This Race Will Get Hotter in the Desert

Have the UCLA Bruins faced their last distraction just in time for their most demanding game of the season?

Now that Steve Lavin has been lifted from edgy interim to permanent coach, UCLA has no more built-in controversies or screaming questions, only a serious eight-game stretch run for the NCAA tournament.

It starts tonight with No. 11 Arizona at McKale Center in Tucson, where the Bruins were last seen sliding off the floor after a Wildcat barrage of three-point baskets ensured an 88-79 victory last season.

“It’s just hard to play in there, I couldn’t tell you why,” said UCLA junior J.R. Henderson, 1-1 in his career at McKale. “Something’s always going wrong in there.

“Arizona’s not really that loud; it’s not as loud as other places. [But] their pressure on the wings is what gets us most of the time.”

The Wildcats, meanwhile, are sure to remember their experience at Pauley Pavilion last month, when UCLA came back from a late eight-point deficit to tie the score, then won it in overtime.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson was enraged during the last moments of regulation when he thought the operator incorrectly reset UCLA’s shot clock, though replays later proved the Bruins gained possibly a second or two--not 13 or 14 as Olson claimed--by the error.

Olson followed up his verbal complaints and charges with a letter to the Pacific 10 Conference, criticizing the operator for his behavior.

As UCLA steels itself for the last few weeks of regular-season play, tonight’s game looms as a barometer for its postseason hopes: The two times it has won in McKale since 1992, successful tournament runs (losing in the West Regional finals in 1992, winning the national title in 1995) have followed.

When it hasn’t won (last season, for instance) at McKale, quick exits have usually followed.

Arizona, by the way, is 10-0 at McKale this season, and is 141-9 at home since the 1987-88 season.

“It’s probably the greatest home-court advantage in the country right now, not in terms of the Crackerjack box environment like an Oregon, a Harmon [Arena, California’s home court] or a Duke . . . [but] when you win there, you feel a real sense of accomplishment,” Lavin said.

As Charles O’Bannon told Lavin this week: “Only 14 games to go, Coach.”

That count, of course, includes O’Bannon’s hopes for a national title-winning six-game run through the tournament.

UCLA is tied for first place in the Pac-10 at 8-3 with USC, which faces Arizona on Saturday. Arizona, 15-5 overall, is half a game behind at 7-3 in the Pac-10.

But, with a 13-7 record, the 24th-ranked Bruins are going to need at least five victories in their last eight to feel comfortable about earning a berth at all.

Is it possible that, fueled by the importance of the game and by Lavin’s new four-year contract, the Bruins will come out too high emotionally--as they did in the season-opening loss to Tulsa only two weeks after Jim Harrick was dismissed?

Lavin doesn’t think so--not after all the weird moments of this year.

“I think we’ve had so many crossroads, so many events that have made this a unique season that I don’t think there’s anything that can really faze our guys,” Lavin said. “It seems like every other week there’s something that makes this a wild ride; what an adventure this season has been.”

Said Henderson: “That’s why we didn’t make this whole [hiring Lavin] issue so big. We’re just trying to make it low-profile, worry about it after the season.

“We definitely don’t want to get overemotional again, so bothersome you can’t even concentrate on the court.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pacific 10 Race

Conf.

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Team W L UCLA 8 3 USC 8 3 Arizona 7 3 California 7 4 Stanford 6 5 Washington 6 5 Oregon 5 6 Arizona State 2 8 Washington State 3 8 Oregon State 2 9

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Overall

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Team W L UCLA 13 7 USC 13 7 Arizona 15 5 California 16 6 Stanford 13 6 Washington 13 7 Oregon 14 6 Arizona State 10 12 Washington State 11 12 Oregon State 6 14

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TODAY’S GAMES

USC at Arizona State: 6

UCLA at Arizona: 7:30

Oregon at California: 7:30

Oregon State at Stanford: 7:30

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No. 24 UCLA at No. 11 Arizona

7:30 p.m.

Fox Sports West