Bruins Can Now Exhale

Texas Tech and Bob Knight.

In Tucson.

At the McKale Center.

Seeded 11th.

The mystery of UCLA’s immediate basketball future was solved Sunday.

For the first time in three years, the Bruins (18-10) will be going to the NCAA tournament. They will play in the Albuquerque Regional against the sixth-seeded Red Raiders (20-10) of the Big 12 Conference on Thursday at Arizona’s McKale Center and get a chance to match wits with legendary Coach Knight and his 852 career wins.

UCLA’s reentry into the 65-team NCAA tournament was a closer call than expected. No at-large teams were seeded lower than 11th. Northern Iowa and Alabama Birmingham were the other two non-automatic qualifiers on that No. 11 line, which means the Bruins were among the final three teams picked by the selection committee.

“I think we’re in a good position now,” UCLA senior Dijon Thompson said. “It’s been nerve-racking in the sense of where we were going but not that we were going to get in. We’re in Tucson, so I’m happy with an 11th seed. I’m satisfied.”

While the media were kept from the room where the team watched the NCAA selection show on television, Bruin Coach Ben Howland said the news wasn’t greeted with noisy hoots or hollers. A four-game winning streak to close the regular season trumped one uninspired loss to Oregon State in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament, the Bruins optimistically figured.

“I honestly always felt we were in,” Howland said, “even after the disappointing loss. Based on the body of work, the strength of our conference, you’ve got to look at all that. We did beat a No. 1 seed in the tournament in Washington.”

Texas Tech has qualified for the NCAA tournament for the third time in the four years since Knight became coach. The Red Raiders finished fourth in the Big 12 and advanced to Sunday’s conference tournament championship game for the first time in their history before losing to Oklahoma State, 72-68.

Knight will be making his 27th NCAA appearance in his 39 years as a Division I head coach.

Texas Tech has been carried by two small, quick guards. Senior Ronald Ross, 6 feet 2 and 175 pounds, who was recruited to Lubbock out of Hobbs, N.M., as a walk-on by Knight, is averaging nearly 17 points and five rebounds a game, while 6-1 sophomore Jarrius Jackson scores nearly 15 points a game and contributes about four assists.

Howland said it’s no secret what a Knight-coached team does. “They run motion,” he said, “and there’s not a lot of sets. It’s all based on reads and setting good screens and re-screening. They really push the ball. They’re obviously a good defensive team.”

It is the defensive opportunity to check Ross that had freshman guard Arron Afflalo excited. All season Afflalo has been charged with guarding the best opposing perimeter player.

“I’ve heard of the Ross kid,” Afflalo said. “I know he’s a very talented senior guard. I hope I’ll draw the assignment; I would love to draw that assignment, to limit him, to force him to have to deal with me. I don’t want to let him be a playmaker for that night. That’s what I really want.”

All the Bruins spoke of the positive. The 79-72 loss to Oregon State at Staples Center on Thursday, the way they fell behind by 22 points in the first half, that was all gone from the memory banks.

Instead, Sunday was a celebration of progress. A year ago, Howland was finishing his first season as Bruin coach with an 11-17 record and an uncertain future. For most of this season, UCLA has played with three freshman starters. Two of them, Afflalo and point guard Jordan Farmar, had looked ahead with jaunty naivete in the preseason. Making the NCAA tournament was a no-doubter, they said. The Sweet 16 or Elite Eight or Final Four, that was worth talking about.

“Years from now,” Farmar said, “we’ll know what to expect. Every game counts, from Day 1. Boston College, when we played them early in the year, knowing how big that win would have been had we gotten it, man, every game counts. The way you play counts. If you play good teams tough, that counts. But I really think that expecting to be here at the beginning of the year, that’s a big part of the reason we are here now.”

Afflalo put his hands over his eyes when reminded of his November prediction. “I’m glad that statement held up,” he said. “But I definitely won’t make that statement again. It was a struggle getting here. The team had to jell and everything else had to work out.

“You see us being an 11th seed and that let’s you know how close you were to not getting in. Just knowing we were three teams away from not even competing in the NCAA tournament, you have to learn from that.”

Howland sat in the same room where his hiring was announced less than two years ago wearing a dark suit and a sweaty smile. “This is a dream come true,” he said. “Even for teams that get there every year, I don’t care how many times you’ve been, it is special every time you lace it up for an NCAA tournament.”