It’s More Than an Exhibition

Everyone knows college basketball exhibitions are meaningless -- until you lose one.

UCLA lost two for the first time in history last year, foreshadowing a 10-19 season that ended with the firing of Steve Lavin.

“It was embarrassing,” forward Dijon Thompson said. “We thought we had a pretty good team. We ended up going upside down.”

The public gets its first look at how new Bruin Coach Ben Howland’s teams will play at 7:30 tonight in an exhibition against EA Sports West at Pauley Pavilion.

Although the talk is about commitment to defense and rebounding, the subtext is that winning matters and margins matter, even in exhibitions.

“Last year, when they lost their first exhibition game -- and I hate to talk about last year or dwell on last year; last year is over with,” Howland said. “But they did lose the first one by 30. So it’s one thing to lose a close one. It’s another to get blown out by 30 points. Any time you get beat badly, of course your fans [are upset], everyone should be upset -- most importantly, the players and coaches.”

UCLA’s loss to Branch West Academy was actually by 25. Their second loss was by six to an EA Sports team that had been winless until playing the Bruins.

The EA Sports West All-Stars team that visits Pauley tonight is 1-5, having been blown out by such teams as Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara, and having beaten only Colorado State, by two.

More pointedly to the Bruins, their opponents tonight know their way around the gym. Former Bruins Ray Young, Matt Barnes and Ed O’Bannon are on the team.

“It’s bragging rights,” Thompson said. “We’ve got ex-Bruins coming in and we won’t hear the end of it if we lose.”

The Bruins will be without forward T.J. Cummings, who is academically ineligible through at least the first three regular-season games.

Starting in his place will be freshman Trevor Ariza from Westchester High. He could find himself matched against O’Bannon, one of the leaders of the 1995 national championship team and winner of the Wooden Award as the national player of the year.

“It’s going to be a learning experience,” Ariza said. “With everything he’s accomplished in his whole lifetime, it’s humbling.”

Thompson said he was “pretty confident.”

“We’ve had really good practices,” he said. “I don’t think this is important for anybody else outside, but for ourselves. For us, this is pride. As a team, we’re going to try to do our best to win this game.”

The prospects for the season aren’t particularly optimistic, with a team that lost Jason Kapono and is picked to finish sixth in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Howland is focused on the long-term, saying it will take a couple of years to mold a team to play the way he wants.

The retooling of the roster begins in earnest with the opening of the fall signing period today. Four players are expected to sign with the Bruins: guard Arron Afflalo of Compton Centennial, guard Jordan Farmar of Woodland Hills Taft, forward Lorenzo Mata of South Gate High and guard Josh Shipp of Fairfax High.

Howland kept deflecting questions on his emotions about taking the court publicly for the first time as coach, saying that receiving the first signatures of new recruits means more at this point.

“That will be exciting,” he said.