Coaches Play Role Reversal

They were on opposite ends of the Pacific 10 Conference standings.

UCLA opened 5-0.

Washington opened 0-5.

Husky Coach Lorenzo Romar was feuding with his only senior, guard Curtis Allen, and looking as if he might soon become another rolling head in Seattle, following football coach Rick Neuheisel and athletic director Barbara Hedges.

Bruin Coach Ben Howland was fawning over his team, saying, “These are great kids. They are very open to what I want to do. We are improving game in and game out.”

Then came the screeching halts, the U-turns and one-way trips on the roads to nowhere (UCLA) or glory (Washington).

UCLA has won two of its last 15.

Washington has won 12 of its last 14.

The Huskies are playing for an NCAA tournament bid, perhaps needing only a victory today.

Technically, so are the Bruins, but there is absolutely no indication they could rattle off three wins in as many days.

The two coaches who met while playing pickup games at Cerritos College in the 1970s have changed their tunes.

Romar is chirping excitedly about his team’s prospects, saying: “We don’t know what the [NCAA selection] committee is going to do, so we want to make it easier for the committee and win as many games as possible.”

Meanwhile, Howland has been humbled by the inability of his team to negotiate another U-turn, this time in the right direction: “There’s no quick fix to it.”

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Perhaps nothing could help UCLA more than for guard Brian Morrison to regain a semblance of the form he exhibited before getting injured for the first time in December.

The aggressive Morrison is the only Bruin who can match the quickness of Husky guards Nate Robinson and Will Conroy. But he has not found rhythm on either end of the court because of his seeming never-ending battle with injuries.

The 11-for-15 shooting performance Dec. 3 against UC Riverside and the three-for-three from long range and outstanding defense against Michigan State on Dec. 20 are distant memories. It was against the Spartans that Morrison suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out of the next nine games.

His comeback lasted two games before an ankle injury sidelined him for six of the next eight.