Thursday, January 29, 1998
Stalwart Bruins stand by their man
M.BBALL: McCoy expected to contribute play against WSU today
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
As rumors continue to circulate about embattled center Jelani
McCoy, the No. 8 UCLA men’s basketball team will seek refuge
tonight in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins face off against Washington
State at 7:30 p.m., and despite rumors to the contrary, McCoy is
expected to see action.
"I’m sure Jelani will bounce back," UCLA head coach Steve Lavin
said. "Against Stanford, he played really well and played the
entire game. (Against Louisville) he didn’t play as well."
The subject of questions regarding his status with the team for
the past week, McCoy will maintain his space in the rotation.
Against the Cougars, he will have his first opportunity to rebound
from a horrendous outing against Louisville last Sunday, in which
he scored only two points in 14 minutes, spending much of the
second half on the bench.
"My job, my obligation to my teammates is to go out and perform
way better than I did last time," McCoy said. "If you have a bad
game, you’ve got to bounce back, you’ve got to play 100 times
harder and play 100 times better than you did the last game."
While questions regarding the status of a team member could
prove fractious, if not lethal, to another team, UCLA (14-3, 5-2
Pac-10), which has been involved in more than its share of scandal
recently, finds itself unfazed by a position that has become all
too familiar.
"This has not been a difficult week, in terms of preparing our
team," Lavin said. "No more this week than other weeks. There’s
been more difficult weeks. This team’s better prepared to cope with
distractions that are being played out in the press."
The Cougars (8-10, 1-6 Pac-10) have been faced with personnel
issues of their own, the most significant being the loss of senior
guard Rodrigo de la Fuente to a professional team in his native
Spain. De la Fuente was leading the team in scoring when he made
the jump to FC Barcelona on Jan. 4.
With the loss of de la Fuente, the scoring load has fallen on
senior forward Carlos Daniel. Daniel, who stands in at
6-feet-7-inches, leads the team in scoring with 16.9 points per
game and rebounding with 9.9 per game.