With Shots Not Falling, Bruins Take Inside Look

UCLA has enough outside shooters; that’s not the problem. Now, the Bruins just need some players who actually can make those shots. The team is shooting a feeble 42% from the floor, well off its pace of 48% last season. Many of those misses are from three-point range, leading to long rebounds and fastbreaks the other way.

“When we’re hot, we’re the best shooting team in the country,” forward Matt Barnes said. “But I think we’ve been living and dying by the three-pointer. . . . We need to start going inside out, rather than just jacking threes right off the bat.”

The Bruins began the season by making 13 of 24 three-pointers against Kansas--an impressive 54.2%--but have cooled in recent weeks. They have made eight of 43 (18.6%) in their last two games.

In their loss to North Carolina, the Bruins made six of 24 shots from behind the three-point line, missing nine of their first 11. Coldest of all was guard Ray Young, who went 0 for 8 and was off the mark five times from three-point territory. Those misses tend to have an impact at both ends of the court.

“When we get kind of frustrated with our shots, when we miss shots we’d normally make, our whole attitude changes,” Young said. “It bleeds into our defensive intensity.”

Without question, the team’s best outside shooter is sophomore Jason Kapono, who as a freshman set an NCAA single-season record for three-pointers with 82, breaking the mark of 78 set by UCLA’s Tracy Murray in 1992. Kapono shot 47.4% from that range, third best in school history.

Although Kapono has made 25 of 58 (43.1%)--well ahead of No. 2 Earl Watson (37.8%)--he said he’s going to start looking off some of those shots for the good of the team, in hopes of working the ball inside more often.

“Obviously, it’s hard turning down an open look,” Kapono said. “But that’s what kind of makes and breaks teams--making that one extra pass, taking that one extra charge, getting to that one extra loose ball. The small things are going to add up to big things. Like wins.”

*

About every third sentence, it seems, UCLA Coach Steve Lavin makes mention of his former boss and mentor, longtime Purdue Coach Gene Keady. From 1988 through ‘91, Lavin was a graduate assistant for the Boilermakers.

The two coaches planned to get together Friday night for dinner.

“Other than my mother and father, [Keady] is the most influential person in my life,” Lavin said. ‘He opened the door to the coaching profession to me. . . . I couldn’t have asked for a better crash course on college basketball.”

An enduring memory for Lavin was the intensity of the hometown crowd. The Boilermakers have won 53 of their last 56 nonconference games at Mackey Arena.

“The fans there get excited about give-and-go cuts or guys rotating for charges, all the subtleties,” Lavin said. “I just remember how the fans stood and cheered the entire game. It was incredible. I’d say it’s one of the better home-court advantages.”

TODAY

at Purdue, 9 a.m. PST, Fox Sports Net

* Site--Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Ind.

* Radio--KXTA (1150).

* Records--UCLA 4-4, Purdue 7-2.

* Update--Although Coach Steve Lavin stops short of calling this game a must win, the Bruins urgently need to get on the right track before their Pacific 10 Conference schedule begins next week. The three-day Christmas break provided center Dan Gadzuric some much-needed rest, and he said his bruised right hand feels much better. Point guard Earl Watson is coming off a 30-point, zero-turnover performance, one of the few bright spots in UCLA’s 80-70 loss to North Carolina. Purdue is 7-0 in December and has fattened its victory total with a steady diet of cream-puff teams, the latest being a 31-point throttling of Akron. The Boilermakers have won their last five games by an average of 33.8 points.