Big Questions Facing UCLA

UCLA arrived Tuesday, on schedule to practice today at the RCA Dome and play Detroit Mercy of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Now to see if the Bruins have come at the wrong time.

Without a center.

Without tournament experience.

Without a clean bill of health.

Without stability.

The time of the year they expected to be its exclamation point has instead emerged as a question mark. Youth is again an issue, just as at the start of the season, and the inconsistent rotation and injury problems remain issues, just as at the start of the season--and the middle of the season and the final weekend of the regular season--but the Bruins look on the bright side and hope it’s not their pilot light flickering out.

So they remain, as the fifth-seeded team in the South Regional tournament, as they were in the Nov. 19 opener against Santa Clara at Pauley Pavilion: a team capable of a bold statement . . . but still needing to respond to the considerable doubts.

The answers now will be coming with the season on the line.

ARE THEY EXPERIENCED ENOUGH?

The Bruins were shaken to their foundation in the regular-season finale at Arizona, when a five-game winning streak was followed by a 17-point loss.

“It was so loud,” freshman forward JaRon Rush said afterward from the contrast of the quiet visitors’ locker room. “You couldn’t hear. It took all the energy out of you.”

Attendance that day at McKale Center was 14,545.

Attendance Thursday at the RCA Dome could exceed 30,000.

UCLA has played 30 games, and now, in some ways, starts anew. Because four key players--Jerome Moiso, Ray Young, Matt Barnes and Rush--have never played in a tournament game, and Baron Davis has been there for a game and a half, and Sean Farnham may be starting Thursday partly because of his veteran experience that includes six minutes of postseason play.

Detroit Mercy, meanwhile, has four starters who played prominent roles on last season’s squad that played two tournament games in Chicago, upsetting St. John’s in the first-round.

“That’s what is going to make this team fun to watch,” Coach Steve Lavin said of his Bruins. “Now, of course, if we lose in the first round it won’t be very fun.”

He mustered a chuckle.

“Just like every experience, this year has been a challenge,” Lavin said. “Whether you want to call it intriguing . . . I’m not sure what the word is. But I think this team will perform at a high level of intensity. As a coach, I can’t control their nerves or how they feel. The only thing you can control is how hard you play.

“There are going to be nights, like we’ve had all season, where you don’t shoot the ball well from the three, or we miss our free throws, or they feel nervous, or it’s the first time on the road, the first Pac-10 game, the first road Pac-10 game.

“It’s another first. Now it’s going to be the first NCAA tournament game. So I expect for them to have a lot of adrenaline, for their heart to be up in their throat. But I also expect them to play with the kind of intensity and aggressiveness that they have all year.”

Said Travis Reed, one of three sophomores who played in the three tournament games last year, “You can go from a crowd of about 15-16,000 to a crowd of about 40-50,000. You play in a dome somewhere you’re not used to the court. I was telling Jerome the other day, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced, nothing you’ve ever dreamed about experiencing. Your emotions run so high, you can hyperventilate sometimes.”

In other words, the Bruin first-timers will probably be nervous.

“Yeah,” Young said, “from what I hear.”

ARE THEY BIG ENOUGH?

While 6-foot-10 Dan Gadzuric, recuperating from knee surgery, props himself up with metallic crutches that have left some pole vaulter wondering who stole his equipment, the Bruins look for something else to lean on. Or, someone else.

Their middle has disappeared as if on a crash diet. Guards throw the ball into the post, only to become frustrated when it’s kicked right back out without any advance toward the basket or becomes a bad shot. Opponents who once had to at least respect UCLA’s big man now extend their defenses even farther out on the perimeter to concentrate on Davis and Earl Watson, aware that there’s little in the way of an inside game to worry about.

“It’s going to hurt them,” Arizona forward Eugene Edgerson said after the Wildcats had rolled to the 87-70 victory in Tucson by dominating the boards, 46-31. “You need that strong inside presence.

“I remember the first time they played us, they pounded the ball inside all the time and bad things happened to us. Either we fouled them or they scored. But that was a long time ago.”

Said Lavin, “[Gadzuric] is a future lottery pick and we don’t have him. There’s no way of hiding that.”

The Bruins have at least done a good job of that on defense. They are averaging about the same number of blocks in the four games since Gadzuric tore cartilage in his left knee as before, and the opponents in that time have shot 26.9%, 39.6%, 36.4% and 49.2%.

ARE THEY STABLE ENOUGH?

Thirty games. Twenty-two starting lineups.

Ryan Bailey went from playing no more than eight minutes in six of the previous eight games to starting and playing 26 minutes at Arizona. Sean Farnham went from the opening lineup the previous five games to being the third forward off the bench against the Wildcats.

This is not an ideal scenario.

Is it?

“Everything that we’ve done successfully this year has been a result of the depth,” Lavin said. “The full-court press. . . . the fact that we’re playing harder than we have at any point of the season. All that is a result of this competitive climate or environment, where the players realize that all we ask for is maximum effort and if we don’t get it, someone else is going to be nipping at their heels and will be rewarded.

“If someone would have said, ‘You’re going to have 20 lineups and you’re going to play your best basketball late in the year,’ I probably would have said, ‘Not very likely.’

“But it’s worked out well with the injuries. We didn’t know that Jerome and Dan were going to have all these injuries and that ultimately we’d end up losing Dan and that probably the best weapon of this team would turn out to be our pressure defense.”

An inconsistent rotation, because of injuries and adjustments, has been consistent. The most any combination has been used--Davis and Earl Watson at guard, Rush and Moiso at forward and Gadzuric at center--is six. No opening lineup has been used twice in succession since Jan. 23-28, at Louisville and at Washington State.

“For opposing teams, they don’t know who we’re going to start because we don’t know,” said Watson, the only Bruin who has started all 30. “So how are they going to prepare to play us? Who’s going to start? Is it going to be Jerome? Is it going to be Sean? Travis [Reed]? They have to go through our whole team. By the time they do that, the players are going to have so much to remember. Just watch before the game how they look to see who’s starting, the other team looking down to see. I like it that way. It’s to our advantage.”

The constants have at least gone together. The backcourt of Davis and Watson, though sometimes supplemented with a third guard, has started the last 25 games. The Bruins, after losing two of their first five, are 19-6 in those games.

“Our stability goes by the name of Baron Davis,” said Farnham, the last big man off the bench most of the season before being catapulted into the rotation in mid-January. “He’s our stabilizing factor out there. He and Earl Watson have been our leaders all year. The guys we throw out there with them all just play hard.”

ARE THEY SOUND ENOUGH?

Davis has a toe injury that has reduced his quickness and jumping ability, even as he tries to get back to 100% because of the year-old knee injury. Rush, feeling worn down, is again struggling with a sore back, even if it’s not the same problem that plagued him for much of the early season. Young, who would normally be taking some of the load from Rush, lasted only 27 seconds at Arizona before the bruised hip forced him out.

The depth the Bruins once used as a cushion has become a necessity. They have had to back off the press, an especially successful weapon in conference play, to conserve what few strong bodies remain and to better nurse along the others. Playing more half-court defense, instead of causing turnovers that lead to the transition style they favor, means a greater chance for bigger opponents to hurt them inside.

At least they have Moiso back. Sort of.

The new starting center, as temporary a title as that can be, missed two games because of sore arches and then winced through the first couple of appearances after returning, but has since played at least 21 minutes in the last three.

On the other hand. . . .

“I don’t feel the pain, but I haven’t got back my conditioning,” Moiso said. “I really can’t get the feeling I had before. It’s going to be pretty tough for me to be real effective Thursday.”

It is an ominous note for the Bruins. Or one of them.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

College Basketball / NCAA Tournament 1 ARE THEY EXPERIENCED ENOUGH? JaRon Rush (left) is one of four key freshmen, and a fifth--Dan Gadzuric --is out after knee surgery.

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2 ARE THEY BIG ENOUGH? Without Gadzuric at center, freshman Jerome Moiso (left), a natural forward, is

the Bruins’ tallest player at 6-10 1/2.

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3 ARE THEY STABLE ENOUGH? Because of injuries and inexperience, guard

Earl Watson (left) is the only Bruin to start

all 30 games this season.

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4 ARE THEY SOUND ENOUGH? Gadzuric is out, Baron Davis’ (left) status is tenuous because of an injured toe, and Moiso has missed games because of sore arches.

NCAA

UCLA vs. DETROIT MERCY

South Regional, Indianapolis, 7:10 p.m., Channel 2

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WOMEN

SATURDAY

UCLA vs. WIS. GREEN BAY

West Regional, Pauley Pavilion, 9 p.m. ESPN

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NIT

TONIGHT

First Round

USC at WYOMING, 6:08

PEPPERDINE at COLORADO, 6