PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan
Gadzuric and the Bruins will face the Rainbow Warriors of
Hawaii Saturday in a non-conference game in Pauley Pavilion.
MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Saturday Pauley Pavillion
5:30 p.m. Fox Sports West XTRA 1150 AM
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There is definitely a big pot of gold that awaits the UCLA
men’s basketball team at the end of the rainbow.
The Bruins (2-3) head into Saturday’s non-conference
showdown with the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii (1-2) at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday in Pauley Pavilion, not exactly where they thought they
would be one month ago. But optimism is still the talk in Westwood,
even after a loss to Georgia Tech Saturday at the Wooden
Classic.
The Bruins have been in this predicament before.
“(This is) similar to the start we had in 1997,”
UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said, recalling his first season at the
helm. “We had six juniors and seniors. We never really got
away from the emphasis on fundamentals and repetition in practice.
That is the only way you improve.”
When Lavin took over for the dismissed Jim Harrick, he inherited
a core of players who were two years removed from a national
championship.
With Bruin veterans Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson, Charles
O’Bannon and Cameron Dollar, UCLA started the season going
3-3. That team, however, reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA
Tournament four months later.
Four years later, Lavin has nine upperclassman who have been to
the Sweet Sixteen twice before. They, too, have a core of
all-conference performers. But a more embattled Lavin understands
the root of the problem and says that practice will eventually make
perfect.
“We have to break down our defensive fundamentals every
day in practice,” said Lavin. “As a team, we are never
really satisfied. That’s definitely the area we need to work
on most.
“The things we are talking about are correctable
errors.”
The numbers don’t lie about UCLA’s exposed weakness.
The Bruins are giving up 83.6 points per contest, which at their
current pace, would be their worst season total since they began
recording statistics in 1948.
Teams are shooting 46 percent from the field and 38 percent from
behind the three-point line. In every game, win or lose, the
opposing school has seen one of their top scorers have a career
night against the Bruins.
Against Kansas, it was recent Big 12 Player of the Week Kenny
Gregory who dropped 24 points for one of his season highs.
Kentucky’s Keith Bogans had a career-high 25, as did CS
Northridge’s Jeff Parris. UC Santa Barbara guard Mark Hull
had a career-best 23 points against the Bruins last week and
Georgia Tech’s Tony Akins had a season-high 28 points on
Saturday.
And while a thin frontline plagued by injuries can explain a
horrific 1:1 (39.4-39.4) rebounding ratio, UCLA’s struggles
on the defensive end of the floor come center stage when the
offense sputters.
“We have to stop particular individuals from having a big
night,” Lavin said. “That puts increased pressure in
our half court offense to put up enough points.
“On nights where we struggle offensively, we have rough
games.”
In what will be the Bruins’ first-ever meeting with
Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors are led by 6-foot-10 senior forward
Troy Ostler, their leading scorer and rebounder with 18.0 and 7.7
averages.
Head coach Riley Wallace’s squad should contend for a
Western Athletic Conference title following a 17-12 overall record
last season, but face a tough task with their first road test of
the season.
For UCLA, the early season message is clear: improve before the
start of conference schedule.
“The answer to all of our problems results from keeping
poise,” said Lavin. “Basketball is a simple game. When
we figure out that we can play the game more efficiently, we will
give ourselves a better chance to win.”