Arron Afflalo still remembers the feeling. It’s not a good
one.
Sitting in the locker room of the McKale Center in Tucson, fresh
off UCLA’s first-round loss to Texas Tech in last
year’s NCAA Tournament, the current sophomore was, in a word,
hurt.
“Hurt. Hurt. Just hurt,” Afflalo said. “I was
just trying to figure out how to get better and not feel that
feeling ever again.”
In that same locker room, Jordan Farmar also vowed never to feel
that feeling again. He wouldn’t allow it. The pain of the new
tattoo on his left shoulder paled in comparison to the one he
experienced in the Arizona desert that day.
“I didn’t play well. We didn’t do well,”
Farmar said. “That was painful.”
The first opportunity for Farmar and Afflalo to erase some of
that pain comes today in San Diego, where the two-seed Bruins
(27-6) take on 15-seed Belmont (20-10), champion of the Atlantic
Sun Conference, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
This time, Farmar and Afflalo say, they will not make a bigger
deal of the game than it is, something of which they admit they may
have been guilty last year.
“I didn’t know what to expect the whole time,”
Farmar said.
“We made such a big deal of it, UCLA making the tournament
for the first time in a couple of years, that we were really
anxious. We wanted to do so well so bad.”
This time, they say, they will not reserve one of their worst
collective performances of the season for what was arguably the
season’s biggest game. Against the Red Raiders, Farmar went a
miserable 1-for-9 from the field, scoring only three points.
Afflalo didn’t fare much better, making only 1 of 4 shots
and five free throws to arrive at his total of seven points. Their
contributions proved too little in a game in which Texas Tech
comfortably led for all of the second half.
“It was the biggest game of the year, and they took our
season from us,” Afflalo said. “It meant everything to
us.”
This time, they say, they will enjoy the experience. Losing in
the first round of the NCAA Tournament amid high expectations did
not qualify as enjoyment.
“Losing a game like that, the first game out, you want to
enjoy the experience,” Afflalo said. “The tournament is
a great deal. You don’t want it to be that brief. So I
didn’t necessarily enjoy it. No one enjoys one loss and going
home.”
Howland said he sensed the pain Farmar and Afflalo felt after
losing to Texas Tech ““ and doesn’t believe it was
necessarily an entirely bad thing.
“These two have been there, and they know the pain of that
loss last year in Tucson,” Howland said. “And part of
that pain drives them to want to be better, to improve and to
lead.”
Preventative measures to avoid a similar outcome in this
year’s NCAA Tournament began immediately following that
fateful Thursday.
In defeating UCLA, Texas Tech outrebounded the Bruins and
appeared to be the tougher and more conditioned team. The play of
the Red Raider guards inspired Afflalo to improve his own
conditioning during the offseason. The Bruin sophomore added an
assortment of running drills to an already extensive and exhaustive
workout regimen.
Farmar joined his teammate in improving his conditioning. The
Bruin point guard hit the weight room, putting on 15-20 pounds in
the offseason to arrive at nearly 180 pounds, the added bulk
helping him withstand physical beatings like the one he took that
day.
“Texas Tech had the best conditioning of a team I’d
seen by far,” Afflalo said. “Hopefully what we did pays
off now.”
But entrusted to Farmar and Afflalo is not only the
responsibility of being prepared for the game, but also of helping
prepare their teammates ““particularly the five freshmen
““ for what lies ahead in the NCAA Tournament.
A year ago, the only scholarship players with previous NCAA
Tournament experience were Dijon Thompson and Cedric Bozeman, who
missed the entire 2004-2005 season because of a torn ACL .
According to Farmar, many of the Bruins weren’t ready for
the subtle nuances of the NCAA Tournament. Some of those included
the opening of practice, the media’s increased access, and
only receiving 20-30 minutes of warm-ups, when at Pauley Pavilion,
players can practice hours before game time.
This year, seven of the Bruins’ 12 scholarship players
have postseason experience, and Farmar is convinced that the
message and the lessons learned from last season will filter down
with a greater effect.
“There’ll be a few sentences here and there,”
Farmar said. “This year, hopefully the guys that have been
there before can tell the young guys all about it.”
Yet because the Bruins won the Pac-10, won their conference
tournament in dominating fashion, and possess a No. 2 seed in the
NCAA Tournament, many experts have UCLA as their team headed to the
Final Four in Indiana.
Afflalo may be flattered by the attention, but he is not fully
convinced of its merit ““ not as long as none of the Bruins,
with the exception of redshirt seniors Cedric Bozeman and Janou
Rubin, has ever tasted victory in the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s exactly why I state as a team we need to
play one game at a time,” Afflalo said. “What we have
achieved is all in the past.
“I know we haven’t really achieved anything
yet.”