Time to Sit Out This Dance

Of course, UCLA will get its bid to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament today. The Bruins will probably be seeded between No. 7 and No. 10. They will continue playing games even though all indications are that they have no real interest in doing so. Just saying things will be better doesn’t make it so.

Of course, the numbers say UCLA deserves its bid. Its RPI, that sacrosanct and mysterious computer ranking the NCAA selection committee counts on so strongly, will be somewhere near 27. Bruin supporters will note that eight of the team’s 11 losses came to opponents ranked in the top 50. Bruin supporters will shout out about the strength of schedule--ranked in the top 10--and will brag, rightly so, about victories against No. 1 Kansas and No. 8 Alabama.

So UCLA will get its bid. And that’s too bad.

While watching the Bruins go 8-9 over their last 17 games, watching how the players brought no emotion and little sense of urgency to Staples Center in their first-round Pacific 10 tournament loss to California, watching UCLA players staring into space as Coach Steve Lavin chatted with them during timeouts, the idea occurs that it would not be terrible if UCLA did not get an NCAA bid.

Just as it wasn’t wrong when the UCLA football team--once in line for a Rose Bowl bid, was at the end of the season in line for the title “Most Dysfunctional Team”--was left with no bowl game, it would not be an injustice if the Bruin basketball team was snubbed by the NCAA selection committee.

There would be good lessons for all involved.

First for the players. College sports is supposed to be about learning. In their time at UCLA, what have Matt Barnes, Billy Knight, Dan Gadzuric, Jason Kapono, et al, learned? That the regular season isn’t worth much as long as you play hard a few times, beat a Kansas, win at Stanford, save a miracle to beat USC? Is everything else forgotten?

In watching Saturday’s Pac-10 championship game, it was interesting to see how such young Arizona players as Salim Stoudamire and Channing Frye have improved their games, how the Wildcats became a better team after having an early 30-point loss to Oregon and then a 10-point home loss to the Ducks a couple of weeks later.

It was interesting to see how USC Coach Henry Bibby made backups Jerry Dupree and Desmon Farmer learn discipline and self-control and defense so that now they make the Trojans one of the most dangerous NCAA tournament teams around.

Accepting a National Invitation Tournament bid would be a good lesson for Lavin. If he is going to continue coaching the Bruins, he needs to understand that coaching by the seat of his pants is not good enough. It is not enough to jump five feet off the ground when Cedric Bozeman scores a layup or Kapono makes a desperate three-point basket as the shot clock runs down. It is not good enough to rely on the emotion of kids and their natural talents to carry UCLA through a round or two or three of the NCAA tournament.

It is not enough to keep reminding us of past trips to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight as proof that everything is OK in Westwood if we’ll only be patient and wait for the NCAA tournament. Maybe, if Lavin is going to be the coach at UCLA, he’ll decide that hiring an assistant coach with some years of experience and accomplishments on his resume would not be looked at as some weakness of Lavin’s but as a smart hire by a humbled coach who is gaining an understanding of what he doesn’t understand.

Missing the NCAA tournament would be a favor to most Bruin fans too. The ones who feel the criticism of Lavin is unfair would be spared the angst of a first-round loss to a Texas or St. John’s and might also understand that a team needs to be a growing, improving work of collective advancement instead of regression. A season is not supposed to be about the excuses but of the explanations.

And the Bruin fans who have given up on Lavin should also welcome a rest. For what this team has accomplished in its handful of big victories it has given away in its passive acceptance of mediocrity this last half of the season.

Most of all, a non-invitation might catch the UCLA administration’s attention. There is a massive unhappiness bubbling among Bruin fans. It is evident on the radio, on the Internet, in the letters to the editor, among the loyal fans who come to Pauley Pavilion ever hopeful and leave sad and disgruntled.

An NCAA tournament invitation should be earned, yes, but should also be a reward for an accomplishment at whatever level it is you practice your craft.

It is an accomplishment for a Butler to have gone 25-5 even if the last loss came in the quarterfinals of the Horizon Conference tournament. It is an accomplishment for Southern Illinois to win a school-record 26 games or a Ball State to have beaten a UCLA so thoroughly. All those bubble teams would make the NCAA tournament a more joyful place.

It is not an accomplishment for UCLA to have finished sixth in the Pac-10 or to have won 19 games or even to have beaten Kansas, a team with no more tradition or advantages than UCLA. The Bruins’ arrival at the NCAA tournament will not make the event better. Or themselves.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at [email protected]