NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Being Defensive Can Take UCLA a Little Further

UCLA, once the most feared name in college basketball, has assumed the role of underdogs in its most successful NCAA tournament appearance in 10 years.

In the Bruins’ minds, nobody gave them a chance to beat Kansas in a second-round game last Sunday, and nobody gives them a chance to beat Duke tonight in an East Regional semifinal at the Meadowlands.

But apparently that’s not so.

“I think we have to play really well to have a chance to win,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They’re a really good team.”

And improving, perhaps, because of their perceptions.

“I think a coach, in trying to get his team ready, uses different psychological things to get his team pumped up,” Krzyzewski said. “And right now, if the underdog role is one they identify with--and they’re all in focus together--then it’s a good one for them.

“They’re playing at their best and they’re most confident. They feel so good about what they’ve accomplished that they may be on a little bit of a mission to regain the notoriety that UCLA has had in the past.”

It’s a mission that has yielded victories over Alabama Birmingham and Kansas, lifting the Bruins into a regional semifinal for the first time since 1980, when they reached the tournament final where they lost to Louisville.

The Blue Devils, certainly, are not taking UCLA lightly.

“They’ve got really good athletes, they’ve got good penetrators, they’ve got good three-point shooters,” forward Robert Brickey said of the Bruins. “They can fill it up from a number of positions.”

That was never questioned, but in recent weeks the Bruins have also shown that, when motivated, their talent is not limited to scoring. Their image as a group of gunners has been altered.

On the East Coast, they’re perceived as defensive dynamos.

“They have a young squad and they’re finding themselves at a different level,” Krzyzewski said. “Their man-to-man defense against Kansas was excellent. And when they went to a zone, with their athletic ability, they were able to cover a lot of space.”

Duke (26-8) presents a bigger challenge to the Bruins.

Literally.

UCLA (22-10) has had difficulty playing defense under the basket this season, and Duke’s starters include 6-foot-10 Alaa Abdelnaby, a senior center, and 6-11 Christian Laettner, a sophomore forward.

Abdelnaby, who was born in Egypt but grew up less than 10 miles from the Meadowlands in Bloomfield, N.J., averages 14.6 points and 6.4 rebounds a game and has made 61.7% of his shots. Against Richmond and St. John’s last weekend, he scored 39 points and took down 19 rebounds, making 15 of 22 shots.

Laettner made only one of 11 shots and scored 13 points last weekend, but he averages 15.8 points and 9.5 rebounds.

“He didn’t shoot well,” Krzyzewski said. “But a player the caliber of Christian has an influence on the game in every aspect--rebounding, passing, defense.”

As for tonight, Krzyzewski said: “You’ve got to go into a game expecting your good players to play well, and I do with Christian.”

UCLA Coach Jim Harrick expects the same of Don MacLean, who averages 19.8 points a game to lead the Bruins, but has made only 14 of 45 shots in his last four games, including six of 22 last weekend.

“There’s nothing wrong,” MacLean said. “I feel great. There’s no problem. They’re just not going in.”

MacLean’s struggles have gone largely unnoticed because of the Bruins’ defense and the return to form of Trevor Wilson, whose sprained right wrist, seen as the cause of UCLA’s tailspin last month, has healed.

“It looked to me like UCLA was fresher and stronger than Kansas,” Krzyzewski said. “And Wilson was the freshest and the strongest player on the court. His teammates seemed to get energy from him.”

Media slights energized the energizer, Wilson said.

“We’ve got a lot of pride on this team,” he said. “A team can only take so much before it steps up to the challenge.”

Another awaits in Duke.

Bruin Notes

Duke is 9-1 at the Meadowlands and, in advancing to the Final Four three times in the last four years, did so by winning the East Regional at the Meadowlands. “They can’t win every game there,” said UCLA Coach Jim Harrick. . . . In three games at the Meadowlands, Duke’s Christian Laettner has scored 46 points, taken 30 rebounds and made 17 of 20 shots.