Maples Upset Made Harder

It’s time for a Maples miracle, an annual ritual for UCLA.

The Bruins upset Stanford on its home floor the last two seasons and get another chance today. Will there be a three-peat?

Anything is possible, but this one smells different. There is a definite whiff of desperation in the air, a botched and bungled season that might be beyond repair.

Senior forward Matt Barnes, who scored 38 points in two games against Stanford last season, was suspended by the Pacific 10 Conference for today’s game. Barnes pushed California guard Shantay Legans so hard with 2:44 to play Thursday that Legans hit his head on the floor and was unconscious for two minutes.

Stanford was ranked No. 1 the last two times the teams met here, making the UCLA victories colossal achievements. But the Bruins have so many deeply ingrained problems and so few players performing well that stealing another victory at Maples Pavilion seems implausible.

With three regular-season games and the conference tournament remaining, a better bet is that No. 25 UCLA (17-9, 9-6) will have fewer than 20 victories entering the NCAA tournament. The Bruins play host to first-place Oregon and struggling Oregon State next week.

No. 10 Stanford (17-7, 10-5), which concludes the regular season with a visit to No. 14 Arizona and Arizona State, is also searching for answers after crumbling in the second half and losing by 19 points to USC on Thursday. It was Stanford’s worst home loss in nine years.

There is no overconfidence among the Cardinal, no taking UCLA for granted.

“We have to come back with energy, with cohesiveness, and fight a little,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We’re going to have to dig down and find out what we’re made of.”

Meanwhile, the Bruins awoke Friday, looked in the mirror and barely recognized themselves. Who were those guys mustering a measly 18 points in the first half and 51 overall against Cal?

Familiar problems--spotty point-guard play, leaky defense, lack of leadership--were joined by alarming new ones--poor perimeter shooting by Jason Kapono and Billy Knight, bickering among Bruins after several of their season-high 22 turnovers, and the angry, ugly forearm thrown by Barnes.

Referee David Hall, who called a flagrant foul and ejected Barnes, told Pac-10 officials Friday the player was ejected for fighting, prompting the suspension.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt [Legans], and I lost sleep over it,” Barnes said. “I couldn’t sleep until 4 a.m. because I know I’m going to hurt my team [by not playing today].”

The only Bruin who has helped recently is Dan Gadzuric, who has strung together three consecutive strong performances. Everyone else is struggling, and some players are pointing to Gadzuric’s increased involvement in the offense as the reason.

“I was told to get Dan the ball inside,” Knight said, explaining why he took only six shots against Cal.

Coach Steve Lavin also has urged players to avoid hurrying shots, make the extra pass and whittle down the shot clock. Sound advice, but it isn’t working either. Kapono and Knight are passing up open looks and the offense is thrown into panic mode when the shot clock ticks under 10 seconds because the playmaking ability of point guards Cedric Bozeman and Ryan Walcott is lacking.

“We are thinking too much before we shoot, making passes when we are wide open,” Barnes said. “We’re making a concerted effort to get the ball to Dan and that’s worked for him. But we can’t over-pass. We’ve got to shoot too and help Dan out.”

Barnes, of course, won’t be making any passes or shots today. Sophomore T.J. Cummings will start in his place and Lavin said freshman Andre Patterson will get more playing time than usual.

“The main issue is that Matt realizes he shouldn’t have let emotions get the better of him and he shouldn’t have retaliated the way he did,” Lavin said. “That part is inexcusable.”

However, the on-court quibbling is pardonable to Lavin, who interprets it as leadership.

“I’ve encouraged the older guys to, when necessary, get us organized,” he said. “I’m glad the players were a little salty. It shows they are emotionally engaged and involved.

“It was encouraging in the second half, we played with an edge and were frustrated. Now it has to be channeled into playing more efficient, better basketball.”

And should the Bruins do so, they believe it’s not too late to salvage the season.

“I can’t say I’m worried,” Lavin said. “We are discouraged, but I still really like this basketball team. In the second half of the season, we’ve beat USC and Arizona, two teams we lost to in the first half of league. We’ve shown the ability to beat anybody. That’s what keeps the hope alive that we can do something special.”

Last season’s 79-73 victory at Stanford qualified as extraordinary. So did the 94-93 overtime victory two years ago.

But these Cardinal players are not resting on any laurels, not after the Trojans ran away from them in the second half.

“I imagine we’ll see a determined, fired-up and focused Stanford team,” Lavin said.

The question is whether Stanford will see the same in UCLA.