UCLA’s Bubble to Burst? : Pacific 10: Other coaches say Bruins need a good showing to reach NCAA tournament, but Harrick disagrees.

UCLA’s hopes of securing an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament could be greatly affected today when the Bruins play Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament at Arizona State’s University Activity Center.

A loss would send the Bruins home with an 18-10 record--and possibly without a bid.

“They need to come through the first round and maybe even the second round,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said of the Bruins, who ended the regular season by losing six of 10 games. “They’re definitely a team that’s on the bubble.”

UCLA finished fourth in the Pac-10, dropping six of its last nine conference games after ending the first half of the conference race tied for the lead.

The Bruins defeated both Arizona and Oregon State, the Pac-10 co-champions, in January at Pauley Pavilion but lost to those teams last month on the road. They beat California at Berkeley in January--their only victory on the road against a winning team--but lost to the Golden Bears last month in Westwood.

In fact, since Jan. 24, when they beat Oregon State, 94-80, the Bruins have beaten only one winning team--DePaul, which is 17-14. And in the second half of the conference race, UCLA beat only Arizona State, Washington and Washington State, which were seeded eighth, ninth and 10th in the Pac-10 tournament.

Their five-game losing streak last month was their longest in 42 years, and they lost at Pauley Pavilion for the first time to both Stanford and Cal.

They were 4-6 against the top six teams in the Pac-10.

“UCLA could be in jeopardy,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “I hate to say that because I think they deserve to go, but they’re such a visible program--everybody watches them so closely, with their national TV games and so forth--that some of their recent struggles might hurt them.

“They’re going to need to show some improvement--maybe get to the final (this weekend). They would have to beat Oregon State (in the semifinals) and make a good showing against Arizona (in the final). They lost five straight games. They won their last two, but against the (bottom two) teams in our conference--and they did not dominate them.”

UCLA defeated Washington State, 96-89, and Washington, 74-61, in its last two games.

Two weeks ago, the Bruins lost to Oregon, 105-99, at Eugene, Ore., giving up more points than they had ever allowed a conference opponent in regulation time.

Sophomore guard Terrell Brandon scored a season-high 31 points, junior guard Kevin Mixon scored a season-high 25 points and forward Keith Reynolds scored 24 points for the Ducks, who made a season-high 65% of their shots.

“We were in their face a lot of times,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said afterward, “but they just shot the ball awfully well.”

When Harrick’s comment was relayed to a Bruin player, however, the player laughed, indicating that UCLA’s effort was less than total.

Coach Don Monson of Oregon expects to see a more intense Bruin team today at the 1 p.m. (PST) tip-off.

“They know pretty much that they can’t get beat by Oregon and still go to the NCAAs,” said Monson, whose Ducks are 15-12 and hoping to land a bid to the National Invitation Tournament. “They will be focused and coming at us with both barrels.”

Actually, the Bruins believe that when the pairings for the NCAA tournament are announced Sunday at 3:30 p.m., PST, their name will be called, regardless of what happens this weekend.

“I think 18-10 would be good enough to get us in,” Harrick said. “We’re the only team in our conference that beat Arizona and Oregon State. Every team we lost to, except USC, will play in a postseason tournament.”

UCLA defeated one team that has already earned a berth in the NCAA tournament--East Tennessee State--and beat three others that are expected to land bids--Arizona, Oregon State and Cal.

Also, Harrick said, the selection committee will take into account that UCLA’s nose-dive last month coincided with forward Trevor Wilson’s wrist injury, which seems to have healed.

“Maybe the reason we lost some games we shouldn’t have is because we had a guy hurt and he’s back playing now,” Harrick said.

Actually, Wilson didn’t miss any games. But after averaging 19.1 points and 9.1 rebounds in UCLA’s first 17 games, he has averaged 13.2 points and 8.7 rebounds since spraining his right wrist against USC on Feb. 1, and has made only 21 of 60 free throws.

In UCLA’s past three games, however, Wilson has taken 38 rebounds. “With the way my wrist is now,” Wilson said, “I can play pretty much the same kind of basketball I played earlier. It’s just a matter of getting back into the flow of things.”

The pain, he said, is limited.

Not limited are the Bruins’ chances of making the NCAA tournament, Wilson said.

“I don’t feel any pressure whatsoever,” said Wilson when asked if today’s game represented a do-or-die situation for the Bruins. “I feel very confident that we’ll win. And with the talent we have, and if we play right, we should win the whole thing.”

If they did that, of course, they would take the decision out of the hands of the selection committee.

The Bruins would earn the automatic berth that goes to the Pac-10 tournament champion.