By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
It is one of CBS’s favorite video clips to run during
their NCAA tournament coverage.
With just seconds left in the game, Princeton is shown draining
the clock at midcourt. Then UCLA forward Charles O’Bannon
bites on a stutter-step fake by Tiger forward Gabe Lewullis.
Princeton guard Steve Goodrich passes the ball to the cutting
Lewullis for a textbook backdoor play to bounce the defending
national champions from the 1996 tournament.
Several pundits across the nation, such as the New York Times,
are predicting another such upset when fourth-seeded UCLA takes on
13th-seeded Hofstra in a first round NCAA Tournament game this
afternoon. The upset is definitely a possibility for a program that
has suffered more than its share of first round losses.
In addition to Princeton, there’s Tulsa in 1994, Penn
State in 1991 and most recently, Detroit Mercy in 1999.
“You learn around here you can’t look past
anybody,” UCLA guard Jason Flowers said.
Bruin shooting guard Billy Knight said his team was doing just
that two years ago when they overlooked little-known Detroit
Mercy.
Senior Rashard Phillips and the rest of his senior-laden team
made the Bruins pay by showing UCLA the door. In one of the 1999
NCAA tournament’s biggest upsets, Detroit Mercy stunned UCLA
56-53 in the first round.
“I remember seeing them warm up and Detroit Mercy was
ready,” Knight said. “In their warm-ups, they were real
focused. Our team was lackadaisical in the layup line.”
“I could sort of tell from the start,” he added.
“If I see that now before the game, I’ll tell everyone
to get more focused.”
The ingredients for another first round upset are there. Like
Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra is a senior-dominated team,
with seven seniors.
Spearheaded by senior forward Norman Richardson, who averages 17
points a game, Hofstra is widely regarded as the strongest No. 13
seed in the tournament. The Hofstra Pride is America’s
hottest team, winning 18 straight games, albeit against mostly
inferior competition.
Like Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra has been to the
tournament before. Last season Hofstra was seeded 14th and lost to
Oklahoma State, 86-66, in the first round. Because of that
experience, they aren’t in awe of playing in the
tournament.
They are well past the
“I’m-just-glad-to-be-here” attitude.
“Last year we were so excited (to get into the
tournament), we were running on adrenaline the whole time,”
Hofstra guard Jason Hernandez said. “This year we’re
more composed.”
Like Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra can play a slow-paced
game, the same type of game that opponents have shown is the recipe
to upsetting UCLA in the first round.
Although they also like to run, the Pride played slowdown games
against Rutgers (a 58-52 win), Manhattan College (a 57-43 win) and
Delaware (a 68-55 win).
Because UCLA has played in a number of “grinders”
this season, Head Coach Steve Lavin isn’t concerned if
Hofstra wants to play a zone defense and put a premium on
shots.
“The majority of our games have been played at a grinding,
screeching halt,” he said. “A lot of our opponents try
to play us that way.”
So could UCLA, who has proven during the season that it has the
horses to make a deep run in the tournament, lose again in the
first round?
“There’s not going to be a Detroit Mercy first round
knockout,” Watson said with conviction after his team’s
96-94 loss to Washington last weekend. “Because I’m
going to do whatever it takes to win. Whatever it is, I’m
going to do it.”
“It’s my last year. I’m going to try my
hardest to pull this together on the court and off the court. If I
have to pull someone to the side, I’m going to do it,”
Watson added.
Maybe UCLA’s first round loss came a week early. Possibly
Saturday’s embarrassing defeat to 20-loss Washington in the
team’s final game of the regular season was the kind of
defeat that will force the team to focus on its first round
opponent. Their coach sure hopes so.
“The loss Saturday got rid of any false sense of
security,” Lavin said. “A stinger like this for a group
of kids like ours should eliminate that from happening
again.”
There is one significant difference from the current Bruin squad
and those UCLA teams that were upset in the first round. Now, the
2000-2001 Bruins are a veteran team.
UCLA has nine juniors and seniors on the team, four of whom are
in the starting lineup. These upperclassmen have played in a number
of tournament games and understand they can’t afford to take
any team lightly.
“Sitting at home, you wonder how things like (losing to
Detroit Mercy) can happen and it’s because you look past your
first round opponent,” Flowers said. “That won’t
happen with this team. We have seniors like myself and a lot of
older guys. We’ll definitely be ready.”