertisements
for a Web site called www.savelavin.com, Cal’s student
section ““ “The Bench” ““ gave the embattled
UCLA boss all their attention from pregame to the final seconds.
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The concern for Lavin’s employment was drenched with some
classic Berkeley sarcasm.
“This place has a great homecourt advantage that any coach
would love to have,” Lavin said after the game.
It may be the final comedic episode in a series of trips to the
Bay Area for Lavin, whose job status is in severe jeopardy. His
team is now seven games below .500 and has been essentially
hopeless for the NCAA Tournament for weeks.
Lavin acknowledges most of this, but the Berkeley faithful tried
their best to keep it fresh in his mind. Fans held up photos of
Lavin with the headline, “Got Resume?” and the phrase,
“Will coache four food” underneath.
“They’re creative,” Lavin said. “Their
ingenuity is great.”
Other highlights included an “NIT Bubble Team” sign
and a particularly scathing poster that read, “UCLA Hoops
““ turning McDonald’s All-Americans into
McDonald’s employees.”
All this from the same student section that once wore Rick
Pitino masks when it came to light that former UCLA athletic
director Pete Dalis had contacted the then-unemployed former
Kentucky coach about the UCLA job in the middle of the season.
“That was definitely one of the better ones,” Lavin
said.
Haas Pavilion is quickly gaining notoriety as one of the
toughest places to play in the Pac-10, and for good reason. The
raucous environment for Saturday afternoon’s game easily
bested what was, for the famous Stanford Sixth Man section, a
fairly placid crowd Thursday night. The Bears are 27-1 in their
home arena over the past two seasons.
The fans weren’t the only ones reveling in the Bruins
burrowing themselves ever deeper into the pits.
“It’s kind of funny seeing them at the
bottom,” said Cal guard Joe Shipp, who grew up in Los Angeles
watching championship UCLA basketball.
Before the game, Lavin smiled to The Bench and half-heartedly
motioned for them to quiet down with the derisive chanting.
“It’s got to be tough on him,” said sophomore
Andre Patterson, who watched the game from the bench because of
injury. “He just goes out and tries to have fun.”