Lavin’s Bruins to Have Day on Court

It’s another ominous October at UCLA, the university of adversity, the home of the suspended, the suspected and a bunch of basketball players who have kind of gotten used to the whole chaotic experience.

Tuesday, four days before practice officially begins, the Bruins--minus senior forward Kris Johnson and junior center Jelani McCoy--met the media, wading back into their now-normal start-of-the-season routine:

Getting into shape for the start of a much-anticipated campaign, projecting their roles . . . and figuring out how to overcome potentially team-rupturing developments, the latest being the indefinite suspension of starters Johnson and McCoy for breaking unspecified athletic department and team rules.

“They know they let the team down, so we don’t really talk too much about it,” senior guard Toby Bailey said of Johnson and McCoy. “I don’t make them feel guilty. They know what they’ve done.”

Coach Steve Lavin said the school has purposely not set a timetable for the players’ return, saying only that if the two meet certain requirements and keep a positive mind-set, a return is possible.

But Lavin said he has been encouraged by several talks with both players in the last week, in which Johnson in particular has owned up to his mistakes.

“That’s the first sign--there’s a resolve in them,” Lavin said. “They want to be part of this. They want to be part of the experience at UCLA. That’s probably why they’re both still here [and haven’t left school]. . . .

“Some days, I feel like getting them in a headlock and wringing their neck and kicking them in the fanny. And another day, I feel like giving them a big hug and telling them I love them. It’s a balance.”

Said Bailey: “Everything has worked out in the past so far, so I’m not too worried about things working out this year. I think they know how special this team can be if they have a chance to come back.

“And I think they just want to redeem themselves. I think that’s a major thing they’re talking about right now.”

For Lavin, the reality of playing without Johnson and McCoy for the near future--and without heralded recruit Schea Cotton all season because he was ruled academically ineligible--means the Bruins are young and very small.

McCoy was the only center listed on the roster, and now only 6-foot-8 1/2 senior J.R. Henderson, who does not enjoy playing post defense, is taller than 6-6. And six of the current nine active players on scholarship are newcomers, including the starting point guard, freshman Baron Davis.

“We lost three of our top six players in the last month in terms of playing time,” Lavin said. “Really, what you’re talking is probably 45 points and 24 rebounds we lost in the last couple of weeks.”

In a contrast with the way most coaches and veterans deal with freshmen, neither Lavin nor the seniors flinch from pointing to Davis as the potential flash point for this team’s rise.

“It shows in the pickup games we play--when his team starts getting down you can see he starts to take over a lot, starts taking the big shots,” Henderson said. “That’s what he’s going to have to do in our games. He’s going to have to take some big shots.”

Said Davis, whose recruitment to UCLA helped put Jim Harrick under intense scrutiny a year ago and whose recommitment to the Bruins last April was Lavin’s top coup: “It seems like it took five years for practice to come. And now that it’s here, I’m just happy and ready to work out.

“I’ve been playing basketball for, like, 16 years now, and I’ve never felt any pressure at all, so why should I feel it now?”