Last Time to Feel at Home

For the third year in a row, Jason Kapono will watch his senior teammates honored in a pregame ceremony at the last UCLA home game. They will accept bouquets of flowers, hug their teary-eyed parents and even the most jaded fans will cheer.

And for the third year in a row, Kapono will wonder if it, too, is his last game at Pauley Pavilion. The high-scoring junior forward seriously considered jumping to the NBA each of the last two seasons and will do so again.

But he isn’t tipping his hand. And he insists he won’t become emotional at the thought of today’s game against Oregon being his last at home.

“I’m not even going to think about it at all,” he said. “I don’t need to put a crease in my head, pressing because I’m thinking about that stuff. I’m going to go out and play.

“If I decide to leave, so be it. But I haven’t made that decision. I won’t get caught up in thinking about it [today].”

*

Besides giving their parents a chance to beam with pride, seniors Dan Gadzuric, Billy Knight, Matt Barnes and Rico Hines want something else out of their last home game.

A victory.

They remember losing to Stanford last season in the last home game for seniors Earl Watson, Ryan Bailey, Todd Ramasar and Jason Flowers.

“I’m going to cherish the moment and play as hard as I can,” Knight said. “Losing on senior day last year hurt. We’ll play with a lot of emotion.”

Gadzuric, who had nine rebounds and six points against Oregon State while committing only two fouls, seems to be getting better treatment from Pacific 10 Conference officials.

Backing in toward the basket late in the first half of Thursday’s game, he sent Beaver center Philip Ricci sprawling. A whistle sounded, but the call was on Ricci for blocking, and Gadzuric let out a breath of relief.

The 6-foot-11 center fouled out in the waning seconds of the Bruins’ victory at Stanford last week after playing the entire game to that point, ending a streak of nine games in a row in which he had not fouled out.

*

A UCLA victory against Oregon combined with a California victory at Arizona would deprive the Ducks of an outright regular-season title, but the Bruins are more concerned about their fate.

A loss could leave UCLA alone in sixth place, which would be the Bruins’ worst Pac-10 finish.

A Bruin victory coupled with a Cal loss would boost UCLA into a second-place tie. Winning also would give UCLA 20 victories for the 14th consecutive season.