Reserve Barnes Is Bruins’ Main Man

The wake-up call came Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.

Matt Barnes didn’t need it. Not on this day. He was up about 30 minutes before that, no matter that he had a hectic Monday that included two sets of travel plans and a long plane ride followed by an hourlong drive from Honolulu that meant he didn’t even arrive at UCLA’s team hotel until 1:30 a.m. or so.

“That definitely told me he was ready to go,” said Earl Watson, his roommate.

What happened around lunchtime confirmed it. Returning to action after sitting out the first five games while on academic suspension, Barnes had eight points and a career-high 10 rebounds in only 10 minutes as the 18th-ranked Bruins opened the Pearl Harbor Classic with an 83-62 rout of Maine before a gathering of about 250 at Cannon Activities Center.

The outcome was expected. Barnes’ role, however, was not, by no less an expert on the topic than Matt Barnes.

Frustrated by the wait for the last of his four grades to be posted, he made a reservation for a 7:30 p.m. flight home Monday to Sacramento. He had already spent the DePaul game two days earlier on the bench in uniform after hoping word would come from an English professor in time to play, and that was frustrating enough. The last thing he wanted was to sit around his dorm and watch a silent telephone.

His teammates were in Hawaii, his family was in Northern California and Barnes was in limbo. So he made plans for home, then went out to run some errands. When he got back at about 5:30, a message on his machine told him that the grade had come in.

His academic suspension, prompted by a failed music class in summer school, was over.

His sophomore season had begun.

“I already had everything packed,” said Barnes, who started eight times as a freshman. “I just threw a few more shorts in because I was coming here.”

UCLA got him on a late-afternoon flight from LAX. A member of the basketball staff met him in Honolulu for the drive to Oahu’s North Shore. A sleeping Watson awaited him in the room.

By Tuesday morning, the mood in the room was obvious. “Matt is not the type of guy who talks a lot,” said Watson, a junior point guard. “But you could really tell by his actions. He was ready.”

The action of beating the wake-up call, namely.

By Tuesday afternoon, he was officially a Bruin again, having been allowed to practice all along but now, somewhat unexpectedly, in a game for the first time since the March 11 first-round NCAA tournament loss to Detroit Mercy. That he was also an especially critical Bruin again because of the continued absence of another forward, the suspended JaRon Rush, was not to be overlooked.

Barnes entered with 6:22 to play in the half and immediately got a defensive rebound.

Two Maine possessions later, he grabbed another.

About 30 seconds later, he got one on the offensive end. When he went right back up for a layin, he also got his first points of the season, part of the 13-0 rally that blew the game open.

“He exceeded my expectations today, in terms of how quickly he appeared to be comfortable out there on both ends of the court,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “ . . . Matt hasn’t played in high-level competition since March. It’s been a long time. I thought he played very well considering how long he’d been away.”

Said Barnes: “I wasn’t nervous this morning. I wasn’t nervous during warmups. But once they threw the ball up, I was a little anxious.

“But I wasn’t really tired at all. I was so excited to play. It was a great feeling to be out there.”

Few Bruins had reason to be winded, a likely aid with two games ahead in the next two nights, including Colorado State in the second round. Only Watson (35) and Jason Kapono (34) played more than 30 minutes, and hardly any of them burned much mental energy in the second half, when lapses in concentration brought consternation from Lavin and helped Maine make 55.6% of its shots.

Still, the Black Bears got no closer than 14 points during the final 20 minutes. The final margin of 21 came on the heels of the impressive 18-point victory over DePaul, and means the Bruins are 5-1 and still have not had a close game, in victory or defeat.

The 10 rebounds by Barnes led all players, and Watson had a game-high 10 assists.

*

RUTGERS 72

UCLA 46

The Bruin women, ranked No. 6 in the nation, suffer another blowout loss to a ranked team. Page 4