No NCAA Tournament Takers in This Group

Looks like UCLA is about to go it alone.

USC gave the Bruins a little company from the neighborhood in the NCAA tournament last season.

This year, the prospects are bleak.

Only one other time in the last 10 years has there been just one team from the Los Angeles area in the NCAA tournament, in 1996.

In 1991 and ‘92, there were three--UCLA, USC and Pepperdine.

UCLA has been in every year since 1989. Loyola Marymount went in ‘88, ’89 and ’90. Pepperdine made it in ‘91, ’92 and ’94. Long Beach State did the honors in ’93 and ’95. And the Trojans took care of ‘91, ’92 and last year. UC Santa Barbara, if you throw the Gauchos in the mix, went in ’88 and ’90.

Don’t even talk about Cal State Fullerton--its run to the final eight was 20 years ago. UC Irvine has never made the tournament, and Cal State Northridge--as close as it came to winning the Big Sky tournament last season--is still new to Division I.

The days of even Seth Greenberg’s defense-first teams at Long Beach State already seem long enough ago, not to mention the scoring-mad offenses at Loyola Marymount.

Now look at the state of non-Bruin basketball in the Los Angeles area:

Cal State Fullerton: 9-13

Cal State Northridge: 9-13

Long Beach State: 10-14

Loyola Marymount: 7-17

Pepperdine: 15-9

UC Irvine: 7-15

USC: 7-17

When some of these teams talk about making the tournament, they’re talking about making the conference tournament. Pepperdine is the only team that even looks as if it could make a run.

What gives?

We’d like to ask the deans of the local coaching scene, but take a look: Fullerton’s Bob Hawking is the veteran, in his fourth season. USC’s Henry Bibby is in his third. UCLA’s Steve Lavin, Pepperdine’s Lorenzo Romar, Long Beach’s Wayne Morgan and Northridge’s Bobby Braswell are in their second, and Loyola Marymount’s Charles Bradley and Irvine’s Pat Douglass are in their first.

All we’ve got to say is, if this is only a rebuilding cycle, the 2000 season ought to be pretty terrific.

Sort out the usual issues of injuries and youth that have led USC to start playing for next year, and there are a couple of other matters at work.

The coaching issue is one: Most of the recent coaching hires have not been assistants who were promoted when the head coach got a better job, so they’re starting from scratch, or close to it.

Morgan might make it yet at Long Beach, but after the experiences of other former Big East assistants such as Rod Baker at Irvine and John Olive at Loyola Marymount, the next search committee isn’t going to search the Eastern time zone.

Another thing still affecting the Big West schools--Irvine, Long Beach and Fullerton--is the Vegas factor after UNLV took its glamour, TV opportunities and the NCAA tournament money it generated and left for the Western Athletic Conference.

“For a couple of years there, when we were going through our transition as a conference, there was a lot of street talk about the Big West being on the verge of breaking up, and I think that was used as negative recruiting,” Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell said.

“Only in the last year or so have we proved we’re still together and viable as a conference. Our own people started to feel that way.

“Obviously, there is a UNLV factor. UNLV was our marquee program and led to us having the Big Monday [ESPN] package.

“A lot of this is cyclical. I don’t worry too much because in the sport of basketball, all it takes is one key player, and you can turn it around. If UCI gets a couple of key players, they could go from 1-25 to having a winning record in two years.”

BRUINS AND BLUE DEVILS

Four reasons No. 2 Duke figures to beat No. 12 UCLA on Sunday even though, player for player, we’d take UCLA’s starting five over Duke’s:

* Depth--UCLA goes five deep now without Jelani McCoy. Duke goes 10 deep and has plenty of fouls to use on J.R. Henderson.

* Distance--The Bruins will be making a quick cross-country trip and playing at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time.

* Distractions--The Bruins sound surprisingly unsettled after a departure they should have known was coming.

* Discipline--Duke plays with it.

MORE STRUGGLES

The most striking example of ateam slipping is in Santa Barbara.

Coach Jerry Pimm, 59, has won almost 400 games and taken seven teams to the NCAA tournament-- five at Utah and two at Santa Barbara.

But his Gauchos are 7-15 on the heels of 13-14, 11-15 and 12-15 seasons, and it seems like a long time ago that Santa Barbara and Nevada Las Vegas waged epic battles in the Gauchos’ Thunderdome.

“Let’s face facts: The program is not what it was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s,” Athletic Director Gary Cunningham said. “I personally thought we’d have an outstanding year this year. If I’d had a crystal ball, I would have thought we would have won 17 or 18 games. The chemistry has not been there on the team. It didn’t happen for some reason. Not to make excuses, but Raymond Tutt was out injured early, and the team never jelled.”

Pimm has two years remaining on his contract, and Cunningham said, “We’ll evaluate after the season,” allowing that, “UC Santa Barbara has not enjoyed at any time during its existence an overabundance of money for athletics” to finance a buyout.

Pimm is frank that the Gauchos’ talent level isn’t high enough, and Santa Barbara has lost some transfers in recent years, such as Kyle Milling and Rob Ramaker, who both went to Oregon.

“You’ve got to have the players. You know that,” Pimm said. “We’ve had five coaching staffs in five years, and no continuity in recruiting. I guess I haven’t done a very good job recruiting. It’s the head coach’s responsibility. We haven’t gotten the players we were after.”

Though some people have questioned whether Pimm still has the energy and enthusiasm for the job--and whether he is out of touch with the players--he cites the two years left on his contract and says he’d like to stay.

“Oh, yeah, I’d like to if I can get another freshman class, get the players and be sound fundamentally, I still have a lot of desire to coach. It’s disappointing when you don’t win, naturally.”

Pimm also suffered a setback when the players staged an abortive mutiny early this season.

“It’s over. For one day, they thought the coach was the problem. The next day they realized the coach was not missing shots and not rebounding,” he said.

“It’s life. It’s the way it goes. Teams get frustrated. Some kids don’t stand up and take the responsibility. They look to place it on other people. One day, it was a big deal. The next day it wasn’t.”

As for the Thunderdome, the crowds are not the same.

“They’re down. Crowds want to see wins.”

AND MORE SUSPENSIONS

UCLA is hardly the only team that has been disrupted because of suspensions.

Add Florida to the list. Jason Williams, who led the Gators to an upset of Kentucky at Rupp Arena, has been suspended for the rest of the season--and probably won’t return for his senior year--with Florida citing only violation of team and school policy.

Nevada Las Vegas’ Keon Clark and a number of Fresno State players also were suspended with the universities declining to give reasons.

Then there are NCAA suspensions for extra benefits such as those served earlier by Cincinnati’s Ruben Patterson and UNLV’s Clark and Kevin Simmons.

Not to mention the odd curfew violation.

The upheaval has an effect on teams.

“We’re on our fourth team,” Lavin said. “There was the team without Kris [Johnson] and Jelani. The team with Kris. The team with Kris and Jelani. And now the team without Jelani.”

McCoy left the team Saturday night, the final fallout after testing positive for marijuana multiple times, sources said.

A prominent coach from another conference said that is hardly the only such suspension this season.

“It’s the one thing going on all over the country,” the coach said. “We’re enforcing it and taking a hard stance. We’re drug-testing athletes every week at random.

“The primary thing is marijuana, that’s in society right now.”

QUICK SHOTS

It’s about time for Arizona State to give Don Newman its coaching job, with an NCAA bid probable after an upset of Stanford and a near-upset of Arizona. “We were lucky to win,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said after his Wildcats’ close call. “The more deserving team in this one did not win the game. I told our guys after the game, ‘You had one more point than they did, but you did not really deserve this.” . . . Good thing teams aren’t allowed to play first- and second-round NCAA tournament games at home-court sites: Kentucky might be at a disadvantage if it played at Rupp Arena on March 13 and 15. The Wildcats--282-31 in 21 years at Rupp before this season--have been beaten there three times this season, by Louisville, Florida and Mississippi. Ole Miss hadn’t defeated Kentucky on the Wildcats’ court since 1927--three years before Adolph Rupp became coach.