He Can’t Scrub Out This Stain

Pauley Pavilion absorbed the worst insult in its history Saturday, at least on paper. No team had ever beaten UCLA by more points within those walls.

The overwhelming sense is it’s going to get worse.

Maybe not by the numbers -- although anyone who watched the game knows UCLA’s 87-52 loss to an Arizona team poised to ascend to No. 1 could have been by 50 if the Wildcats had actually played well.

But the remaining spirit in this 4-9 team and among UCLA fans figures to flicker out long before this season does.

Athletic Director Dan Guerrero wants to keep his word that he won’t fire a coach during the season.

Steve Lavin doesn’t want to be a quitter.

But if this season goes the way it looks as if it will, it does UCLA basketball no good for either of them to be true to their word.

A lot of people are putting on good faces for now, though you can’t count the fan with the paper bag on his head and the “B” in Bruins crossed out to leave “Ruins.”

Admire Jason Kapono for staying in the middle of the bench and clapping for his teammates when he was benched for the final 13 minutes of the game, instead of going to the last chair and pouting.

And no matter how much you might want Lavin gone, grant him respect for his ability to put on a show of calm in this storm.

That isn’t to say he isn’t panicking on some levels.

His weirdest move Saturday wasn’t sending in the scrub players seven minutes into the second half.

That’s an old trick Dean Smith used to call the Blue Team. He would send in the last five guys off the bench, usually including a walk-on or two, and they’d play their hearts out for a couple of minutes while the starters got a rest and a reminder of what it means to play hard.

“I think it was a good move on [Lavin’s] part,” forward Josiah Johnson said. “They came out and busted their [butts]. I won’t say if it was effective or not, but they brought a lot of energy.”

But taking out the two seniors, Kapono and Ray Young, with 13 minutes left and not putting them back in risked splintering the team or losing those two players.

Young hasn’t scored in two games. That’s one thing.

Kapono might be streaky, but he is what the Bruins have.

“I thought I was just coming out, but he wanted a spark off the bench and I wasn’t playing my game,” Kapono said, declining to complain.

“Janou [Rubin] and Marcedes [Lewis], they came out and played hard.”

Those words are a display of leadership and grace by Kapono, but it’s hard to imagine that lasting if the desperate substitution patterns continue.

“That’s up to Coach Lavin,” Kapono said. “Obviously a lot of strategies he’s tried haven’t worked.”

Forward T.J. Cummings only shrugged.

“To tell the truth, the situation has been so crazy, I didn’t really realize they weren’t out there,” he said.

Kapono sat as the game dragged on, his face never betraying him.

“Any time we lose the way we did is obviously tough. We can’t dwell on it. We’ve got to move on,” he said.

“They weren’t playing very good, but we were playing worse than that. That was a dismal first half.... Obviously we didn’t score on shots we should have. I think we’re doing too much thinking, trying to think, figure it out with theories or philosophies instead of just playing.”

They’re playing under the dark clouds of a storm that will not blow over.

It is a situation Guerrero sought to avoid when he fired Bob Toledo after a 7-5 football season, reasoning that another season would only be full of negativity and inevitability.

He has gotten into precisely that situation with Lavin.

Once it became evident Lavin had virtually no hope of surviving, once crowds who boo freely and leave early -- or, worse, shout “U of A!” -- took over Pauley, Lavin lost whatever magic he had.

The players don’t seem to believe he can save himself.

Even he doesn’t seem to believe it.

So even if you remember that the famous “Maples Massacre” -- a 109-61loss at Stanford when Lavin was interim coach in 1997 -- was followed by a run to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight, no one expects a run like that with this team’s talent level.

If Guerrero and Lavin come to some understanding that concludes this chapter sooner rather than later, don’t criticize them for not keeping their word. It could even be seen as a noble gesture.

For now, the Bruins press on, even if the possibility of salvaging anything from this season is only illusion.

“We’re in a frustrating stretch of basketball,” Lavin said. “I’m going to keep trying to teach and coach.”

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Westwood Woe

UCLA’s loss to Arizona on Saturday was the worst for the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion history. Since 1965 when the building opened, UCLA has a 525-72 record at home and never had lost more than six games in a season. Their home record this season is 2-7. The worst losses:

*--* Season Opponent Result Margin Coach Record 2002-03 Arizona 87-52 35 Steve Lavin 4-9 1992-93 California 104-82 22 Jim Harrick 22-11 1975-76 Oregon 65-45 20 Gene Bartow 28-4 1999-00 Gonzaga 59-43 16 Steve Lavin 21-12 1983-84 DePaul 84-68 16 Larry Farmer 17-11 1999-00 Arizona 76-61 15 Steve Lavin 21-12 1999-00 Stanford 78-63 15 Steve Lavin 21-12

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