UCLA reaches for an NCAA Championship

Steve Carp

Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.

That haggard look Steve Lavin habitually wore last season is gone. Which is a positive sign for UCLA's demanding fans who treat anything short of a trip to the Final Four as an abysmal failure.

But that's what 11 national championship banners will do for you. You're only as good as your last ring.

So averaging 24 victories a year, winning 73 percent of your games, going to the Elite Eight and the Sweet 16 and winning one of the toughest conferences in the nation looks good in print. But it doesn't net you any jewelry.

So Lavin, now devoid of suspension problems from a year ago that disrupted his team and armed with the nation's No. 1 recruiting class, sets out to get another banner for the Pauley Pavilion rafters and another ring to go with the one he won in 1995 as Jim Harrick's assistant.

Despite a couple of setbacks a couple of weeks ago in Puerto Rico, the No. 15 Bruins are in good shape, sporting a 4-2 record headed into Saturday's meeting with 4-3 UNLV in Westwood.

"This is a good kind of pressure," he said of his attempt to mold his young but extremely talented team into a national title contender. "You have a chance to coach great players and chase goals like going after a national championship."

There are 309 Division I coaches in America who would like to have Lavin's problem. Make that 308. Duke's Mike Kryzyzewski probably isn't sweating it. But the rest of them would love the chance to coach a player the caliber of a JaRon Rush, a Dan Gadzuric, a Matt Barnes, a Jerome Moiso or a Ray Young.

It's like having five different styles of Rolex watches and figuring out which one goes best with your outfit. No matter which one you choose, you're going to look great.

"We're still learning," he said of his young but talented team that features just one senior (Brandon Loyd). "But I like the direction we're headed. Since we lost to Maryland (in Puerto Rico 70-54), we went back to the drawing board.

"We needed to sustain our defensive intensity and our defensive patience. Same on offense. Our biological clock was faster than our shot clock. We were in a rush to do everything instead of taking our time."

The task had been compounded by the absence of sophomore point guard Baron Davis, who despite having just one year's experience, is the undisputed leader of this team. Davis was recovering from surgery on his left knee last spring and only recently returned to the Bruins' lineup.

That caused a ripple effect of sorts as Earl Watson, who had been running the team at the point in Davis' absence, returned to his normal shooting guard spot. But the two work so well together, so there was no slippage. If anything, it has united the Bruins and accelerated the freshmen's learning process.

"They're like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Lavin said of his backcourt tandem. "They know each other so well and the new guys have so much respect for Baron and Earl. It's not been a problem."

His only "problem" is trying to get everyone enough minutes. Davis' setback freed up time for Barnes early on. Young is averaging just eight minutes a game, but the highly touted guard from the Bay Area is starting to warrant more time.

Meanwhile, Moiso, a 6-10 1/2 freshman forward from Milford Academy in Connecticut by way of the West Indies, has emerged as UCLA's top scorer and rebounder, averaging 13.7 points and 6.2 boards.

"Jerome and Matt were the sleepers of the class," Lavin said. "They didn't get the publicity that JaRon and Dan did. But they've been tremendous for us. They're hard workers and they're real competitors."

They're also freshmen. Which means Lavin can't predict what will happen Saturday.

"We have to close the gap between potential and performance," he said. "How well we close that gap will determine how well we do."

But Lavin's doing well off the court. Nobody is being disciplined. No one is being suspended.

"It's more the way I imagined coaching would be like," he said. "This is a more conventional situation. But the last two years were very rewarding because of the adversity we had to overcome.

"Not too many things are going to surprise me. There's not too many curveballs."

Other than trying to figure out what's inside some freshman's head.