Somewhere on the floor of the Staples Center still sits the
broken heart, the teardrops and the shadow of a lost UCLA season
that ended as disappointingly as it began.
And, if you look hard, you might also be able to see the ghost
of Steve Lavin, who is nothing more than a memory to the UCLA
program now.
Any dream of a Bruin miracle Pac-10 tournament run ended as
Oregon mounted a furious comeback in the last three minutes of
Friday’s semifinal, turning an 11-point UCLA lead into a
75-74 Duck victory.
“Oregon forced turnovers, made threes, and got
breaks,” Lavin said. “They did it against (Arizona
State on Thursday) also. They are the team of destiny.”
Lavin had perhaps his toughest coaching assignment to date after
the final buzzer sounded. In the locker room, he tried to stabilize
an emotionally fragile team, while at the same time, say a final
goodbye to all the players he recruited.
As the tears flowed down Lavin’s cheeks, his players tried
to comfort their coach while expressing the affinity they felt
toward him.
“He has handled everything so well,” forward Andre
Patterson said. “He showed how strong of a person he is.
Through all the rumors and backtalk, he played through
it.”
“I want him to come back,” said a red-eyed Ryan
Walcott. “If I had a vote, I would vote for him to
stay.”
But Friday’s game was perhaps the embodiment of why Lavin
won’t be coaching this team next season. After leading for
the first seventeen minutes of the second half, his team
couldn’t match the intensity or strategy of a better
disciplined Oregon squad down the stretch.
Down 73-62 with three minutes remaining, Oregon guard Justin
Davis added two three-pointers and forward Luke Jackson added five
points ““ including the game-winning three-pointer with 17
seconds remaining ““ to give the Ducks the win.
The only point for UCLA in the last three minutes came on a
Dijon Thompson free throw with 40 seconds left, as guard Ray Young
scored only three of his 21 points in the second half.
Young hoisted up a fade-away with three seconds left to try to
win it, but it was off the mark.
“Ray is going to take that last shot,” said UCLA
assistant coach Jim Saia. “He’s our hottest
guy.”
UCLA tried to slow down the game and run out the clock during
the final stretch, but Oregon played a tight full-court press
defense, forcing the Bruins into turnovers and throwing their
offense into disarray.
“Strategically, that is what you are supposed to
do,” Saia said. “But then we turned it over on the
press.”
The Bruins finished with 14 turnovers, nine of which came in the
second half.
Forward Jason Kapono was silent for most of the game, as he was
clearly fatigued from Thursday’s grueling overtime win over
Arizona.
The senior finished with just five points on 2-of-10 shooting,
and pulled down just one rebound.
Forward Andre Patterson also had an unusually quiet game,
scoring just three points and pulling down three rebounds.
UCLA ends the season 10-19, with the lowest winning percentage
for UCLA since the 1945-46 squad went 8-16. It is the first losing
season in 55 years, and it’s the first time UCLA won’t
make the NCAA tournament in 15 years.