Same Bruins, Different Questions

A year ago, having bagged a piece of the Pacific 10 championship, the UCLA women’s team was preparing to play host to the first two rounds of an NCAA regional, a courtesy extended to the top four seeded teams.

At Pauley Pavilion, UCLA cruised to easy victories over Wisconsin Green Bay and Kentucky, reaching the Sweet 16. Boarding a bus, they rode to the Sports Arena, where they dusted Colorado State, 77-68, to reach the final eight.

And there the Bruin train stopped, derailed by Louisiana Tech, 88-62. The Bruins had gone 3-1 in the tournament and hadn’t been to a single airport.

No such luck this time around, after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Pac-10. The Bruins (18-10) travel to Notre Dame to meet George Washington (25-5) Friday night. If successful, they will be matched Sunday against the winner of Notre Dame-San Diego. The Mideast Regional then will be played at Memphis, Tenn.

Tough to figure, this bunch. It’s arguably the best collection of players in the Pac-10, but a group that, until last weekend, never seemed to have that special kind of fire.

So do you write off UCLA as a talented team that never figured out how to win? Anyone who saw the Bruins lose by 20 points at Oregon State or by eight at home to California would be so inclined.

Then came the season-ending Washingtontrip, when freshman Nicole Kaczmarski went 10 for 12 from behind the arc, leading her team to a sweep of Washington State and Washington. So we’ll see.

Maybe, based on the regular season’s last weekend, the Bruins bottled the chemistry and tightened the cap.

And speaking of closing finishes, how about USC’s? The Trojans (15-13), in the season’s final 28 days, beat three of the league’s four teams who made the NCAA tournament--UCLA, Arizona and Oregon. They were rewarded Sunday night with a National Invitation Tournament invitation and will open Thursday at Santa Clara (21-8).

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Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma, whose 30-1 team has been ranked first all season, was asked Monday to compare his club to the 1994-95 team that went 35-0 and won it all. His answer was in part a tribute to his feisty, tough point guard that year, Jennifer Rizzotti.

“In ‘95, I could never yell at the point guard, because she would’ve hit me,” Auriemma said.

Rizzotti, by the way, at 25 was the youngest head coach in Division I this season, men or women, at the University of Hartford.

In her rookie season, working on a one-year contract, her team went 14-14. That was better than the 8-19 mark in 1999, and her deal was extended to four years. She will continue to play for the WNBA’s Houston Comets in the summer.

Rizzotti’s Connecticut team, Auriemma said, won with a special steadiness.

“We won that year with consistency,” he said. “It was an exceptionally efficient team.

“By comparison, this team drives me crazy. When this team is playing well, we’re as good [as] or better than any team I ever saw. But when we’re bad. . . . Hey, against Rutgers, we went 10 minutes without a field goal. That never happened to the ’95 team.

“This team is faster, more athletic and deeper than the ’95 team. But it’s much younger--at times, we have a freshman and four sophomores out there--and plays way above its experience level.”

Who’s his most valuable player? He tabbed his point guard. He always does.

“Sue Bird’s the quarterback. She plays the most important position on the floor. If it’s football and I have Jim Brown and Gale Sayers in my backfield, my quarterback is my MVP. Sue Bird takes seven shots a game and every one she makes seems to come at exactly the right time.”

The major difference in the men’s and women’s tournaments is that the men’s games are all on neutral courts. On the women’s side, the top-seeded teams get two early home games, and Auriemma said it’s likely to stay that way.

“I’m in favor of neutral sites, but it’s a lot bigger issue with teams that have to travel,” he said. “It has to happen down the road. But a lot of teams who want neutral sites need to do a better job of growing the women’s game in their areas. And maybe a lot of fans need to think about traveling with their teams.

“But the best team almost always wins, and that’s the bottom line.”