Thursday, March 5, 1998
Men’s Basketball Briefs
He’s baaaack!
For his efforts last weekend, which included his second-half
performance at Washington, also known as the Toby Bailey Show, the
senior guard/forward earned Pac-10 Player of the Week Honors.
Bailey admitted to being mentally drained after the 84-81
Stanford loss on Feb. 12, during which he turned the ball over in
the waning seconds when UCLA (21-7 overall, 11-5 Pac-10) had a
chance to tie. However, in the second half of the UW game last
Sunday, Bailey stowed away any mental baggage left from the
Cardinal game.
Bailey scored a career-high 32 points in the 95-94 loss to the
Huskies, all of which were in the second half. Bailey was
instrumental in the 19th-ranked Bruins’ almost comeback.
After missing all three of his field goal attempts in the first
half, Bailey went on a tear in the second and made 13 of 17. He
also had three offensive rebounds, four assists and three steals in
his magical half.
His 32 points in one half ties the great Lew Alcindor’s (now,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) UCLA record for most points scored in a
half.
"Toby was in one of those zones – the Toby Bailey zone," UCLA
head coach Steve Lavin said. "He had it in the national
championship game, and he’s had it at points, but this was a
sustained 20 minutes where he was at a whole other level. What I
said during that half was that, ‘Bailey is back.’"
And the All-District nomination goes to …
Though there are still two games left in the season and a whole
lot of madness in March to go, two year-end awards have already
been announced.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches and General
Motors have named their Division I All-District Teams. UCLA had two
players designated on the District 15 First Team with seniors J. R.
Henderson and Toby Bailey given the nods. Meanwhile, two other
Bruin players, senior Kris Johnson and freshman Baron Davis, were
named to the second team.
Davis was also honored by Basketball Times. He was listed as a
member of the All-Freshman first team. Joining the Bruin on the
rookie squad were Khalid El-Amin of Connecticut, Wake Forest’s
Robert O’Kelley, St. Louis Billiken Larry Hughes and Iowa State’s
Marcus Fizer.
The finalists were announced on Tuesday for the John R. Wooden
Player of the Year Award and Henderson remains on the list, along
with front runners Antawn Jamison of North Carolina and Kansas’
Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz.
All I need to know I learned in Seattle
UCLA may have returned home from Seattle with an L, but that’s
not all the team brought home with them.
"I think that the second half against Washington is a great
reference point for us," Lavin said. "Coming back from 18 down to
that one point lead with two seconds to play against a quality
opponent on the road, there are just so many things that you can
draw from that."
"On a more practical standpoint, Rico (Hines), Travis (Reed) and
Billy (Knight), now with a game and an experience like that, that’s
building their confidence for the next game," Lavin continued. It
also makes our team realize that they can be successful without
Jelani and they can find a way to compete with an on-the-road,
quality opponent without Jelani to neutralize or offset our lack of
size or strength underneath the basket or the depthness issue,
Lavin added.
Notes compiled by Emmanuelle Ejercito, Daily Bruin Goddess.