Friday, November 8, 1996
BASKETBALL:
Interim coach Steve Lavin steps into Jim Harrick’s shoesBy Hye
Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men’s basketball team played in its intrasquad game on
Thursday night, with interim head coach Steve Lavin overseeing the
action from the press row. Lavin’s role as an observer went without
a hitch, but the transition his Bruins will have to make could be
anything but a clean break with the past.
Less than 36 hours after the firing of Jim Harrick, UCLA’s coach
for eight years, the Bruins took to the court of Pauley Pavilion to
play in their first exhibition game of the season. But the
meaningless affair had far more significance in terms of the team’s
emotional status.
After all, many of the players were still recovering from the
shock of their lives.
"Shocked, flabbergasted, amazed" were the words junior forward
Kris Johnson used to describe his reaction to hear of Harrick’s
firing.
"I couldn’t understand why they would fire (Harrick)," Johnson
said. "But talking is not going to do anything; lashing out at
anybody is not going to do anything. The only thing that’s going to
do something is that we give it 100 percent every day because
that’s what Coach Harrick would want."
For the players, who have been exhausted by the intense emotions
surrounding the situation, being on the court may have been a
refreshing change.
"To be able to get their minds back into the game, having fun
and playing something they’re passionate about, that’s probably the
best therapy they can have coming off the last 48 hours," Lavin
said. "The guys just want to play basketball. That’s what they’ve
been doing their whole lives."
Junior guard Toby Bailey, who led all scorers on Thursday night
with 35 points, welcomed the chance to embrace the court as a
refuge from the team’s tribulations.
"I always use the court to get away from all my problems off the
court," Bailey said. "When I was out there, I was worrying about
playing hard and doing the things coach (Harrick) taught us."
The awkwardness of not having Harrick on the sidelines, however,
was something that the Bruins had a hard time grappling with on the
floor.
"It felt weird," Jelani McCoy said. "But that’s just another
hill to climb over. We’ve got to do what Coach Harrick would want
us to do."
For the fans, who eagerly gathered at the arena to pick out
possible differences between Harrick’s team and the one guided by
Lavin, it was much too early in the season to come to any
conclusions.
"It’s an intrasquad game," fifth-year senior Melvin Alvarez
said. "It’s too early to tell."
SUSIE MING HWA CHU/Daily Bruin
Steve Lavin and John Wooden.