Despite Loss, They Gained

The loss to Villanova might mean a slightly lower seeding in the NCAA tournament for UCLA. Yet there are no regrets for taking the trip.

“We just want to play basketball,” guard Rico Hines said. “We’re young and we don’t want to sit around over the weekend just because we had a bye.”

A funny thing happened while the Bruins were away: They gained ground in the Pacific 10 Conference race.

Oregon lost at Stanford and California, leaving Arizona as the only team with three losses. UCLA, USC, Oregon, Stanford and California all have four.

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The Bruins play host to Arizona on Thursday in what might be the most important regular-season game left on the schedule.

The Wildcats overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to beat UCLA at Tucson last month.

Bruin guard Jon Crispin, sitting out the season under NCAA rules after transferring from Penn State, was in the limelight over the weekend, although it was not at the game against Villanova.

Crispin and his brother, Joe, had their numbers retired at nearby Pitman, N.J., High, where they are the two all-time leading scorers.

Joe, a rookie with the Phoenix Suns, and Jon helped Penn State to the NCAA tournament round of 16 last season. At Pitman, Joe scored 2,651 points, Jon scored 2,319 and the team won state titles in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

“I had nothing but great memories about playing for Pitman,” Jon said. “The atmosphere is better than Penn State, better than UCLA and better than Phoenix.”

Steve Henson