Rivalry Gets Overshadowed

There was a great deal of focus Tuesday on an announcement that was not made and a point guard who might not play, and hardly any at all on a cross-town rivalry that this year is barely a rivalry at all.

On the eve of tonight’s game against USC, the ninth-ranked UCLA Bruins practiced at Pauley Pavilion in a sort of suspended animation, guardedly awaiting developments.

How strange was it? Baron Davis limped around with a walking boot on his left foot to protect a sprained big toe and said he might not be able to play tonight--while his coach and teammates grinned.

Davis hurt the toe as he landed after a rebounding effort during Monday’s practice, and said it hurt for him to walk.

“I think he’s going to play,” Coach Steve Lavin said after practice and Davis’ pronouncement. “I would be very surprised if he doesn’t start and play.”

Said a laughing J.R. Henderson, when asked if he was worried about Davis’ condition: “Naw, he just wants attention, that’s all.”

How strange? Center Jelani McCoy practiced, although speculation is rampant that he has somehow run afoul of team rules again. He was recently reinstated after sitting out a 10-week suspension.

“Somebody got happy on the Internet,” McCoy said when asked what might have started the rumors that he could be suspended again soon. “Somebody’s been doing barbershop talk. I don’t understand why it’s going on. I can’t do anything about it.

” . . . People can just do that to your name, drag it through the mud any time they want. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

UCLA officials remained tight-lipped about the situation.

“Jelani, as I’ve said before, he’s on the basketball team,” Lavin said. “And we’ll go from there. Otherwise we’d just be going back and forth for an hour, not saying much.”

Said Athletic Director Peter Dalis, when asked if McCoy’s status was a pending situation: “He’s on the team.”

In what may or may not be a telling point, Lavin refused to say whether McCoy, who has started all seven of his games on the bench, would start against the Trojans if Davis cannot.

McCoy said he thought most of the talk started because he was being held out of the lineup and people were making up reasons why.

“It’s more nerve-racking than anything,” McCoy said. “It’s getting old.”

Even Lavin conceded that the rumors kind of ate into any emotion the Bruins might feel about playing USC, which has lost the last six games with the Bruins.

“There’s been so many things going on,” Lavin said, “I haven’t even had a chance to think about it much--the rivalry part.”

The three UCLA seniors have never lost to the Trojans, and no USC player has been part of even a close game in this series.

Henderson, who memorably referred to last season’s NCAA tournament-bound Trojans as “just SC” days before playing them, said there’s still a rivalry, even if the Trojans are 6-10 overall and struggling in conference play.

“I think it’ll always be a rivalry,” Henderson said. “It’s always a rivalry when UCLA plays USC, in whatever sport.”

Said Lavin, “I think the Los Angeles thing is still there, growing up playing against each other in high school, AAU basketball. . . . Baron and [Greg] Lakey and [Kevin] Augustine, Travis [Reed] and Billy [Knight]. . . .

“Maybe more so for our freshmen--because SC has a lot of [junior-college] kids and they may not have the same kind of relationship with our upperclassmen as our freshmen do with one another.”