Lavin disappointed in UCLA performance

  JESSE PORTER/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Earl
Watson attempts a lay-up under Washington State’s
Cedric Clark in the Bruins’ 75-57 victory over the
Cougars on Saturday. UCLA d. WSU 75-57

By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff

Listening to UCLA head coach Steve Lavin after his team beat
Washington State 75-57, you would think the Bruins just lost their
first-ever home game against the Cougars.

“I’m very disappointed with our overall effort and
energy,” he said. “We were a step slow in our
rotations, a step slow in transition defense, a step slow to
contest shooters, a step slow to take charges, a step slow to pick
up loose balls … We were just beat to the punch in so many
aspects of the game.”

The Bruins weren’t beat in the one aspect that matters:
the scoreboard. With Saturday’s win over the Cougars (6-5
overall, 0-2 Pac-10), UCLA (7-4, 2-0) swept the Washington schools
to start conference play and are now winners of five of their last
six games.

Lavin’s main beef was that his team couldn’t sustain
its execution throughout Saturday’s contest. Instead of
competing for a full 40 minutes, the Bruins once again played in
spurts.

The Bruins played a strong first half, routinely finding their
big man, center Dan Gadzuric, who shot a blistering 73 percent (16
of 22) from the field. They took a 42-24 lead to the locker room
and seemingly dropped the Cougars for an early knockout.

But instead of kicking Washington State when it was down, the
Bruins allowed the Cougars to get off the canvas and back into the
game in the second half.

With the Bruins committing careless turnovers and playing
lackadaisical transition and half court defense, Washington State
was able to cut the sizeable first half lead to 11 points, 53-42,
with nine minutes left. UCLA, however, responded with a 13-2 run to
pull away from the heavily undermanned Cougars.

“We won by 20 but we didn’t really put it on this
team,” forward Matt Barnes said. “We could have really
took it to this team but give them credit, they played well and
fought back.

“We have to get that killer instinct and take a lead from
20 to 40,” he added.

Lavin says his team’s inability to play 40 minutes is
mental.

“Our maturity just isn’t where it needs to be
yet,” he said. “Hopefully this week we can try to get
that back because I thought we had it at Purdue, I thought we had
it in the first half against Washington. But now we’ve put
together three halves where we’re a step slow and
lethargic.”

It wasn’t all bad news for the Bruins Saturday. UCLA
senior guard Jason Flowers made his third consecutive start and
while he didn’t score, the player Lavin calls the
“energizer bunny” continued to give his team a
spark.

In limited minutes, guard Billy Knight scored 14 points off the
bench, including three treys. Freshman forward T.J. Cummings also
came off the bench to score 11 points and grab five rebounds.

Another good sign for UCLA is that it was able to decisively
beat an opponent when its leading scorer had an off night.
Preseason All-American Jason Kapono, who came into the game
averaging 18.3 points per game, had just six points on 2-of-8
shooting.

As for Washington State, it stretched its winless streak at
Pauley Pavilion to 44 games. The Cougars have not won since the
building opened in 1965.

Washington State head coach Paul Graham said inexperience did
his team in on Saturday.

“I don’t think they understand right now what it
takes to play at this level all the time,” he said. “We
left town Wednesday and we won’t get home until Sunday and
it’s different when you got that many young kids who
haven’t gone through it before. The coaches can tell them and
some of the older guys can tell them but its tough.”

While the Cougars battle inexperience and youth, the Bruins
fight inconsistency. The team typically plays in spurts and has yet
to put together a full game of sustained execution.

“If we can play for 40 minutes I don’t see anybody
in the country that can beat us,” Bruin guard Ray Young said.
“We proved that we could play with the Kentuckys, the
Kansases and all those schools. There hasn’t been a team that
has blown us out. We’ve always lost by one or two possessions
no matter how bad we played.

“If we can put together a string of 40-minute games, we
can be one of the elite teams in the nation.”