In the End, Bruins Couldn’t Finish

It was just after midnight here when they descended, howling, grabbing their dark-stained shirts, waving their dripping arms.

The UCLA Bruins were surrounded, stunned, suffocated.

“We were kind of wide-eyed,” said UCLA’s Ray Young, shaking his head. “We were like . . . man.”

The ghosts of Princeton?

Not a chance.

This was reality.

This was the current UCLA program being exposed at its weakest spot.

In the final minutes. When discipline is more important than talent. When prolonged organization beats moments of brilliance.

Those people dancing around the RCA Dome court early Friday morning, mugging for their roaring fans, screaming in delight, these were not ghosts.

These were the veteran players from the University of Detroit Mercy.

And whoever makes a connection between UCLA’s 56-53 loss to the Titans and another surprising NCAA first-round defeat three years ago on this floor to Princeton, tune them out.

This was reality.

The only thing that spooked UCLA was UCLA.

“We know we could have beat them,” Young said. “But we need to be a lot stronger. A lot smarter.”

We have heard that before. For the sake of Young and his frustrated young teammates, it is hoped we will not hear it much longer.

The talent here is too good to look so lost at the end of a game.

The players work too hard to wind up with nothing, the first goose egg of Coach Steve Lavin’s three NCAA tournament appearances.

It sounds crazy, saying this about a 12th-seeded team dumping a fifth-seeded team.

But as the UCLA players trudged off the court, stepping gingerly around a raucous celebration and into a spring break, it seemed so unfair.

They played with emotion. They played their best defense of the season, holding Detroit to 24% shooting in the second half.

They grabbed more rebounds. They blocked more shots. They had more assists.

After more than two hours, the only thing UCLA had really lost was six minutes.

But it was the last six minutes.

Before next season, they need to figure out a way to deal with those last six minutes.

You look up, and Young is sinking a three-pointer, and they are leading by six points with 6:21 remaining.

You look up again, and 6:19 has passed, and UCLA has scored one basket during that time.

You look up a third time, and JaRon Rush is standing in the middle of a quiet UCLA locker room, his usually happy eyes staring blankly into space.

“I felt pretty good that we had it won,” he said. “This is pretty hard.”

Hard to play, and hard to watch.

Detroit calmly worked its offense until it finally overcame its deficit.

Detroit calmly scored the clinching basket in the final seconds on a jump shot by Daniel Whye with one second left on the 35-second clock.

Detroit never hurried, never panicked, never seemed lost.

UCLA was all of those things.

UCLA took three-point attempts when it needed just two points, and used its great talent for things other than working the ball around or inside.

“We should have worked it to our big men,” Young said, not needing to note that Jerome Moiso and Travis Reed combined to go only three for seven. “We should have taken better shots.”

After Young’s basket gave them the six-point lead, it went like this, possession by possession:

* Baron Davis missing a rushed jumper, Young missing a rushed three-point attempt.

* Davis missing another jumper.

* Earl Watson missing a three-point attempt.

* Davis missing a driving fall-away jumper.

* Davis giving UCLA the lead with a layup.

* Moiso missing an eight-foot baseline shot.

* Watson missing a rushed jumper.

During that time, of course, the Bruins’ best player fouled out.

“A devastating blow,” said Coach Steve Lavin.

But when Davis left, the Bruins still trailed by only one. They still had a couple of high school All-Americans on the floor. This was not why they lost.

“UCLA just kind of rushed things,” Detroit’s Desmond Ferguson said.

That is why they lost.

“I was kind of surprised by them,” Whye said.

Those who have watched the Bruins this year were not.

Much of it, certainly, is youth.

But some of it, of course, is coaching.

After being criticized on the heels of the Bruins’ season-ending loss to Arizona, Lavin showed up here in a jokingly defensive mood.

When asked if he was having fun coaching this year, he said, “Ask me later. If I lose Thursday night, I won’t have a job. Ask me next week while I’m flipping burgers.”

Not just yet. But Lavin can’t afford to have many more tournament games like this one.

And Lavin needs more help.

Lavin needs to hire a veteran strategist to sit next to him on the bench for moments like Thursday.

It would be nice if Baron Davis also showed up.

The Bruins lost just one game Thursday.

It is hoped that, despite the lure of all that money, they did not also lose their best player to the NBA.

The Bruins need Davis to come back and get rid of these new ghosts.