NEW YORK ““ With 0.8 seconds left in Friday’s game,
UCLA’s Jordan Farmar airballed a free throw that would have
given his team the lead, but he couldn’t help but smile.
Neither could his teammates, who tried unsuccessfully to keep
straight faces on the bench.
“I didn’t think it could ever happen to me,”
said Farmar, an 80 percent career free-throw shooter. “But
fortunately I had another one coming.”
The second free throw rattled in, giving the Bruins a
hard-fought 57-56 victory over Drexel in the consolation game of
the NIT Season Tip-Off and an even better reason to smile.
The win ensured that UCLA, who lost 88-80 to Memphis on
Wednesday, wouldn’t be the only team to leave the tournament
at Madison Square Garden without a victory. That dubious
distinction instead belonged to the Dragons.
“We were very fortunate to get this win,” UCLA coach
Ben Howland said. “Our guys showed a lot of toughness down
late in the game to be able to hang in there and make a couple of
key plays.”
Trailing 56-51 with nearly four minutes remaining, UCLA (4-1)
clamped down on defense, not allowing Drexel (3-3) to score
again.
And even on a night when the Bruin offense was as frigid as the
temperature outside, UCLA found a way to score in the game’s
final minute, albeit with a little help from its opponent.
With 6.8 seconds left and the Bruins down by two, sophomore
Arron Afflalo was fouled on a long 3-point attempt. He made two of
his three free throws to tie the game.
Then, after the Dragons turned the ball over on the ensuing
inbounds pass, Farmar was slapped across the arm on a jumpshot with
0.8 seconds remaining. He airballed his first free throw, but found
the rim ““ twice, in fact ““ with his second before the
ball dropped through the net.
“Both of those plays were fouls, bad fouls,” Howland
said.
But even though the Bruins will be flying back to Los Angeles on
the heels of a victory, their postgame reaction was particularly
subdued considering their dramatic win.
Their on-court smiles weren’t to be found in the locker
room, and there were no celebratory speeches for a third-place
finish.
UCLA came to the NIT Season Tip-Off hoping to measure itself
against some of the country’s best teams: No. 1 Duke and No.
11 Memphis. The Bruins left New York knowing they have a lot of
catch-up work to do.
“We have plenty of weaknesses,” said Afflalo, who
had a game-high 18 points Friday. “It makes us realize how
much we have to work on.”
The Bruins are still missing potential front court starters Josh
Shipp and Alfred Aboya. Shipp, UCLA’s leading returning
rebounder, is expected to be back near the start of the Pac-10
season on Dec. 29, while the 6-foot-8 Aboya expects to start
playing sometime in the next two weeks.
Without them, UCLA’s interior offense this past weekend
was virtually non-existent. Bruin centers Ryan Hollins and Michael
Fey didn’t score and pulled down only three rebounds in a
combined 19 minutes.
The rest of the offense struggled behind them, as UCLA shot only
36 percent in the second half against Drexel, a team picked to
finish seventh in the Colonial Athletic Association.
“These last two games were a reflection of how much
we’ve missed being healthy,” Howland said.
“It’s really retarded our growth. I thought we were
really inept as a team on offense.”
Even Farmar, who poured in 23 points in the second half alone
against Memphis in the semifinals Wednesday, struggled against the
Dragons, making only one of 10 shots for a season-low six
points.
“It had to be a lot more team-oriented, and we
weren’t good at that,” said Farmar, who finished with a
game-high eight assists. “We haven’t practiced together
too much and it’s been tough to go from one unit to another
all the time without knowing your rotation and knowing your
role.
“It’s kind of hard to find a comfort level as a team
right now and know what you’re supposed to do.”
But the Bruins are still 4-1, matching last year’s fast
start, and unlike their trip to New York in 2004, this time they
left with a victory.
And for the Bruins, that’s something worth smiling
about.