Despite late season rebound, squad falls in Sweet 16 game

By Moin Salahuddin Daily Bruin Staff

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Riding high after a 35-point win over
Maryland in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the UCLA men’s
basketball team knew an upset of Iowa State, seeded second in the
Midwest Region, wouldn’t be far- fetched.

But their game against the powerful Cyclones turned out to be
bitter for the Bruins, as 6-foot-8 All-American Marcus Fizer and
guard Jamaal Tinsley dominated UCLA inside and out in a
season-ending 80-56 loss.

There was consolation for the Bruins after the loss, however,
from the mere fact that they made it to the NCAA Tournament to the
show they put on in reaching the Sweet 16.

Their season was as tumultuous and unpredictable as could be.
Early-season aspirations of winning the Pac-10 title shifted to
simply making the field of 64 after UCLA lost six out of seven
games, dropping them to 13-11. But the Bruins answered that
challenge better than even head coach Steve Lavin could have
imagined.

At the end, they were being called the hottest team in the
tournament, following the blowout win over Maryland. It was almost
as if their preseason expectations were right after all.

Ranked as high as fourth in some preseason publications,
expectations ran high for the Bruins before the season.

"We want to win another title," junior co-captain Rico Hines
said before the year began.

Energized by the hype surrounding freshman forward Jason Kapono,
UCLA opened the season 3-0 and rose to as high as 11th in both the
AP and ESPN/USA Today polls.

But then came the team’s rapid descent when sophomore forward
JaRon Rush was suspended from the squad for 44 games for accepting
money from a sports agent and an AAU coach.

The Bruins lost their first game without their leading
rebounder, a 59-43 setback to Gonzaga at home. Then public clamor
called for the firing of head coach Steve Lavin as UCLA struggled
through the middle of its season, losing six out of seven games in
one stretch.

"We’re running out of time," Lavin said after a 78-63 loss to
Stanford in January.

The squad needed to win at least five out of their last six
games to bring their record up to .500 in the Pac-10 and give
themselves a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"We’ve got to fight back," Kapono said.

So they fought. Home victories against Oregon and Oregon State
brought life back into UCLA’s dying heart. Coupled with Rush’s
return to the lineup after the NCAA reduced his suspension, the
team went on a six-game winning streak to end the season, including
a 94-93 overtime victory at then- No. 1 Stanford.

"I’m very proud of the way our team turned around this season,"
Lavin said after the Bruins ended the regular season 10-8 in the
conference.

As the fourth place team in the Pac-10, the Bruins were shipped
to Minneapolis to play in the Midwest Region. UCLA’s apathetic play
against Ball State in the first round of the tournament was
reminiscent of its mid-season blunders, but the Bruins prevailed in
the end, 65-57.

And then came their second-round match against Maryland, where
nothing could go wrong. UCLA crushed the Terrapins 105-70 behind a
school-record 16 assists and no turnovers from junior guard Earl
Watson, extending its winning streak to eight and earning the right
to face the powerful Iowa State Cyclones in the Sweet 16.

"We’ve struggled a lot this year and that makes this win even
sweeter for us," lone Bruin senior Sean Farnham said. "Hopefully we
can keep this momentum going."

When both top-seeded Arizona and Stanford fell in the second
round, UCLA became the only Pac-10 team left in the field of 16.
But just as easily as everything had fallen into place in the game
against Maryland, the tides changed and nothing went the Bruins’
way against Iowa State.

Fizer was the primary focus of the UCLA defense, but Tinsley
turned out to be the Bruin-killer in the end. The guard finished
one rebound shy of a triple-double and Iowa State ended UCLA’s
up-and-down season two games short of the Final Four.

The Bruins and Lavin were expected to be down after their
season-ending fight against the Cyclones, but the post-game press
conference instead revealed what aspirations the team already has
for next year.

"We’re going to be the No. 1 team in the country next year,"
Lavin said with a smile. "That’s our goal."

And with the nucleus of the team returning along with the
addition of several standout high school players to the roster,
UCLA will set its sights even higher – on a 2001 Final Four berth
and a 12th national championship.