Thursday, January 16, 1997
OPINION:
It’s time to give defensive-minded disciplinarian the job
I, for one, have seen just about enough.
An 8-4 record. The worst loss in school history. Even a loss to
Illinois, for Pete’s sake.
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to do something about
this.
The time has come to give Steve Lavin a real contract.
Yes, you read me correctly: Interim coach Lavin should become
just plain Coach Lavin.
A couple of reasons stand out for offering Lavin the head
coaching position permanently. First, he has provided the Bruins
with two of the things they needed most after the Jim Harrick
years: a defensive tutor and a baby sitter.
It may not show yet, as UCLA is last in the conference in
scoring defense, but the Bruins are slowly learning the defensive
skills they should have learned years ago. Lavin was widely
regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the game during his
time as an assistant; that knack for D didn’t somehow disappear
with his hiring as interim coach. Just give the man time.
More importantly, Lavin has refused to let the inmates run the
asylum, a la Harrick. When J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson and Jelani
McCoy arrived late for a practice session last month, they didn’t
start against Cal State Northridge and Morgan State. When McCoy got
into a shouting match with Lavin last week, he didn’t start against
Cal.
Lavin’s position is clear: under his watch, talent will not be
more important than attitude. That is exactly the kind of thinking
this team needs.
Anyone who saw the Bruin’s December loss to Kansas had to come
away with the thought that we had been beaten by the cast of
"Hoosiers." While many of the Bruins looked like future lottery
picks, most of the Jayhawks looked like they might someday be
selling lottery tickets at the Lawrence Seven-Eleven. And those
guys start for the No. 1 team in the country.
Over the past two seasons, UCLA has had the most talented and
most athletic top six players of any team in the country for the
past two seasons, but has never even approached a realistic claim
as being the best team.
To put it bluntly, it’s sometimes a stretch to call them a team
at all.
Any Bruin backer knows this much. Those few fans who didn’t
predict a loss in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament
thought the team would lose in the second.
Maybe it’s because of the lower academic standards for athletes,
but the current UCLA squad has always included more than a few Is
in their spelling of "team."
The Bruins have been in dire need of a couple of swift kicks in
the ass, something Jim Harrick always seemed hesitant to do. With
his repeated benchings of several of the team’s stars, Lavin has
already proven that his leg swings freely.
However, there is another, more pragmatic reason for offering
Lavin a contract: recruiting.
This season’s early signing period proved what common sense told
us from the beginning  that blue chip recruits don’t want to
commit to an uncertain situation. The lack of a definite coach for
next season may have already cost UCLA prized local big men Chris
Burgess (to Duke), and twins Jason and Jarron Collins (Stanford).
Burgess, for one, had said that he would be interested in going
wherever point guard recruit Baron Davis went, but went his own way
after Davis failed to act on his oral commitment to UCLA. Davis
decided to wait on signing a letter of intent after Harrick’s
"resignation" threw the team’s coaching into question.
Davis has said he has faith in Lavin, and would definitely sign
if Lavin were named the permanent coach. Lavin’s hiring might not
have as dramatic an affect on other prospects, but having a
permanent coach, any coach, would help the recruiting effort by
removing a significant question mark.
With several blue-chippers still out there who had expressed
interest in UCLA, there is no time to waste.
So, come on, Pete Dalis. Sign the man up.
Rob Kariakin is a Daily Bruin columnist. His column appears
every Thursday.