To say UCLA has no chance to beat top-ranked Arizona today could
be a colossal understatement.
After all, every stat points to a UCLA loss.
All of the intangibles point to a UCLA loss.
Heck, even UCLA’s Pac-10 tournament history doesn’t
give much hope for the Bruins to win today.
So, why should UCLA even show up to the Staples Center this
afternoon?
“Because we can do it,” center Ryan Hollins said.
“It is a one game elimination. We will give it everything
we’ve got. We want it more than anything.”
It would be hard for UCLA to want a win any less than they did
in the first two matchups between these teams. In January, the
Bruins suffered their worst home loss ever at Pauley Pavilion,
losing by 35.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, UCLA was embarrassed by 36
points at Arizona in February in a game where the Wildcats had more
highlight dunks than an NBA all-star game.
So maybe Arizona will take UCLA lightly and look past it to the
Wildcats’ second-round matchup.
Or, maybe not.
“From our players’ standpoint, they always get fired
up to play UCLA,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “I
don’t think it makes any difference what the results of the
two games this year have been.”
The UCLA players are taking a we-have-nothing-to-lose approach
into the tournament. After all, most people expect a Bruin loss
today, so the team isn’t putting any pressure on itself.
“They are under all of the pressure not to lose,”
guard Ryan Walcott said. “Also, we are playing in Los
Angeles, so we have the home crowd.”
If the Bruins are scared of getting destroyed for a third time
this season, they aren’t showing it publicly. Their spirits
seem to be as high as they’ve been all season, and they are
looking forward to getting revenge.
“We had two bad games against them. But now it’s a
new season,” forward Andre Patterson said. “Whether we
play Arizona in the first game or last game, we would still have to
beat them.”
A UCLA loss today could mean that head coach Steve Lavin will be
fired as early as Friday.
But Lavin isn’t thinking about that. He is only
concentrating on getting his team to pull off its biggest upset of
the season.
“We’ve won three out of four games, which, for us,
that means we’re on a roll because we’ve really
struggled this year, obviously,” Lavin said. “I think
our kids feel good about the way they’re playing, even though
it’s been a long, long season.”
Arizona has won the last four Pac-10 tournaments: 1988-1990 and
last year’s, when the conference tournament was
reinstated.
UCLA lost its only conference tournament matchup against the
Wildcats in the 1990 finals.