ANALYSIS : Bruins Defensive at Wrong Times

Jim Harrick spoke a simple truth about college basketball last week when, addressing his team’s disappointing record in the Pacific 10 Conference race, the UCLA coach said: “What’s important is how you end the year.”

The implication was clear: In college basketball, the NCAA tournament is the thing.

Little else matters.

The tournament is what will be remembered when the Bruins and their fans look back on the season.

Who remembers that UCLA was fourth in the Pac-10 last season?

What’s remembered is that UCLA upset Kansas in the second round of the tournament as Tracy Murray made two free throws with nine seconds to play. The Bruins advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1980.

And next month, despite a pedestrian 6-6 record in conference play so far, the Bruins almost certainly will make their third tournament appearance in three seasons under Harrick.

They are 18-7, still ranked in the top 20 despite a 4-6 conference record in the last 5 1/2 weeks and positioned to make a strong finish.

Four of their last six games will be played at Pauley Pavilion, where they are 36-6 in the last 2 1/2 seasons, 11-2 this season. Two of their last three are against Washington, which is last in the Pac-10 and has lost six in a row.

So, what should be made of the Bruins’ recent stumbles?

Probably not much.

They have yet to be blown out in Pac-10 play, although Iowa torched them in the last six minutes of an 88-71 nonconference victory at Iowa City as the Bruins missed their last 11 shots. UCLA’s most lopsided conference loss was by seven points to Stanford.

Despite the rash of defeats, they haven’t lost faith.

In fact, the Bruins remain, as ever, supremely confident.

“They’re a talky group, and cocky,” California’s Sean Harrell told the San Francisco Chronicle last week before the Golden Bears defeated UCLA at Berkeley, 82-79. “You could beat them by 20 and they’re still cocky.”

The Bruins believe, probably correctly, that the only team out there that is clearly better is Nevada Las Vegas.

UCLA’s chances of reaching the Final Four are probably as good as those of 25 other teams.

On the other hand, it would be too easy to dismiss UCLA’s inability to win close games as a run of bad luck, as the Bruins themselves have done. UCLA has lost five conference games either in overtime or in the last minute.

“Coach (John) Wooden called and offered his four-leaf clover,” Harrick said last week.

He also said: “But for a bounce or a shot, we’d be four games better.”

Presumably, that figure is up to five after the loss at Cal.

Of course, this is the same man who said two months ago: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”

Luck has played a part, to be sure, but so have the Bruins:

--In their 97-96 double-overtime loss to Oregon State last month at Corvallis, Ore., the Bruins squandered an eight-point lead in the last nine minutes of regulation, then failed to make the plays that would have prevented the game from going into overtime.

After Darrick Martin made one of two free throws with five seconds left, increasing UCLA’s lead to two points instead of three, a streaking Teo Alibegovic took a length-of-the-court pass and scored on a layup for Oregon State, beating the buzzer to tie the game.

Then, after Charles McKinney made what proved to be the game-winning shot with seven seconds left in the second overtime, UCLA failed to call time, instead bringing the ball inbounds immediately and throwing a wild shot at the basket from about 65 feet out.

--In their 76-74 loss to USC at the Sports Arena, the Bruins lost a five-point lead in the last 5 1/2 minutes, missed two free throws in the last 1:49 and, instead of attempting a two-point shot on their last possession, tried a three.

Don MacLean, who had made one three-point shot all season, missed at the buzzer.

--In their 105-94 overtime loss to Arizona at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins lost after Chris Mills of Arizona had chased down a loose ball and made a baseline jumper at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

Sure, it was lucky, but if UCLA’s Mitchell Butler hadn’t missed a free throw with six seconds left, Arizona would have needed a three-point shot to tie.

--At Berkeley last week, UCLA overcame a 12-point second-half deficit, opened a seven-point lead with 10 1/2 minutes left, then was outscored by 10 the rest of the way.

The Bruins had four seconds to set up a last shot after Cal’s Billy Dreher had made two free throws to give the Bears an 82-79 lead, but after taking the inbounds pass on UCLA’s last possession, seldom-used Zan Mason threw up a shot from beyond half-court. It fell about 20 feet short with two seconds still to play.

“Tracy (Murray) was wide open, too,” Harrick said.

UCLA also could have beaten Arizona at Tucson last month. But Arizona scored six points in the last four seconds of an 82-77 win, the most crucial on a short jump-hook by center Sean Rooks with four seconds to play.

“It’s unusual for any team to have lost so many games in the last few seconds, as they have done,” Wooden said of the Bruins. “Perhaps they’ve been a little--not unlucky, but unfortunate.

“But maybe they’ve brought a lot of it on themselves. I don’t want to make it appear that they weren’t responsible for some of it.”

UCLA brings to the court a wonderful array of offensive talent. The explosive Bruins lead the Pac-10 in scoring.

But they’ve also allowed more points than any other Pac-10 team.

“Their weakness, all along, has been defense,” Wooden said. “Certain people, usually big men, have hurt them badly inside.”

Several big men have, indeed, had their way against the Bruins, whose starting lineup includes three guards and two forwards.

Iowa’s 6-foot-10 Acie Earl had 30 points and 12 rebounds against UCLA, Arizona’s 6-11 Brian Williams had 32 and 14, Stanford’s 6-9 Adam Keefe had 30 and nine and Oregon State’s 6-9 Alibegovic scored 34 points.

In losing efforts, 6-10 Richard Petruska of Loyola Marymount had 21 points in 19 minutes, 6-10 Eric Bamberger of St. Mary’s had 23 points in 25 minutes, 6-7 Richard Lucas of Oregon had 28 points and 13 rebounds, 6-9 Laphonso Ellis of Notre Dame had 21 points and 11 rebounds, missing only one of 10 shots, and 7-1 Marty Dow of San Diego State had 25 points and 10 rebounds.

But UCLA’s defensive lapses, it was suggested, may be as much mental as physical.

“I think a lot of these guys were very scoring-oriented in high school,” an NBA scout said of the Bruins. “When you have that ability to score in transition, like UCLA does, you have that slippage (defensively) to where you say, ‘We’ll just outscore them.’ ”

It’s a philosophy that has kept them close in every game. And last week at Stanford, they might have shed a few bugaboos when they won a close game, 89-86, and held Keefe in check, all without MacLean, who was sidelined with an eye injury.

“I think they can play with most anyone,” Wooden said of the Bruins. “Certainly, no one questions that Arizona is capable of playing with anyone. And while (the Bruins) lost both of those games, it isn’t as though they were soundly beaten. They were edged out.

“In other games, they haven’t played so well. But that’s true of a lot of teams. Very few teams have the strength of Las Vegas.”

This season, maybe none do.

But in that group of teams below UNLV, it’s difficult to find many that are any more dangerous than UCLA.

“If they’re the fifth-ranked team in the country,” Harrick said after UCLA’s most recent loss to Arizona, “I know where we are. We’re not very far behind.”

Come NCAA tournament time, we’ll see for ourselves.