Bruins Are Closer Than Ever

The NCAA is a stickler for formats, and the routine is the same after every NCAA tournament game. The coach and selected players come to the dais, the coach makes an opening statement, the players take questions and then they return to the locker room, leaving the coach behind to answer more questions.

That’s the NCAA way. It’s not the UCLA way. For the Bruins the teamwork doesn’t stop, not even in the news conferences.

It was almost midnight when Janae Hubbard, Maylana Martin and Melanie Pearson were excused from the interview room after UCLA’s 77-68 victory over Colorado State in the West Regional semifinals Saturday at the Sports Arena.

“See ya, guys,” UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier said.

“Have fun, Coach,” Martin said.

Then Martin stopped, pulled out a chair and sat right back down next to Olivier. “I didn’t want her to be there by herself,” Martin explained later.

There’s a tightness to this team, a team that is reshaping women’s basketball at UCLA as it goes along. This was a program that didn’t even begin until the John Wooden era of the men’s basketball teams was winding down in 1974-75, and hasn’t enjoyed a nationally prominent status since winning the Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship in 1978.

In her sixth season as head coach at UCLA, Olivier has a team filled with her own players that win for her and with her. This is the first time the Bruins have made the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons, and tonight’s game against Louisiana Tech marks the school’s first trip to the NCAA’s Elite Eight.

That’s the result when you mix winning with winning. Olivier took what she learned from USC, added that to the culture of championships at UCLA and produced the new power in town.

Olivier was an assistant coach at USC under Linda Sharp from 1983-86, meaning she had a front-row seat to women’s basketball at a peak. Those were the teams of Cheryl Miller, Pam and Paula McGee, and Cynthia Cooper.

“When I was at ‘SC--what 13, 14 years ago?--we had an awesome program,” Olivier said. “Linda Sharp, she taught me a lot as far as the team chemistry goes in dealing with some talented athletes. I went over to UCLA, Billie Moore [UCLA’s longtime coach], I couldn’t have a better mentor. She’s the John Wooden of women’s basketball. She taught me everything I know as far as Xs and O’s. In fact, I talked to her before the game and she gave me so much confidence.

“As far as UCLA goes, I think we have the whole package. We have the tradition, we have the academic standards that they know coming in they have to meet, and then we have the facilities and the environment. We overly press the balance.”

And she doesn’t hesitate to count the 11 men’s basketball championship banners hanging in Pauley Pavilion or the football team’s Rose Bowl victories as part of that “tradition.”

“We sell the package,” Olivier said. “That’s what we’re about.”

At the moment, UCLA athletics is all about Olivier’s team. That’s why football/men’s volleyball standout Danny Farmer came up to her in the parking lot the other day and said, “You guys are carrying us right now.”

And if there’s one constant carrying the Bruins, it’s Olivier. She pushes, prods and cajoles. A celebratory fist-pump here, an icy glare at the officials there.

“She got us here,” Martin said. “She lets us be ourselves, but at the same time, provides the stability we need when we’re not making the best decisions or when we really don’t know what to do.”

Olivier knows how good basketball should be from her days at USC.

“With this team, one of our strengths is that we have a lot of people that can get it done too,” Olivier said. “As much as I don’t like comparing--because that team was the team, you know? It was ‘SC and it was the team--this team, they’re something special.”

Olivier lost more games than she won her first four seasons at UCLA, when the future stars of the program were still young and couldn’t deal with adversity.

“I’ll never forget the first time we went into a hostile environment,” Olivier said, referring to a pounding her team took at Washington. “We had more players crying on the bench. I turned to put someone in, and we had three or four players [crying], because it was very physical, nothing was going our way, the crowd was going at it. We go into halftime, I said, ‘There’s no crying in basketball. What is this?’

“We talk about that, because we’ve come a long way.”

So there they were with 16 1/2 minutes remaining Saturday night. Their backup point guard, freshman Michelle Greco, had played virtually every minute and had no relief in sight because their all-time assists leader, starter Erica Gomez, had sprained her ankle. Their best player, Martin, had three fouls. And they didn’t fold. Hubbard established herself inside. Pearson hit a couple of jumpers. Greco looked more relaxed than her coach. LaCresha Flannigan made plays.

The Bruins weren’t going to lose. It just wasn’t happening.

The Bruins don’t have the quickness, athleticism or depth of Louisiana Tech.

Here’s what they do have, courtesy of Olivier: “We’re very close,” Martin said. “We really love each other. We have so many things driving us to win all these games. And the love we have for one another is one of them.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com