Thursday, March 12, 1998
All for one
FAREWELL: Bruin trio has survived through seasons of
problems
By Emmanuelle Ejercito
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Four years ago, Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson
were ready to embark on storied careers. But little did they know
that the story would read like a soap opera.
The 1998 NCAA Tournament will be the final chapter for the three
seniors who have experienced the highest of the highs and the
lowest of the lows.
"At times it seems like it has been longer than four years,"
Henderson said. "We’ve been through so many coaches and so many
problems, it feels like it has lasted forever."
Well not quite forever, but it has been an eventful four
years.
Magical – perhaps that is the only way to describe their
freshman year. The Bruins won the Pac-10 and were ranked number one
at the end of the regular season.
The dream year culminated with UCLA defeating Arkansas, 89-78,
for the national title.
But all the success created an illusion – an illusion that would
set them up for disappointment their sophomore year.
"You know it was so easy to get to the finals that year, it just
seemed like everything was going our way," Bailey said. "I don’t
think I realized how difficult it actually is to get to the finals
and I didn’t realize how perfect that year was."
Said Henderson: "We just felt that that was just how it was at
UCLA, you know, we just automatically go to the Final Four every
year and win the Pac-10 every year and that’s how it was. We just
found out that we had great leadership that year – Ed (O’Bannon),
Tyus (Edney) and George (Zidek), that’s what it took to get
there."
And that’s what they were missing in the 1995-1996 season as the
roster was dominated by juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
UCLA had the talent and the athleticism and were expected to
repeat the previous year’s successes. But in its first game since
the championships, the preseason No. 4 Bruins lost to unranked
Santa Clara at the Maui Invitational.
However, despite the rough start to its season, UCLA ended the
year as repeat Pac-10 champs, ranked in the top 15 and earned a
Midwest fourth seed in the tournament. In the first round, UCLA
faced the seemingly innocuous 13th-seed Princeton. But the Tigers
would surprise the Bruins and win, 43-41, on a back-door play.
"The fact that we won the championship the first year and to
come back and lose in the first round," Henderson said, "It just
feels like the lowest you can possibly go."
The next season, UCLA was ready to redeem itself from the loss.
But off-the-court drama would test the resolve of the team.
Two weeks before the season began, UCLA dismissed head coach Jim
Harrick for recruiting violations and lying on an expense report.
The trauma of losing their head coach revealed itself on the
court.
Despite the fact that the Bruins were a team of returning
talent, they struggled early in the season. However, UCLA would
persevere through the loss of its head coach and through some
humiliating defeats like its 48-point loss to Stanford. The Bruins
would jell at the end of the year and put together a 12-game
winning streak that would take them all the way to the Elite
Eight.
Yet if there were to be a silver lining to the three-year roller
coaster ride, it is this: Their experiences provided the trio with
a solid foundation to become the senior leaders needed by the six
Bruin freshman to deal with a season with more cast changes and
plot twists than an episode of Melrose Place.
"You don’t just become a leader overnight and they’ve been
groomed to take over this role for three years," said former Bruin
Charles O’Bannon, who knows about providing senior leadership
during tumultuous times. "Their turn finally came and I think that
they handled it well."
Before the summer, things boded well for the Bruins who had four
talented returning players and a highly regarded recruiting class.
It seemed as if the seniors would end their careers the way they
began it – taking part in the Final Four.
But in the span of a week things began to crumble. Star recruit
Schea Cotton’s SAT scores were invalidated by the NCAA, making him
ineligible to play. Then four days later UCLA suspended Johnson and
Jelani McCoy. The result of the early drama – a 41-point season
opening loss to North Carolina.
The year would be marked with constant roster alterations – the
reinstatement of the suspended players and then the resignation of
McCoy. Stability became a foreign word.
"My whole career has always been like that here," Henderson
said, "just a lot of changes, a lot of things to deal with. You
kind of get immune to it, like nothing else could happen to
us."
Regardless of the happenings outside the hardwood, the three
seniors have helped the team compile a 22-8 record, finish third in
the conference behind two top 10 teams and earn a sixth seed in
their fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
"They’ve been kind of the pillars of strength for our program
during the last two years during a very difficult time," UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said. "When you look at all the peaks and valleys
that we’ve had over the last two seasons, the one consistent thing
that we’ve had is their performance."
By the end of the conference season, it was obvious that the
seniors were the go-to-guys, just as Charles O’Bannon and Cameron
Dollar were last year and Ed O’Bannon, Edney and Zidek were in the
1995 season.
Johnson has been the clutch shooter for the Bruins, while Bailey
showed that he could take matters into his own hands in the
overtime victory against USC on Feb. 18 and in his 32-point
second-half performance versus Washington on Mar. 1. And Henderson,
well, when he watched most of the game from the bench in foul
trouble against Duke, the Blue Devils defeated the Bruins by 36
points. A coincidence? Not likely.
"That is our role as the three seniors," Johnson said. "That is
our responsibility, to carry the team. We want all the pressure, we
want all the challenges."
The threesome don’t limit their leadership to the court.
Off-the-court, they also provide inspiration for the younger
Bruins.
"People say that we don’t have great leaders, but I think that
they are wrong," freshman Rico Hines said. "I think that Toby, Kris
and J.R. are great leaders and great guys."
Each senior brings a different style of leadership to the
team.
"I think Toby is more of a quiet leader as far as just through
his work ethic in practice," freshman Baron Davis said. "Kris is
the more vocal leader, you know just really gets us fired up. And
J.R., I think he’s just the overall leader, the guy who, when he
speaks, everyone listens."
As their time as Bruins wind down to mere minutes, the last
vestige of the championship squad hopes to give to the six freshman
what they received during their own freshman campaign – a trip to
the Final Four.
And when the last second ticks off the clock the Bruin trinity
will leave their mark as a class without peers.
"I don’t think any senior class has been through what we’ve been
through as far as ups and downs and growing up in the public eye,"
Johnson said. "I think that the freshman see it on our faces, I
mean we’ve been through a lot – turmoil and jubilation, everything.
Any emotion that you can describe we’ve been through here at
UCLA.
"I’m sure that when we leave here there won’t be another class
like us."UCLA’s senior class hopes to finish out their career with
a trip to the Final Four. (Left to right) Kris Johnson, head coach
Steve Lavin, Toby Bailey (kneeling) and J.R. Henderson.