UCLA opens season at Maui Invitational
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 18, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MIKE CHIEN Sophomore T.J. Cummings and
the team prepares for Maui Invitational.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
MAUI “”mdash; Facing EA Sports and Global Sports, a pair of
terribly disorganized traveling squads filled with never-weres
and never-will-be’s, hasn’t prepared the UCLA
basketball team for potential matchups against Duke and Kansas.
Steve Lavin knows that.
“Probably not,” the Bruin head coach replied when
asked if he thought his team was ready for the Maui Invitational,
which begins today. “There probably isn’t a coach who
would not want more practice time.”
Lavin’s team is still committing too many turnovers and
has trouble feeding the ball into the post. Furthermore, his
starting point guard, true freshman Cedric Bozeman, is in the
process of recovering from a bruised tailbone he suffered two weeks
ago. Bozeman has practiced with the team only once in the last 10
days, and as of Sunday morning Lavin was still unsure if he was
ready to play in a game.
But, Lavin conceded, the season must start and games have to be
played.
So the Bruins are in Hawaii, where they will open play in the
eight-team tournament tonight against Houston. A win over the
Cougars will position UCLA to play the winner of the Kansas-Ball
State game.
Lavin knows his team may not be ready to justify its lofty
preseason rankings ““ No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and
No. 6 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll ““ this early
in the year. He understands that one bad outing in Hawaii can
reduce his team’s stature from “promising” to
“overrated,” and, perhaps, leave fans calling for his
head once again.
It’s a reality Lavin has learned to accept.
Immediate results aren’t what matter; the ones in March
do. Find the weaknesses now and weed them out before the
postseason.
Lavin has come to embrace this concept, as have his players. No
coach has shown as much willingness to look bad (really bad at
times) early in the season for long-term benefits.
“We’ll learn from playing (games in Maui),”
Lavin said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board when we
get back and break down the video.”
It almost sounds as if Lavin is preparing to be carpet-bombed by
Duke, the consensus No. 1 team in the country that knocked off UCLA
en route to the national title last year.
If anyone can expose the Bruins faults, it’s the Blue
Devils. Stacked with former high school All-Americans from top to
bottom, Duke is led by wunderkind junior point guard Jason
Williams, who is generally regarded as the country’s top
player. The Blue Devils, despite losing 2000-01 National Player of
the Year Shane Battier to graduation, are tough inside and out,
offensively and defensively.
UCLA’s players, however, have expressed their desires to
avenge their loss to Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
“Everyone remembers the Duke game,” senior guard
Billy Knight said.
“They say Duke is the best team in college
basketball,” senior forward Rico Hines said.
“We’re just looking at Houston, but yes, we want to
play Duke because Duke is the best.”
The Bruins, of course, are claiming not be to overlooking
tonight’s opponent, Houston, even though they have every
right to. Houston looked ghastly in the preseason, losing its
exhibition contests to Nike Elite and Texas Blue Chips, which were
hardly better than the Global Sports team UCLA pole-axed. For the
Cougars, no one outside of 6-foot-8 senior center Patrick Okafor
and 6-foot-6 junior forward Louis Truscott has been particularly
impressive.
Houston head coach Ray McCallum wasn’t overly optimistic
about his team’s prospects against the Bruins, saying,
“They’re a program that’s trying to win a
national championship. We’re just trying to get better and
move up in Conference USA.”
But that hasn’t prevented the Bruins from rehashing the
cliches that warn against underestimating an opponent.
“We’re just focused on Houston,” Knight said.
“It’s our season opener on national TV. We want to come
out strong.”
Let the cliches roll, and let the games begin.
