For UCLA, Games Are Important Now

Think of it as a sort of farewell tour, spread over a month of big games and bound to be packed with all the same drama that has marked and memorialized the Bruin careers of Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson.

UCLA basketball, of course, will never be the same after they leave.

The only question is, how will these three centerpiece seniors leave--soaring or sagging, charging deep into March or fading faintly into the night?

Starting tonight at Pauley Pavilion against 14th-ranked Stanford, in a match-up UCLA must win to maintain its postseason positioning, every game is another finishing touch on this four-season fling with national-title victory, confusion, controversy and, finally, proud endurance.

“The seniors, we’ve got four more home games,” Bailey said. “And I don’t plan on losing any more games at Pauley Pavilion, if I have anything to do with it.”

After Stanford, which held off a second-half rally to beat UCLA, 93-80, last month at Maples Pavilion, the ninth-ranked Bruins have seven regular-season games left.

That includes playing host to California--which has a 4-1 Pauley record over the last five seasons--on Saturday, playing at USC on Wednesday, and momentous games at Duke and, in the finale, facing defending national champion Arizona, which has all but wrapped up the Pacific 10 Conference title, on March 7 at Pauley.

Bailey acknowledged that, after returning home last weekend from the Bruins’ uneven Oregon trip, the three seniors looked at the schedule and suddenly realized the last act starts tonight.

“That’s definitely how it feels,” Bailey said. “We all know it’s the end of the class. And we just want to finish it off strong.”

History indicates that the Bruins must finish the regular season on a roll, without a late stumble, or face NCAA tournament consequences.

In the 1994-95 national-championship season, UCLA won its last 13 regular-season games, earned a No. 1-seeding, then stormed through the NCAA brackets.

Last season, UCLA won its last nine, grabbed a No. 2 seeding, then won three in a row in the tournament before losing to Minnesota in the Midwest Regional final.

The Bruins’ previous two first-round NCAA flops have come after late-season losses:

* In 1996, UCLA was blown out by Duke with four regular-season games to play, never regained its balance, was assigned a No. 4 seeding, and lost to Princeton in the NCAA’s first round.

* In 1994, the Bruins lost their regular-season finale to Oregon, which dropped them to a No. 5 seeding, then followed that miserable performance with a first-round loss to Tulsa.

So, though Arizona’s dominant play this season is preventing UCLA from winning the Pac-10 title for the first time in Bailey, Henderson and Johnson’s careers, the Bruins can still hope a hot spell gets them a No. 2 seeding and possibly sets them up for a Final Four dash.

“We’re not planning on losing another game,” Bailey said. “We just want to make sure, even if we don’t win the Pac-10, we get ourselves in the best position for the tournament.

“I know people say the conference is important. And it is important. But it’s not as important as what you do in the tournament. It’s what you do in the tournament that people remember.

“We know we can win the next two games, then we’ve got to play well and win at USC. And then maybe we can ride some momentum against Duke, and maybe pull one off at Duke. And that’d put us in a great situation for the tournament.”