Haunted in Hotel’s Halls

EUGENE, Ore. -- The Bruins always have a strange bedfellow on this trip -- archrival USC, which stays in the same hotel for three nights.

It pains UCLA players more than usual to pass their Trojan counterparts in the halls because they are reminded of opportunity lost.

Change the outcome of the two USC victories over the Bruins earlier this season and it would be UCLA battling for sixth place in the Pacific 10 Conference rather than the Trojans.

UCLA also would have the better overall record.

Instead, the Bruins (7-17) are 4-11 in the Pac-10 and tied for eighth place, the last spot in the Pac-10 tournament.

USC defeated the Bruins, 80-74, at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 8 and 86-85 at the Sports Arena on Feb. 5. Both were winnable for UCLA.

After winning two of their last three, though, the Bruins are in no mood to rue the past.

“I can’t separate out one loss from another,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “If anything, I go back to our really early losses when we lost our confidence.”

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It isn’t exactly the Cal Ripken Jr. farewell tour, but today likely marks the last road game on the UCLA sideline for Lavin. He professes no pangs of melancholy.

“Change is good for everybody sometimes,” he said. “I’ve stayed in the same room [at the Eugene hotel] for seven years. It did hit me, what a long time it’s been.”

The student section at McArthur Court is certain to have some choice chants for Lavin. A flier distributed on campus was headlined “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and went on to say: “Steve Lavin is inevitably done after this season and it would be wrong for the Pit Crew not to send him off with a proper send-off. Show up with your hair slicked back to show Steve how much you really care.”

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TODAY

at Oregon, 1 p.m., Channel 2

Site -- McArthur Court.

Radio -- XTRA (1150/690).

Records -- UCLA 7-17 overall, 4-11 in Pacific 10; Oregon 19-7, 9-6.

Update -- Duck guard Andre Joseph, who averages 10.1 points, will play after serving a one-game suspension for refusing to enter a game last Saturday. This is the last home game of the season for Oregon, which is 12-2 at McArthur Court. Bruin guard Cedric Bozeman will not play for the fourth game in a row because of a bruised right shoulder.