It didn’t matter that his opponent was one of only two
unbeaten teams in the country and at the top of the national
rankings. When Jon Crispin finally got a chance to play significant
minutes Saturday afternoon, he simply wasn’t pleased with his
penultimate starting performance.
“I’m really disappointed we lost and I take a lot of
that on myself,” he said. “If you’re going to be
on the floor that amount of time you better do
something.”
Crispin played a season-high 28 minutes ““ 17 in the second
half ““ besting his previous season high (set against Cal on
Thursday) by nine minutes. After the Cal win, coach Ben Howland
said he would start Crispin for his two remaining home games as a
Bruin.
“I thought we had to have emotion today,” Howland
said. “That’s why we started him.”
Crispin, who will graduate this year, transferred from Penn
State in 2001 after playing a significant role in leading the
Nittany Lions to the Sweet 16 in the same year. After sitting out a
year due to NCAA regulations, he averaged eight minutes in 23 games
last year. This season, with the arrival of freshman Trevor Ariza
and newly eligible transfer Brian Morrison, he found an
increasingly large role on the Bruin bench.
But lately, UCLA’s performance necessitated
Howland’s use of bench players more often, a strategy he
implemented in the Bruins’ victory against Washington on Feb.
7. Although Crispin sank only one of five field goals against
Stanford, he brought a sorely needed spark to the Bruin
defense.
Unfortunately, Crispin’s chance at making his last games
at UCLA memorable was against a juggernaut Stanford team that
hasn’t dropped a game yet this season. But for Crispin, that
didn’t matter.
“I really felt like we were going to win this game,”
he said. “I felt really good about it. I felt I was going to
be able to contribute a lot more. We lost by 13 and I missed four
three-pointers.
“As a two-guard I need to be able to make open shots, and
I didn’t do that. I was pretty upset, I’m supposed to
be an outside shooter.”
Crispin did miss all of his three-point attempts, which
didn’t help UCLA’s league-worst three-point shooting
percentage. In addition, Crispin had the job of guarding Stanford
guard Matt Lottich, who ended the night making all four of his
shots from behind the arc.
“I really took it like it was my job to shut him
down,” Crispin said of guarding Lottich. “It really
hurt, it hurt my pride (that I didn’t). It was upsetting
because they were big shots.”
Lottich’s consecutive 3-pointers down the stretch pulled
Stanford ahead 61-46, a deficit from which UCLA never recovered.
Although Crispin said he will be thinking about his mistakes for
the next two days, he knows what he wants from his next opportunity
to start against Notre Dame on Saturday.
“Just a win,” he said.
Crispin knows that with each passing game, his collegiate
basketball career is quickly coming to a close.
And although he won’t be here next year, Crispin has faith
in the program he is proud to be part of.
“We’re building something here ““ we’re
throwing building blocks out there on the court,” he said.
“No one’s even seen what we can do. We play a lot
harder, because we have guys out there that care.”