Lavin Goes to the Videotape for Answers

After the Bruins’ disastrous Arizona trip last week, Coach Steve Lavin, who regularly edits tapes to show his team both good plays and bad ones, put together one featuring what he believes is the team’s Achilles’ heel--turnovers.

The tape, 10 minutes from the Arizona game, was the first Lavin ever put together consisting solely of turnovers.

“We’re creating easy baskets in transition for our opponents,” Lavin said. “Our offense creates offense for our opponents.

“Ninety percent of it is passing and catching the ball. It’s just fundamentals. That’s why I broke this tape down. I can’t remember a team, at least since I’ve been here, that has had so many deflating plays.”

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The Bruins stand only one loss away from nine in conference play, and no team with that many in the Pac-10 has ever made the NCAA tournament. Among UCLA’s remaining games are Thursday’s at Pauley Pavilion against third-place Oregon and a trip to top-ranked Stanford. But nine losses may be good enough this year, with the Pac-10 ranked fourth in RPI and third in the Sagarin ratings.

Either way, Lavin already is talking about the benefits of the National Invitation Tournament if the Bruins’ aren’t selected for the NCAA.

“Right now our goal is still to make the [NCAA] tournament and we’re still fighting for that,” he said. “People are talking about the NIT. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

“But any time you get extra practice time, it’s a good thing, especially with a young team.”

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The next development in the JaRon Rush saga will occur Friday, when UCLA officials, NCAA officials, an NCAA appeals committee and Rush and his attorneys have a conference call to hear Rush appeal his 44-game suspension. A decision is expected later in the day Friday, or possibly Monday.

UP NEXT

Thursday

vs. Oregon

7:30 p.m.

Fox Sports Net