By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Road to the Final Four only gets rockier
from here.
The No. 4-seeded UCLA men’s basketball team must tackle the No.
12 Utah State Aggies (28-5), in a 2001 NCAA East Regional second
round contest Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PST, to reach their third
Sweet Sixteen in four years.
For Head Coach Steve Lavin and his Bruins (22-8), the prime
objective will be to avoid finding themselves between a huge
performance from Aggie point guard Bernard Rock and a place too
deep to dig themselves out of. The key to avoiding that lies in
playing by the numbers.
"The strength of our team is our balance," Lavin said. "We have
five guys who have averaged in double figures since Billy (Knight)
has become a starter. On any given night, anyone can step up.
"We are like those old John Wooden teams. We have
interchangeable parts. We don’t overwhelm people, but the pieces
fit."
The reigning Big West conference titleholders, Utah State snuck
up on No. 5 seed Ohio State Thursday in a 77-68 overtime upset.
Much of the reason for the win came from Rock’s 18 points on
7-of-10 shooting in 42 minutes against the Buckeyes. The stability
provided Thursday by Rock, the Aggies’ senior leader, was
foreshadowed by his receiving all-conference first team and Big
West tournament most valuable player honors. He is the force that
Utah State has come to rely upon, scoring 13 points in the second
half and overtime against Ohio State. Rock’s speed on both ends of
the floor makes knowing his whereabouts on the hardwood a
priority.
But the Bruins have the nation’s "Mr. Dependable" in senior
point guard Earl Watson, who will break the school record with his
127th consecutive start Saturday afternoon. His 15 points, seven
assists and four steals against Hofstra on Thursday led a valiant
second-half charge to avoid another UCLA NCAA Tournament first
round disappointment.
An equally crucial matchup will be the one in the paint between
UCLA’s Dutch Boy, 6-foot-11 junior center Dan Gadzuric, and Utah
State’s 7-0 senior Dimitri Jorssen. In Thursday’s game Jorssen
demonstrated an efficient interior game with his back to the basket
while getting little
help on defense against one of the country’s top big men, Ohio
State’s Ken Johnson.
"I feel that we have to use our ‘changing defense,’" said Utah
State Head Coach Stew Morrill. "We are a man (defense) club, but we
mix zone in here and there. When we go to our ‘changing D,’ we can
get you out of sorts."
For UCLA, the goal is not to win huge just because the analysts
and odds makers have forecasted it. Rather, the Bruins’ philosophy
is to get the win and not worry about anything else.
"We finished the season winning 18 of 21 games and that says
enough," UCLA sophomore forward Jason Kapono said. "We may have had
our ups and downs, but we have found a way to win. We might not be
blowing people out, but we have found ways to win. That’s they key
to our team."
For the 2001 UCLA men’s basketball team, it will matter not of
how the journey to the championships dreams is made so long as the
bubble to their magical season doesn’t burst.