Bruins Expect Emotional Finale : College basketball: O’Bannon, Edney, Zidek play final home game.

Jerry Green, Oregon’s canny basketball coach, knows what’s coming tonight, and he knows he cannot do a thing but feel Pauley Pavilion rumble.

How do you draw up a defense against a rite of passage?

“I don’t think there will be a game in the NCAA tournament that will be as hard to play as Ed O’Bannon’s last game in Pauley Pavilion,” Green said.

Tonight’s game against Oregon will be the final home game of O’Bannon’s five-

year stay at UCLA, which began with a devastating injury and ends with the Bruins No. 1 in the polls and O’Bannon at the top of his game.

Joining him in saying goodby on senior night are center George Zidek and point guard Tyus Edney, another player who has come to symbolize Bruin basketball.

“The other day, George asked me about it,” O’Bannon said. “He was like, ‘Are you going to be sad this is the last home game?’ I said, ‘Naw, I’m pretty excited. I’m happy. I’m glad that I get a chance to get to the final home game.’

“He said, ‘I might shed a tear or two.’ And then I was thinking, ‘Man, I might too.’ I think it’s going to be a lot of emotion, but there’s going to be a lot of excitement too.”

Said Edney: “It’s kind of hard to believe it’s your last game. It just makes you remember all you’ve gone through while you’re here. It’s probably going to be emotional.

“I wouldn’t doubt (there will be tears). I think it’s going to be extremely emotional.”

O’Bannon says that if UCLA beats the Ducks, who handed the Bruins their first defeat of the season in January and beat them in the last regular-season game last year, there is no doubt that he and his teammates will cut down the nets at Pauley.

“No question,” he said. “We’ve been talking about that all year.”

After suffering last year’s devastating first-round defeat in the NCAA tournament, O’Bannon, Edney and Zidek took it upon themselves to provide consistent leadership to an otherwise young team this season.

UCLA, winner of 24 of 26 games and the Pacific 10 Conference title, will almost certainly be seeded No. 1 in the West Regional. As a class, the seniors are 95-25 over their career.

If they win tonight, then advance to the Final Four, the senior class will have an even 100 victories in four seasons.

“I think the night’s going to be special for everybody who comes here because I think we’ve provided good leadership this year as the three seniors,” Zidek said. “That’s what was expected, and I think we’ve fulfilled it so far.

“It’s my last game at Pauley, and it’s sad because you realize how fast it went by. And I don’t know where I’m going to play next year, so there’s a certain degree of uncertainty.

“Hopefully, some people are going to cheer for me, thank me for the four years here.”

And, as Green understands, the loudest and warmest ovations almost certainly will be for O’Bannon, who has been in Westwood the longest and been through the most.

“I played my first league game against Oregon, and my last one against them,” O’Bannon said. “It’s just going to be something kids dream about. Growing up as a kid you always wanted to be in a great position.

“I always wanted to get to that final game. I always wanted to have that senior day. I remember back to the eighth grade, watching a Syracuse-Georgetown game and (Syracuse’s) Stevie Thompson or somebody on that team had a senior day.

“And I always said I’d love to have that, sitting at half-court and have my parents there. I’m very pleased that finally I get my chance.”

Said Edney of O’Bannon’s final home appearance: “He’s been through a lot since he’s been here. You know, the harder the road, the sweeter it is when you get there.”