Finally, the Bruins can get away from a frustrating, hostile
environment where they can’t seem to win.
At last, UCLA can escape the booing, leave the angry fans, and
go to a place that feels like home. Somewhere like”¦
Maples Pavilion?
Yep, the tiny, sweaty, Sixth Man-chanting, court-springing gym
that has been a house of horrors for the rest of the Pac-10 has for
UCLA (4-9, 2-3 Pac-10) become a second home over the last three
years.
The Bruins are 3-0 against Stanford (12-5, 3-2) at Maples dating
back to a titanic 94-93 overtime upset win over the then-No. 1
Cardinal in 2000. Whether it’s the sarcastic barbs lobbed by
Stanford students or the intimate 7,391-seat environment, the
Bruins have gotten it done time and again where other teams have
failed, sometimes miserably.
“For some reason, we play better when everyone is against
us,” senior Ray Young said. “We like hostile
environments.”
UCLA’s gotten a heavy dose of hostility this season, for
sure, but most of it has come from a Pauley Pavilion crowd that
grows more disillusioned with every record-setting loss. A paltry
2-7 home record has earned the Bruins constant boos from the
rafters of a place once impenetrable.
And perhaps that is precisely why the UCLA players seemed so
excited to jet up to the Bay Area and take on people who are mad at
them simply because they come from UCLA.
“The boos at home are out of frustration,” sophomore
Andre Patterson said. “On the road, they just hate
us.”
And Maples might be one place where even “hate” is
an understatement, especially given the Bruins’ penchant for
knocking Stanford from the top of the polls.
Last season, two days after UCLA’s Matt Barnes was ejected
from the Cal game for knocking down 5-foot-10-inch Bears point
guard Shantay Legans, the Sixth Man student section printed up
hundreds of fliers with mug shots that charged Barnes with the
crime of “assaulting a midget.”
“They called me HOMO-ono once,” senior Jason Kapono
said. “It’s a compliment when they take time out of
their busy schedules to get me like that.”
As for the game ““ Stanford actually does play basketball
in between its creative student-section insults ““ UCLA will
have to minimize what should be a heavy rebounding disadvantage.
The Cardinal has pulled down more boards than the opposition in 15
of its 17 games, by a margin of 8.3 per contest.
The balance of the game might come down to which team can handle
and distribute the ball. While UCLA has struggled to find a balance
between point guards Ryan Walcott and Cedric Bozeman, Stanford lost
starting point guard Chris Hernandez for the season when he broke a
bone in his left foot in December.
“Our problems have been chronicled,” Stanford head
coach Mike Montgomery said. “People are hurt, and we’ve
got only nine scholarship players. We’ve got to fight for
everything.”
Though the game comes amid a downswing for both programs, expect
an emotional rivalry ““ one built on bitterness, but also
respect.
Two weeks ago, when UCLA head coach Steve Lavin went through a
period where it was rumored he had mulled over resignation, two
coaches called him to wish him the best of luck with the entire
escapade. One was Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.
The other one would seem at least a little bit surprising, given
their well-documented love-hate relationship.
It was Montgomery.
“He’s done a masterful job,” said Lavin of the
Stanford boss. “He’s got to be a leading candidate for
Pac-10 Coach of the Year.”