EUGENE, Ore. “”mdash; Ben Howland really didn’t expect any
of this.
Not that it was any shock that UCLA, controlling its own destiny
in its season finale against Oregon, lost 60-59 on Saturday
afternoon. But the way the Bruins backed their way into the berth
in the Pac-10 tournament was a pleasant surprise for him.
Howland’s reasoning was that UCLA’s fate would be
sealed once Washington State and Oregon State, the two teams left
out of the conference dance last season, knew that they could get
in by winning their respective home games against Cal and USC.
WSU held up its end of the bargain by finishing Cal off in the
afternoon. But a few hours later, the Bruins learned that the rival
Trojans held off OSU 63-60.
Howland said he didn’t hear the team celebrate its No. 7
seed in the eight-team tournament, which will feature an
opening-round game for UCLA against Washington on Thursday at the
Staples Center. But the Bruins must have been mighty thankful after
finishing their regular season by losing five straight games and 13
of their last 15.
“We appreciate the assist from Coach (Henry) Bibby and the
Trojans,” said Howland, who half-jokingly offered Bibby words
of encouragement on Friday at the hotel they shared.
“It’s a whole new season. It’s a new
beginning.”
Though the Oregon student section at McArthur Court taunted
Howland by waving paper masks of predecessor Steve Lavin and
chanting, “You’re not Lavin,” Howland was like
Lavin in that he too barely got UCLA into the Pac-10
tournament.
Things didn’t look too good, though, after Oregon senior
forward Luke Jackson scored a game-high 21 points and had eight
rebounds in his final game at McArthur Court. He nailed the
game-winning free throws with 13 seconds left after UCLA freshman
Trevor Ariza committed a reach-in foul away from the basket.
“I look forward to reviewing the video to see if he
actually did foul Luke Jackson,” Howland said. “That
was a clean play.”
Cedric Bozeman’s basket with 23.1 seconds left gave UCLA a
59-58 lead, but he missed a fallaway on the next possession.
After Jordan Kent missed two free throws at the other end, Janou
Rubin’s desperate three-pointer from half-court glanced off
the backboard and rim, but never found the bottom of the net.
“We just got some bad breaks,” Bozeman said.
Howland thought it was just bad officiating overall. He was also
peeved by what he saw as the turning point of the game when UCLA
was leading 54-52 with 4:28 left and Ariza had a layup erased after
it was ruled he had committed a charge.
“The calls or the officiating favored the home team for
whatever reason,” Howland said. “I was really surprised
by the (offensive foul) call on Trevor Ariza. I thought that was a
questionable call.”
UCLA had led by six after holding Oregon to a season-low 23
first-half points.
“The defense set the tone,” Howland said. “Our
problem has been the inability to score enough points.”
But this wasn’t Pitt where Howland was coaching. Rather,
it was at the Pit, a place where defenses go to die.
The Ducks came out firing in the second half, going on a 14-2
run to give themselves a seven-point advantage.
Luckily for the Bruins, their hopes of reaching the NCAA
tournament weren’t entirely killed off, merely put off.
A dream, after all, is a great expectation to have.