Are Pac-10 teams still afraid of 5-16 UCLA the second time they
play the Bruins?
Well, is a horror movie still scary the second time around?
It’s all a matter of perspective, perhaps. The Bruins seem
to think they’re every bit as frightening now ““ 10
straight conference losses and all ““ as they were in the
first half of the Pac-10 season.
“The thing is, everyone in the Pac-10 knows how talented
we are,” junior Jon Crispin said. “We could break this
streak at any time.”
And yes, with some selective memory loss, even
“Scream” or “Psycho” ““ plots even
more played out than this UCLA basketball season ““ can manage
to curdle the blood and raise the arm hair.
And so the Bruins go on with the show tonight at Pauley Pavilion
against No. 18 California (18-4, 11-2 Pac-10) looking to pull into
eighth place in the conference standings and more importantly, give
their confidence a needed boost.
They’ll have to do it without point guard Cedric Bozeman,
who aggravated a shoulder injury in Saturday’s blowout loss
to Arizona State and will not play tonight.
Bozeman is listed as day-to-day.
“Obviously, after such a tough stretch, there are going to
be some breaking points where you’re deflated,” UCLA
head coach Steve Lavin said. “But you’ve got to pick
yourself back up again.”
The Bruins seemed to be all but broken when they played Cal and
Stanford a month ago. Back-to-back-to-back double-digit home losses
left them with a four-game losing streak heading into their trip to
the Bay Area.
But they lost four of their next five games by five or fewer
points and appeared to be building some confidence. That is, until
last weekend’s debacle in the desert, where they were pounded
by Arizona and Arizona State.
“We don’t want every team in the conference to sweep
us,” sophomore Andre Patterson said.
Cal and No. 21 Stanford (19-6, 10-3 Pac-10), who the Bruins will
face Saturday, come to Westwood living and breathing, in contrast
to the underachieving Bruins. While UCLA (currently in ninth) was
picked to finish third in the Pac-10, Cal was projected fifth and
Stanford seventh. As of today, Cal is in second, Stanford in
third.
“They’re both teams that don’t beat
themselves,” Lavin said. “They both take care of the
ball. They’re deliberate and methodical and manage to wear
teams out.”
Usually when the end of February rolls around, UCLA is
accustomed to playing for NCAA tournament seeding and trying to
avoid so-called “bad losses” ““ games that
legitimate tournament teams just shouldn’t lose.
Now they’re facing the reality of just hoping to be one of
those bad losses.
“That’s not UCLA,” Crispin said. “You
don’t come here to be a spoiler.”