Bruins’ Picture Never in Focus

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Rico Hines sat in front of his stall in the UCLA locker room, pouring out his emotions.

Really. He had flaked off most of the blue label from his bottled water as Thursday night became Friday morning, now about 12:15 a.m., and had squirted about 90% of those 24 ounces through the sport-cap nozzle.

Didn’t even bother to unscrew it. Just sat there and mostly stared at the ground, still in his uniform, though no longer in his junior season, and soaked a small patch of the brown-tinted carpet into black.

The release was his release, when there was nothing else to do.

The Bruins had just been crushed by Iowa State in the Sweet 16 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, leaving them all to wonder what had suddenly gone so wrong as quickly as it had gone so right about five weeks earlier. A season gone full circle, until everyone was dizzy.

There was much to consider, even if the focus was on the moment. They underachieved through most of the season. They played to potential, and beyond, at the end. And then, not only a loss to end it, but a 24-point loss, so resounding a defeat that they spent 60% of it trailing by double figures.

Iowa State 80, UCLA 56 was hardly the Bruins’ worst showing of the season. It was nothing compared to Gonzaga, USC I, Arizona State II and Arizona II, or the last 60 seconds at Washington. But it was enough of a beating that it would not allow them to ease into the off-season while thinking only of gains.

They had earned the right to have the great five-week ride coast to a smooth finish, as if simply running out of gas, because just being in position to get hammered by Iowa State was an accomplishment. They had earned the chance to feel vindicated after being 13-11 and in seventh place in the Pacific 10 Conference with a looming National Invitation Tournament berth. Even Coach Steve Lavin, who had been there as an assistant for a national championship and was in charge for a trip to the Elite Eight, said this “was probably the most rewarding, satisfying season I’ve been involved in.”

Heady stuff considering the Bruins went from thinking of themselves as contenders for the conference title when the season began to latching on to a fourth-place tie on the final day of the Pac-10 schedule, and that they had gone from 24 wins in Lavin’s first two seasons to 22 to 21 in this one. They would not allow that to take away from playing with little offensive discipline, from being unable to muster so much as consistent passion, for 75% of the season.

“When I think back on the season, I think it was the most growth and development I can remember, both as individuals and teams,” Lavin said. “That’s what makes it the most rewarding season I’ve been involved in in my 12 years at Division I.”

The schedule was very tough, but so were the circumstances. JaRon Rush, who would have lost his job as the starting small forward to Jason Kapono anyway, played the first three games, then was suspended for the next 24 because of NCAA violations. Matt Barnes served an academic suspension the first first five games, meaning the Bruins didn’t have a full squad until Game 28. Nagging injuries early slowed the learning curve on the new offense. Earl Watson struggled in the transition from shooting guard to the full-time point for the first time.

But the biggest issue came from within. Rather, it didn’t.

After professing an increased maturity level from the start of the season, the Bruins never showed it on the court. They regularly acknowledged they did not play hard an entire game, leading to wildly inconsistent performances the same night, or, worse, did not play with any heart. At least they realized it.

That never went away. The line-in-the-sand stand against Oregon, the historic Bay Area trip and the detonation versus Maryland were great moments, to be sure. They proved what could happen when that focus was combined with that complete lineup.

But they were also rarities. The planets were not often aligned.

“We have things we need to clean up,” center Dan Gadzuric said moments after the Iowa State loss, when asked to look ahead to next season. “Like today, it looked like we didn’t come to play.”

Twenty feet away in the same locker room, guard Ryan Bailey got the same query. What do the Bruins need to most fix for next season?

“Just focus,” he said. “That’s it. Get a focused and competitive spirit for 40 minutes.

“We know how good we can be. We always knew how good we could be.”

It couldn’t have been a much stranger ending, or a more fitting one. The Bruins talking about their unrealized potential just as they reached that potential in the last five weeks. Sort of an awareness of how good it really could have been, even with the suspensions and injuries and lineup changes.

One of the firebrands, senior Sean Farnham, is leaving. He could be the only departure, or Rush, another energizer, and starter Jerome Moiso could bolt for the NBA, causing a frontcourt vacuum.

If they come back, it’ll essentially be the same Bruins that beat Stanford and Maryland opening in the Coaches Vs. Cancer tournament against either St. John’s, Kansas or Kentucky. Imagine the potential, with Watson in his second year as point guard and no new offense to learn.

All that Final Four talk.

“The last eight games have showed we can be a great team,” Jason Kapono said.

All that focus to gain.

Fifteen feet away from where Kapono was sitting, 45 minutes after getting blown out of the NCAA tournament, a few Bruins were in a corner of the locker room, laughing away. They were playing Hangman on the chalkboard.

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UCLA Who’s Who

Sizing up the 1999-2000 Bruin basketball roster:

* Ryan Bailey--The Bruins had some of their best showings--DePaul, North Carolina, Oregon II, California II--when he started or played big minutes. But the minutes for the last six games were typical of his whiplash role: five, 10, 20, three, 17 and, most recently, eight.

* Matt Barnes--One of the candidates to be the new starting power forward if Jerome Moiso opts for the NBA.

* Brandon Brooks--Starting goalie on the Bruins’ national-championship water polo team played 27 minutes in nine games after joining the team in December for practice depth.

* Sean Farnham--Try telling him this was not an All-American career. He not only fulfilled a lifetime dream of playing for UCLA but went from freshman walk-on to a senior season of 11 starts and had one trip to the Elite Eight and two to the Sweet 16.

* Dan Gadzuric--Still says he isn’t giving much consideration to going pro, even after a sophomore season when his knees held up much better than expected, meaning his chances of getting to the NBA may not be this good again.

* Rico Hines--And a grown-up shall lead them. He’ll turn 23 midway through his senior season and still be making greater contributions in the locker room than his statistics will ever indicate.

* Jason Kapono--This was a freshman?

* Billy Knight--Went from briefly quitting the team in late December over a lack of playing time to starting the final five games and solidifying a prominent role, in the opening lineup or off the bench, for next season.

* Jerome Moiso--Could be a first-round pick if he decides to go out and an all-conference power forward if he decides to come back for his junior season.

* Todd Ramasar--Returns for junior season in 2000-01 after redshirting because of shoulder surgery.

* JaRon Rush--When simply playing again this season would have been enough of a success story, his play helped push the Bruins to the next level. A six-game What-Could-Have-Been.

* Earl Watson--No Bruin player put up with more grief. No Bruin player deserves more credit for what happened at the end.

* Ray Young--Went from a 46.9% shooter as a freshman to 36.8%, costing him the starting job. But remained the best backcourt defender.

* Coach Steve Lavin--That ought to shut up the critics. Until November.