Finishing Strong Is the Goal

There’s no arguing with cold, hard facts. The Bruins know the lofty goals, hopes and aspirations they had only a few weeks ago are hereby unattainable.

The 9-3 start that inspired NCAA tournament talk, the 5-0 Pacific 10 Conference mark that conjured dreams of a high conference tournament seeding, that’s all been muted by a slump that has UCLA mired at 10-11, 6-7 in the Pac-10.

Coach Ben Howland spoke to the players this week about reassessing their goals -- in other words, lowering them considerably.

“I told them we have to try to get a winning season, No. 1,” he said. “We don’t want a losing season.

“And mathematically, nobody is out of the Pac-10 tournament yet. We have to make sure we get in there.”

The Bruins are scrambling to avoid a total disaster, a finish even more unspeakable than the recent 1-8 stretch. The schedule doesn’t bode well for potential victories, the best bets being a home game against California on Thursday, a visit to USC next week and a March 4 date at Oregon State.

Winning those three could enable UCLA to finish in better than sixth place for the first time since 2000-01. Lose one or more and the Bruins could end up facing Stanford or Arizona in the first round of the tournament, an almost certain conclusion to the season.

“Our goal is to get there and to build momentum because anything can happen once you get there,” Howland said of the conference tournament.

*

Reserve point guard Ryan Walcott is slowing rebuilding a confidence level that had been, well, leveled, by the fact that Howland was unimpressed with his ability.

Walcott led the Bruins with 90 assists last season, providing about 22 minutes a game of steady, if unspectacular, ballhandling off the bench. That meant nothing to Howland, who rarely replaced starter Cedric Bozeman early in the season.

Lately, though, Howland has looked to the bench more often, Bozeman has had problems bringing the ball up the court against pressure, and Walcott has shown signs of playing at the level he did last season.

“When the coach has trust in me, I have confidence in myself,” Walcott said.

UCLA had 28 turnovers in a loss to Arizona on Saturday, but Walcott had only one in 22 minutes. He also had eight points, four rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in UCLA’s victory over Washington on Feb. 7.

Howland remains spare in his praise of Walcott, saying that he played as much as he did against Arizona only because his teammates couldn’t handle the ball.

“That game dictated it,” Howland said. “Yeah, Ryan is doing a good job for us. Everybody has their limitations. I need to play him more like I did against Washington, about 12 minutes.”

That’s fine with Walcott, for whom the memories of a few DNPs (did not play) are still fresh.

“There have been times I’d get so mad,” he said. “I would get on the phone to my family, and they’d tell me to stick it out. I didn’t give up, and I’m just going to keep trying to help the team win.”

*

Reserve forward Josiah Johnson strained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during practice and is not expected to play against Cal and Stanford this week.