He Knows That Almost Isn’t Good Enough

While preaching academic integrity, UCLA scheduled a basketball game Wednesday that ended at 11:30 p.m., on a school night. The final point was scored by a Tulsa student, for whom it was 1:30 a.m., Oklahoma time, while any potential UCLA high school recruits on the East Coast, watching on television to see how the Bruins looked, didn’t go to bed until a little after 2:30.

It was not a good night for UCLA, all the way around.

Only 8,589 fans showed up in Westwood, to see one of the best teams in the West. The team lost, 77-76, in overtime. The new coach lost, leaving Steve Lavin a full 12 days to figure out why. And the school lost, its failure to advance in the Preseason NIT costing UCLA as many as three games, two of them showcase dates at Madison Square Garden.

Gene Bartow lost the first UCLA game he coached. Larry Farmer lost his first. The job was no picnic for them, yet Lavin is aware how disappointed UCLA’s fans must already be, how pessimistic some must be.

“Because I didn’t win,” he said, knowing no excuses will placate anyone, even though at 32, Lavin is the fifth-youngest Division I coach in NCAA basketball, and that he didn’t ask to be in this situation.

“The reality of this profession is that you need to win games. And I’m in a place where 11 championship banners are above your head, every time you play.

“I’m not saying I’ve got all the answers. I fell face-first tonight,” Lavin added. “But we’re going to get better.”

Last year at this time, Jim Harrick was raising a championship banner and doing deodorant commercials on TV. Wednesday night, his former assistant was drenched to the skin, soaking right through his starched white shirt, two minutes into a long night.

Never letting anyone see you sweat, well, that’s a cute advertising notion, but devoid of reality in the coaching trade. For a man in Steve Lavin’s shoes, there is no guarantee UCLA won’t even replace him in midseason, the same way USC once replaced Charlie Parker, or Cal replaced Lou Campanelli.

“Coaching is my passion,” Lavin said after the Tulsa game. “What happens to me after this, whether it’s with a JV high school team, or a third-grade CYO team, or UCLA or the New York Knicks, this is what I want to do with my life.

“I’m still learning, and I’ve got to practice what I preach. I tell our players that they’ve got to ‘play through’ everything, the bad along with the good. Well, I’ve got to coach through. I have to deal with and learn from this loss, the same way these players do.”

UCLA has its top six players back from a conference championship team. Several of these guys are thinking about turning pro, although nothing anyone showed Wednesday night will get them into the NBA’s next lottery.

Because of what happened against Tulsa, there will be only one game in the next 23 days--the one Dec. 7 with Kansas--that will be of any real value to UCLA’s team. The only opponent in between is Cal State Northridge, which is a no-win situation, a victory being emotionally unsatisfying, a defeat being catastrophic.

Even after that, UCLA plays home games against Ohio University and Jackson State, neither of which constitutes a serious breakthrough for Lavin’s program should the Bruins win.

Therefore, except for the Kansas game, UCLA now has no true test of its prowess for an entire month, until a game at Illinois, four days before Christmas.

That is why the Tulsa game was meaningful in more ways than one, for sheer preparation’s sake. UCLA could have tuned up against opponents like Oklahoma State, Duke, Indiana. Instead, all they can do is scrimmage for two weeks, preparing for Northridge.

Some of UCLA’s players seem pleased about rallying to take Tulsa into overtime. Some of UCLA’s fans too. They shouldn’t be.

“I’m not into moral victories,” Lavin said. “No coach is.”

No one from UCLA should ever be happy, almost beating Tulsa.