UCLA teams find championship trophies hard to come by

  Daily Bruin File Photo Maylana Martin
fakes out her Texas Longhorn opponent at Pauley Pavilion in 1999.
Martin’s graduation left a gaping hole in the Bruin offense.

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA football team appeared to be on the verge of a major
breakthrough in 1998. The Bruins were undefeated through the first
10 games of the season and looked to be headed to the Fiesta Bowl
for the national championship game.

Then came the disaster at the Orange Bowl.

Miami running back Edgerrin James skipped, slipped and spun
through the Bruin defense for 299 yards and the game-winning
touchdown. UCLA’s national championship run was over.

“They’re upset right now,” UCLA Head Coach Bob
Toledo said after the game. “They know they let something
slip away. The Fiesta Bowl is gone.”

What eluded the Bruins’ grasp that day has never come back
within arm’s reach. The defensive problems that hindered the
team in the Miami game have not disappeared since, as UCLA has had
a hard time stopping anyone.

The Bruin football squad, like a surprising number of other UCLA
teams, has been without an NCAA title for quite some time now. UCLA
has won a total of 19 NCAA championships in various sports since
1996, holding its place among the best athletic programs in the
country. But several of its teams have not been able to bring home
the big prize.

The Bruins’ storied men’s basketball team falls into
that category, and not everyone is happy about it. Despite having
to deal with some players leaving school early for the NBA, the
squad made three Sweet Sixteen appearances from 1997 to 2000.
Nonetheless, for much of the 2000-01 season, people called for the
replacement of Head Coach Steve Lavin.

  Daily Bruin File Photo Strong safety Larry Atkins
III scans downfield for blockers while returning an
interception.

Lavin responded by closing out with strong conference play and
reaching once more the round of 16 at the NCAAs, where eventual
champion Duke eliminated the Bruins.

The women’s hoops team, meanwhile, has been up and down.
After missing the NCAAs in 1996-97, the Bruins qualified three
straight times. But this season, graduation and the absence of star
players Nicole Kaczmarski and LaCresha Flannigan left the roster
depleted. The squad struggled, but got a few late-season wins to
finish 6-23.

On the contrary, the men’s and women’s golf teams
re-emerged as national contenders this year. After two and three
years, respectively, of failing to qualify for the NCAA
Championships, the teams had good showings in 2001. At the national
finals, the women finished tied for fifth while the men were
17th.

The women’s tennis team, too, returned to national
prominence this year. The team finished third at the NCAAs in 1996,
but did not make the national tournament again until this year when
it won its Regional by beating Fresno State 4-3.

And the women’s volleyball team, which has not won an NCAA
title since 1991, has been a Regional finalist in each of the past
two seasons.

Other UCLA programs are just coming into their own. The
women’s soccer team, assembled in 1993, reached its first
NCAA championship game this season while the women’s swimming
and diving squad captured its first Pac-10 title in 2000-01.

Then there are some teams that seem to lose by design. The most
notable of these cases is the baseball team.

“We have three goals in this program,” Head Coach
Gary Adams said. “Graduate the players, help them get to the
major leagues, and win a national championship.”

Adams will be the first to admit, however, that second and third
of these goals have conflicting interests. He thinks getting his
players to the highest level of professional ball is more
important.

So Adams keeps his pitchers on tight pitch counts to save their
arms. He allows his catchers to call the pitches, thinking the
experience will put them a step ahead of their competitors at the
next level. Adams also refuses to have his hitters adjust their
swings to make better use of the aluminum bat, something that would
hurt them in professional ball when they have to use wooden
ones.

As a result, the Bruins have made just one College World Series
appearance under Adams. Besides that one trip to Omaha, Neb., in
1997, the last five years have been filled with what many of
Adams’ detractors deem premature season endings. In 1999,
UCLA failed to get out of its regional bracket at the NCAAs. They
succeeded in doing so in 2000, but were downed by Louisiana State
in the Super Regionals. In both 1998 and 2001, the squad
didn’t even make the NCAAs.

But for many of the same reasons he has failed, Adams has
coached more major league ballplayers than any other active NCAA
head coach. In 2000, 16 former Bruins played in the big leagues,
among them American League home run champion Troy Glaus and 1992
National League Rookie of the Year Eric Karros. Furthermore, UCLA
had an NCAA-record 12 players selected in the 2000 Major League
Baseball Amateur Draft.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams have gone
title-less for strategic reasons as well. Cross country must share
scholarships with track and field, and since the latter puts a
premium on sprints, throws and jumps, little money is allocated to
distance running. Naturally, the UCLA cross country program remains
without any championships in its history.

But Eric Peterson, who came on as the men’s head coach
this year and as the women’s seven years ago, has slowly
started to turn the program around. This year, he signed one of the
program’s biggest recruits in Alejandra Barrientos of San
Lorenzo Valley, a two-time California high school state track
champion.

The addition of Barrientos, who won her second state title at
1,600 meters last weekend with a four minute, 43.24-second
clocking, will also help the women’s track team, which has
not won a national title since 1983. The Bruin women’s track
team has been close each of the last five years, finishing second
place three times and third place twice. They were second this
year.

“Next year, hopefully, it will be the year for us,”
UCLA Head Coach Jeanette Bolden said following the 2001 NCAA
Championships. “My team will be a lot more experienced, and I
think that will be the big difference this year.”

The men’s track team has two top-four finishes during the
same five-year time span.

Facing similar disappointments almost every year has been the
men’s tennis squad. UCLA has not won a NCAA team championship
since 1984, although the team has been frustratingly close as of
late. Each year, the Bruins seem to be loaded with talent, but they
have not been closer than second. This year, UCLA bowed out in the
16th round.

So while some Bruin teams continue to add national title
trophies to the school’s collection, others are struggling to
get just one. For some, the last five years have been a period in
which they attempted to claw their way back to the top. For others,
it’s been a time for establishing foundations for the
future.