No Denying That Gadzuric Was the Center of Attention

This was Dan Gadzuric’s game.

UCLA ran a motion offense, four perimeter players and Gadzuric down low with room to roam because Arizona defenders had to fight through all the movement to get to Gadzuric. The offense was designed for Gadzuric.

Freedom is a wonderful thing and with Gadzuric on the move, running to the ball, slamming on the fly, rebounding and frolicking in the lane as if he was a kid who’d just been told school was canceled because of snow, he took advantage. Gadzuric had 22 points and 16 rebounds and was the big difference in UCLA’s 77-76 victory against Arizona.

Steve Lavin seems to have realized that the Bruins don’t win if Gadzuric isn’t brilliant and isn’t taking advantage of his skills. Lavin could be congratulated for discovering this or he could be questioned about why it took him so long to discover this. Gadzuric is, after all, a senior. All his talents and all his weaknesses should be obvious by now.

In this game, it was all his talents that were available for the Bruins to use. The single most impressive moment came after Gadzuric had the ball stolen from him by Jason Gardner. Gardner is 5-foot-10 and a guard. Gadzuric is 6-11 and a center. And still, when Gardner was going up for what he thought was an uncontested layup, Gadzuric had caught up and pinned the ball on the backboard. Goaltending was called and no UCLA fan at Pauley agreed with that. Gadzuric did hit the rim, but his speed and his leap made it seem obvious that Gadzuric should be having a much better season than he has.

Yet, even with Gadzuric amazing us all, it was time to take a deep breath and hang on for another scrambling, loopy, chaotic and wild ride to the end.

It is the Bruins’ best hope now that they cling to the opponent, not get blown out early and then fling themselves willy-nilly at the ball and at the basket. They flourish when they need the desperate three-point basket by Jason Kapono with 18.9 seconds to go. They need the frantic, arm-waving, crazy quilt defense at the end to stop Arizona from getting one more chance to score.

It is UCLA’s best hope that brilliant, exhausting, singular efforts such as Gadzuric’s keep the game from getting out of hand. And then the Bruins are at their best, when the game plans don’t matter and everybody on both teams is running around with no plan except to throw the ball into the basket.

That’s what happened for the second consecutive game at Pauley Pavilion, with a mad dash to the finish line. Against USC last week, Billy Knight made a nerveless game-winning shot from 22 feet away. This week, UCLA defenders were waving their arms frantically as Channing Frye’s baseline jump shot lipped out and as Arizona Coach Lute Olson was

screaming and gesturing that a foul be

called.

Arizona had come to UCLA as the leader of the Pacific 10 Conference. This is interesting because the Wildcats, having lost three starters from last year’s Final Four team, were supposed to struggle this season and not be in the class with the veteran Bruins.

It was mesmerizing to watch Luke Walton and Jason Gardner, Arizona’s two juniors, and the way they have gained an understanding of the game. Walton knows his young teammates and how to get them the ball in places where they can score. Gardner knew exactly how to beat his UCLA defender to a spot just outside the three-point line.

What the Bruins are learning to rely on is their hard headedness. They will not quit. If there is no lead they can call safe, there is also no deficit they feel is unconquerable. UCLA was behind nearly all game, by as much as 10, usually by seven or eight. The proof of this desire is that UCLA outrebounded the Wildcats, 45-28.

It is interesting watching the Bruin players figure out how to win at the end of games. You must believe they are doing it on their own, winning or losing, if you listen to their coach.

Again Thursday night, Lavin said what a bad coaching job he has been doing. He said that after the USC game and the Villanova game. Lavin said he did a “terrible job” in the final seconds of the UCLA loss Saturday at Villanova. He said he was doing “a bad job” of coaching his players on not dribbling too much, a habit that leads to turnovers. Almost every game now Lavin tells us “what a bad job I’ve done.”

If Lavin really means this, if he really believes he is such a bad coach, then he might want to think about resigning. If he is saying this only for effect, only to get the critics off his back, then it makes him look silly. And how is it instilling confidence in his players if the coach is always telling the world he is a bad coach?

How about zipping it up, Steve? How about working on keeping Gadzuric going and getting Kapono into his shooting spots, kind of like Olson gets Gardner to his. How about telling your team about dribbling too much instead of blaming yourself for not telling them? Then watch, with the rest of us, to see how it turns out.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com