UCLA Steps Gingerly to Possible Bid

Kicking down the door to the party gave way Thursday night to stepping politely through, asking for an invitation instead of demanding.

Pretty please?

UCLA, a continued study in contrast, reached the 18-victory plateau it believes will be worth an NCAA tournament bid, but only by grinding out an unimpressive 65-58 victory over deliberate Washington State before 9,614 at Pauley Pavilion, a critical win that felt an awful lot like a loss.

“Obviously a 180-degree turn from Saturday’s game at Maples,” said Coach Steve Lavin, referring to the upset of then-No. 1 Stanford and taking the blame for the downshift in momentum because he practiced the Bruins too hard the previous three days. “One of the strangest games I’ve ever been involved in, I told the team afterward. We didn’t play well, we didn’t execute well, we weren’t crisp. Kind of a step slow.”

UCLA missed a chance to move into a fourth-place tie in the Pacific 10 Conference when Arizona State beat California, but still extended its winning streak to five games, the longest in a year. The Bruins are 18-11 overall and 9-8 in the conference, with the regular-season finale Saturday against Washington to come and then likely, probably, a spot in the field of 64.

What happened between Saturday at Palo Alto and Thursday night in Westwood can be easily explained--it’s UCLA--but not so quickly dismissed, not at the end of a season when every showing is magnified by the tournament selection committee to determine seedings. So the lackluster performance against the last-place team in the conference will raise questions anew about the Bruins’ ability to maintain intensity.

The answer came quickly:

UCLA 29, Washington State 25 at halftime.

This wasn’t against the worst team in the Pac-10, either, it was against the worst team short-handed, starting Cougar guard Jan-Michael Thomas having recently suffered a season-ending knee injury. His replacement, Cedric Clark, is a walk-on.

But there were the Cougars, leading by six points in the early going and then coming back from a nine-point deficit later in the half. The counter was the Bruins making only 38.5% of their shots and going one stretch of 4:09 without a field goal and another of 7:57 with only one basket.

That the struggles came after Lavin juggled the opening lineup, altering, if ever slightly, whatever planets had been aligned, will probably not be overlooked. But Billy Knight, one of the most impressive Bruins last week in the Bay Area, went in at shooting guard and Ryan Bailey went out, and the bad start followed. It wasn’t Knight’s fault--he didn’t take a shot before being replaced only 2:42 in--but there was some difference from the previous game.

Not that being a starter has more than symbolic value for most at UCLA. Sean Farnham was at power forward for the fifth consecutive game . . . and came out after 1:37.

In came JaRon Rush, who would undoubtedly have been given a nice, embracing welcome in his first home game since returning from a three-month suspension no matter what. But, in the wake of the heroics at Stanford, he got a loud ovation when he entered. There were cheers just when he stood up from the bench to check in with all of 61 seconds gone.

His payback for the support was to draw an offensive foul from Washington State’s Mike Bush on Rush’s first possession at Pauley since Dec. 1. Five rebounds, five points and one steal followed before halftime, en route to 11 rebounds--second only to the 12 by Dan Gadzuric--seven points and two steals in 21 minutes. Gadzuric also had 12 points, second only to the 17 scored by Jason Kapono.

COUNTDOWN TO MARCH MADNESS

Tournament Selections

Sunday, 3:30 p.m.

Channel 2

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First-Round Games

Thursday, March 16

and Friday, March 17

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USC 90

WASHINGTON 71

Trepagnier scores 28, Scalabrine adds 23 as Trojans get back over .500. Page 5

LONG BEACH ST. 97

IDAHO 86

Milisa scores 36, 49ers rally to advance in Big West tournament. Page 5