EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore forward
T.J. Cummings goes up for a reverse layup against
Arizona earlier this season.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Something’s wrong, but no one can put their finger on what
it definitely is.
The UCLA men’s basketball team is 17-8 overall and 9-5 in
the Pacific 10 conference and almost certainly NCAA
Tournament-bound. The Bruins are ranked 25th in the country and
have beaten some good teams along the way, including Kansas,
Alabama and Arizona.
Yet, there is a sense of confusion among the UCLA squad as it
prepares to face Cal (18-6, 9-5 Pac-10) in Berkeley’s Haas
Pavilion tonight.
When the Bruins win, they win ugly and hardly ever convincingly.
When they lose, their vanquisher is often some inferior opponent
that really has no right being on the court with them at the same
time.
UCLA, contrary to what its record or big-name studded roster
card might suggest, is a mediocre basketball team at best.
Why?
It’s the simple ““ but apparently quite complicated
““ question the Bruins have been trying to answer all season,
the question they have pondered at greater length since their
humiliating loss to the ever-pathetic Sun Devils of Arizona State
last Saturday.
“I don’t know,” said senior Rico Hines when
asked what was wrong with the team. “I wish I could tell
you.”
Many of the Bruins, however, are convinced they have an answer.
Effort, not lack of talent, is to blame for their poor play, they
say. They’ve been claiming that’s been their problem
all year, which makes an observer question the accuracy of the
statement since they are now four months into the season. Such
problems should be fixed by this time of year.
But the Bruins have rationalized that that indeed is the cause
of their struggles. They believe, still, that they do have the
talent to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s just been a lack of effort on our
part,” senior guard Billy Knight said. “We just
don’t play hard. We just have to pick it up. It’s all
in our head.”
“We have a tough time playing up to our talent
level,” junior forward Jason Kapono said. “We’re
so lax as a team. We’re too cool.”
So, it seems, UCLA has its inquiry figured out. All it has to do
is exert enough effort to put its theory to the test tonight in
Berkeley, where it will face an overrated Cal squad, whose record
is more indicative of its deliberately soft schedule than its
ability.
After that, the Bruins will go to Palo Alto on Saturday for
phase two of the experiment to face the tough but beatable No. 10
Stanford Cardinal (17-6, 10-4).
Considering its present predicament, UCLA couldn’t ask for
a better opponent than the one it faces tonight.
If UCLA plays hard, there’s no reason it can’t beat
Cal.
Cal has some height on its frontline ““ both freshman Jamal
Sampson and senior Solomon Hughes are listed at 6-foot-11 ““
but is painfully slow in transition and has trouble making any
shots that aren’t from directly under the basket. The Bruins
won the first meeting between the two teams this season, wiping out
the Bears 64-57 in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 26.
But if the Bruins come out lackadaisically, as they have in some
of their recent games, they can possibly lose. Cal, whatever their
weaknesses may be, has upset Stanford, Arizona and Oregon.
Bruin junior forward Matt Barnes said to not count on it.
“We’ve been a soft team all season,” he said.
“But you’ll definitely see a new team at Cal on
Thursday. I guarantee that.”