UCLA Plays Team in a Zone

It’s a bit like the rookie who makes it to the World Series, takes it for granted and never gets there again.

On Feb. 13, 1997, two days after the interim tag was peeled from Steve Lavin’s title as UCLA coach, the Bruins swaggered into McKale Center and knocked off national championship-bound Arizona, 66-64.

Too bad it’s nothing but an uplifting campfire story to current Bruins. Even fifth-year seniors Billy Knight and Rico Hines know only losses here, by margins of 12, 17, 15 and 25 points from 1998-2001.

Those games are retold as horror stories. There’s the loudest crowd in the Pacific 10 Conference (Stanford’s Casey Jacobson says so). There’s the most unflappable coach (Cool Hand Lute Olson). There are Wildcat streaks that spread like wildfire.

“They go on killer spurts, not 10-2 spurts, but 28-2 spurts with dunks, layups and threes like a blur,” Bruin guard Jason Kapono said. “That’s how they beat you.”

USC can add testimony. The Trojans fell behind, 34-7, and lost by 17 to No. 15 Arizona (12-4, 5-2 in the conference) Thursday night while No. 9 UCLA (13-3, 5-1) slipped past Arizona State.

The Wildcats’ stifling 3-2 zone defense with long-armed 6-foot-8 Luke Walton in the middle swallowed up 5-10 Trojan point guard Brandon Granville, who was scoreless. UCLA point guard Cedric Bozeman is 6-6, so Walton might give him less trouble.

But the Arizona junior whose father, Bill, was a UCLA legend, can hurt in many ways. He had a career game against USC, with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, making amends for losing his composure last Saturday in a victory at Washington, when he received a technical foul and sat much of the second half because of four personals.

“I apologized to everybody on the team,” he said. “I lost my composure and I can’t do that. The team needs me in there.”

Olson said it was the best performance he has seen at McKale Center.

“Luke was great not only from the offensive standpoint, but he was really key in the middle of the zone defense,” he said. “I’ve seen triple-doubles, but I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone do it better.”

Arizona, which upset then-No. 2 Maryland, No. 5 Florida and No. 5 Illinois early in the season, is hardly a one-man team, despite four starters departing for the NBA after last season’s NCAA final.

Junior point guard Jason Gardner averages 21.2 points and 4.9 assists. Junior forward Rick Anderson, a longtime friend of Kapono who grew up in Long Beach, averages 13.4.

And the Wildcats have a freshman class that has been superior to UCLA’s trio of Bozeman, Dijon Thompson and Andre Patterson.

Two are starters--guard Salim Stoudamire averages 12.1 points and 6-10 center Channing Frye averages 9.3 points and 6.7 rebounds. Guard Will Bynum, forward Dennis Latimore and center Isaiah Fox get generous minutes off the bench.

The drawback of playing so many freshmen--as Lavin and Olson have discovered--is that for every highlight there is a breakdown.

“A big reason we play zone defense is to keep the older guys--Walton, Gardner and Anderson--out of foul trouble,” Olson said. “Even so, we had four freshmen in the lineup against USC for a stretch. Defensively, it takes time for them to get coordinated.

“We don’t do a great job of communicating switches with the freshmen. It makes a big difference when Luke is out there with them. He’s like a security blanket.”

UCLA also plays a lot of zone. And plays a lot of freshmen. And has a forward performing well enough to take over a game.

Matt Barnes has scored 80 points in his last three games. But it is his well-rounded game that impresses Olson.

“Barnes is shooting the lights out and he’s their leading assist man,” Olson said. “He’s playing as well as anybody--period.”

So the teams are similar and about equal. The difference could be the home-court advantage.

“I told the freshmen to stay poised, it gets real loud during their patented runs,” Hines said.

UCLA is 3-0 against ranked opponents (USC was not ranked when it beat the Bruins). In fact, UCLA has not played better than in victories against Kansas, Georgetown and Alabama. But two of those games were at home and one was at the friendly Wooden Classic.

“Winning on the road against a good team is important,” Knight said. “Winning at Arizona is like a mission. It’s something we’ve never done. It’s something we want to do. And this is the last chance for some of us.”

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Down Wildcat Way

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