Bruins Don’t Want Ride to End Just Yet

Try as they may, UCLA coaches and players cannot expunge last season’s train wreck from record books and polite conversation.

All that matters to them is that the team is back on track, full steam ahead, and they wish everyone would merrily join their chugga-chugga choo-choo chant and forget the pesky past.

But then, No. 7 Arizona comes to town, and its mere presence reminds the Bruins of the nauseating ride they endured.

Last time the Wildcats visited UCLA, the Bruins surrendered.

During the first half.

Even Lute Olson, the stately Arizona coach, says so.

“When we beat them by that much, when you say if a team quit, they quit,” he said.

The 87-52 score was the worst loss ever at Pauley Pavilion, and Bruin starters were benched with 13 minutes to play. Meanwhile, the Wildcats transformed the floor that would become the Nell and John Wooden Court into their personal playground.

“You talk about having fun,” Bruin guard Dijon Thompson said. “They were running, gunning, laughing. There were some down points last year, but going into the record books with that one was near the bottom.”

Near? Actually, he’s right, it did get worse. Arizona beat UCLA, 106-70, in Tucson -- one point worse than the first loss.

Then, miraculously, it got better. The Wildcats started the Pacific 10 tournament ranked No. 1 and UCLA knocked them off, 96-89, giving outgoing Coach Steve Lavin the last laugh over Olson.

So, who has a greater revenge motive?

“There really isn’t any payback for anybody,” Bruin forward T.J. Cummings said. “It’s just a new season with new players.”

Or, in UCLA’s case, mostly the same players with new attitudes. The 9-3 record and 5-0 conference mark are the products of Coach Ben Howland’s themes of unselfishness, strong defense and rebounding.

“If you look at the difference Ben Howland has made, they are a disciplined ballclub -- both offensively and defensively,” Olson said. “They make you work for everything.”

Olson and Howland crossed paths once before, when the Wildcats beat Howland’s Northern Arizona team in November 1996, a season when Arizona won the national championship and Northern Arizona orchestrated the 10th-best single-season turnaround in NCAA history.

“When he went to NAU, he turned that program around and led them to the NCAA tournament,” Olson said. “Then he went to Pittsburgh when that program was down and turned that around. He’s a very intense guy and his team plays very aggressively and disciplined.”

Uncharacteristically, Arizona (10-3, 2-2) has not been doing those things lately. The Wildcats have lost two in a row (Stanford and USC) and planned to hold a team meeting at their hotel before playing UCLA.

“We’ve got to grow up,” Olson said. “We’ve got to understand that when you come out on the court, you’ve got to have smoke and fire coming out.”

Yes, Olson, the coolest customer among coaches, wants more heat from his players.

“I think they are too cool,” he said. “You can’t be cool.”

When the Wildcats held their meeting, presumably someone mentioned they had not lost three in a row since the end of the 1992 season, when losses at UCLA and USC were followed by a loss to East Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Then again, maybe they were taking UCLA’s tack: The past plays no part today.

“I don’t care about last year; last year is over,” Howland said, sounding a trifle annoyed at the constant delving into a disaster not of his making.

Howland’s institutional memory is purposely selective. He can rattle off names and records from the Wooden era as if it were yesterday. But bring up last season, when UCLA went 10-19 while he was leading Pittsburgh to the NCAA Sweet 16, and he pleads ignorance.

“I saw the scores. but my whole focus was Pittsburgh basketball,” he said. “I didn’t follow [the Bruins] on a day-to-day basis. I saw them play twice late in the year, laying in bed trying to go to sleep.”

He meant that he was lying down. Not the Bruins. That shameful episode is over and done. It’s time, he said, to move forward.

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For Starters

Ben Howland is the second UCLA coach to start conference at 5-0 in his first season since 1948-49, John Wooden’s first season at UCLA. The five-game starts for UCLA coaches in their first seasons and their conference and postseason records:

*--* Coach Season Conf. Start Conf. Finish Postseason STEVE LAVIN 1996-97 3-2 15-3 (1st) Reached NCAA round of eight JIM HARRICK 1988-89 4-1 13-5 (3rd) Reached NCAA second round WALT HAZZARD 1984-85 3-2 12-6 (3rd) Won NIT championship LARRY FARMER 1981-82 2-3 14-4 (2nd) None (NCAA probation) LARRY BROWN 1979-80 3-2 12-6 (4th) Lost in NCAA final to Louisville GARY CUNNINGHAM 1977-78 5-0 14-0 (1st) Reached NCAA round of 16 GENE BARTOW 1975-76 4-1 13-1 (1st) Reached NCAA Final Four JOHN WOODEN 1948-49 3-2 10-2 (1st) Lost in best-of-three Pacific Coast playoff

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