Stanford No. 1 on To-Do List

With his UCLA basketball team at a crossroads, Coach Steve Lavin is in the cross hairs.

The Bruins began their most difficult five-game stretch of the season Thursday in an abysmal way, losing by 29 at California. Today, they play at No. 1 Stanford, then continue on the road with games at USC and DePaul. Waiting for them when they get back to Pauley Pavilion in two weeks will be Arizona, which embarrassed them by 25 in Tucson last month.

These Bruins have the reputation of playing their best when painted into a corner, as they did last season when they won their last six games to squeak into the NCAA tournament.

But things are different this year. The players simply aren’t as good. And, for the first time, Lavin has to deal with the enemy within, not just critics outside the program. The support he once had from UCLA’s administration has eroded. By all accounts, even some of his most ardent backers are now lukewarm on keeping him as coach.

One person unyielding in his support is point guard Earl Watson, who made a thinly veiled reference to the coach’s conspicuous lack of support within the walls of the Morgan Center. Rick Pitino’s name officially surfaced in early January when Athletic Director Peter Dalis told reporters of two conversations he’d had with the then-Boston Celtic coach, long believed to be interested in the UCLA job.

“The whole Pitino rumor, or whatever it was, gave other schools ammunition to use against us,” Watson said. “Kind of put us in a bad position. It definitely makes me mad. That it’s even a factor, or it’s able to be used, disappoints me a lot.”

So when Cal students held up pictures of Pitino reading, “I got next, Lavin,” the prank hit close to home for the embattled coach.

Lavin was asked if he ever takes a step back, studies the situation and laughs at the craziness of it all.

“Well, you have no choice,” he said Friday, forcing a smile. “I thought the Cal band was pretty creative last night. I liked that. That [Pitino flier] is definitely one to show the grandchildren.”

Lavin has no intention of keeping that memento, of course, nor does he want to hang onto the videotape of the humiliating loss. His players also are in a hurry to purge the memory.

“We have to realize that we just have to flush it and get away from it,” Watson said. “Otherwise, it will linger around longer than it has to, or longer than it’s supposed to, and we’ll lose again.”

The Bruins do a good job of letting go of such losses. They can’t seem to find a way to avoid them, though, or grow from their experiences. In the last 1 1/2 seasons, UCLA has been reduced to Pac-10 road kill at USC, Oregon, Arizona (twice), Arizona State and Cal--losing those games by an average of 21 points.

The latest loss was particularly painful for them. They fell behind by 22 in the first half and were buried under an avalanche of three-pointers.

“My teammates and I just got caught up in being angry and frustrated,” forward Matt Barnes said. “They had a great crowd, and that’s what a crowd is supposed to do: Razz the players. They did a great job of getting into some of our players’ heads.

“You want to play until the end, but you get to the point where you’re just like, ‘Man, are they ever going to stop making shots?’ That point never came. It was pretty depressing because we were down by 30 pretty much the whole game. Coming down the stretch, we were just playing for respect.”

When it comes to rowdy fans, Stanford offers no reprieve. The Cardinal student section and band are notoriously raucous, especially for a nationally televised game against UCLA. A year ago, the Bruins overcame long odds--and a 15-point deficit--to win a do-or-die game by a point in overtime at Stanford, which was ranked No. 1.

That was widely considered a shining moment for Lavin, whose team had sloshed to a 4-8 start in the Pacific 10 Conference before finishing with an incredible flurry of six consecutive victories, each more thrilling than the last.

The two main heroes from that skin-saving run--Jerome Moiso and JaRon Rush--are no longer on the team. Moiso was an NBA lottery pick of the Celtics; Rush bolted early for the pros, came up short on his expectations, and wound up with the Los Angeles Stars of the minor league American Basketball Assn. In the 94-93 victory at Stanford, Rush scored eight of the Bruins’ 14 points in the extra period and made the game-winning jump shot from the left baseline with three seconds to play. The game was a triumphant return for the junior forward, who was just coming off a three-month suspension.

Meanwhile, there was no underestimating the impact of 6-foot-11 Moiso in the low post. He constantly drew double teams, creating open shots for center Dan Gadzuric and forward Jason Kapono. Clearly, with Moiso gone, that dynamic has changed.

Barnes is having a breakout year, and Kapono always has the potential to get hot. But the Bruins are wildly inconsistent and their half-court offense is rarely effective. They have used the press to set the tone in a lot of games, yet it hasn’t worked as well on the road and was a non-factor against Cal, as it had been in the second half against Arizona, when fleet-footed Watson was on the bench.

The next four games will go a long way toward determining the fate of these Bruins. If they can win at least two, the pressure will be greatly reduced. If they get swept, they probably will need to win six of seven to keep their tournament hopes alive. Either way, the coach will be feeling the heat.

“It’s definitely worse than it’s been the last couple of years,” Watson said of the pressure on Lavin. “He’s holding up pretty good, though. He’s stayed very positive. But it doesn’t help when we play terrible. You can’t put all that on the coach. Players have got to play, and we didn’t play at all.”

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UCLA at STANFORD

Today

Noon

Channel 7

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USC at CALIFORNIA

Today

5 p.m.

Fox Sp. Net

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PEPPERDINE

IS ROUTED

93-79 win gives Gonzaga sole possession of WCC lead. D10