EUGENE, Ore “”mdash; In the most hostile road arenas, where
opposing teams and their fans relish in seeing a dead UCLA program,
the Bruins have gone through stretches where they have looked
flatter than the court they play on.
At Allen Fieldhouse (Kansas), the Bruins were down 23 by
halftime. At Haas Pavilion (Cal), that number was 17. Arizona
outscored UCLA by 25 in the second half at the McKale Center. And
at McArthur Court on Saturday, the Bruins were down by 17 before
they hit their first field goal.
“Mentally you have to realize that in tough environments
on the road, the first five minutes of the game and of the second
half are the most important,” senior guard Ray Young said.
“But we haven’t always realized that. At home you have
a chance to come back, but on the road you don’t have
that.”
Mac Court, the oldest arena in college basketball, has perhaps
the loudest and most obnoxious fans in the conference. Throughout
the game, the student section was all over head coach Steve Lavin,
as well as Jon Crispin, Andre Patterson and Jason Kapono.
The Bruins were clearly rattled by the atmosphere; each time
they started to find a rhythm, the crowd became raucous enough to
help get Oregon back in sync.
“That’s why they call it The Pit,” guard Ryan
Walcott said about McArthur’s famed nickname. It stems from
the vertical, intimate nature of the stands, which significantly
helps to boost the decibals of the sound in the arena.
“Our fans are unbelievable. They have so much
intensity,” said Ducks center Brian Helquist, a senior who
played his final home game on Saturday. “It helps intimidate
the other team. You could tell as soon as (UCLA) came
out.”
And in almost every road game this year, the officials
haven’t helped the Bruins’ cause.
According to Young, the refs seem to be especially biased in the
toughest arenas.
“It is their home court, so they will get the
calls,” he said. “Some of them are phantom calls, but
that’s what you expect with Pac-10 officiating.”