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Inside College Basketball
After a poor start, UCLA turned its season around by turning on the full-court pressure By Grant Wahl Still, while the L.A. press had a field day with the Bruins after their disappointing 4-4 start, a withering press of another variety has been UCLA's salvation. Lavin's epiphany came at halftime of a game against North Carolina on Dec. 23, when he decided to implement a full-court defense full time. UCLA erased an 18-point deficit, and though the Tar Heels won 80-70, the Bruins haven't come out of the press since. "We take a lot out of a team, and you can see that late in games," says senior guard Earl Watson. Sure enough, with wins over Arizona and Stanford and a sweep of USC, UCLA (19-6, 12-2 in the Pac-10) has gone 15-2 since turning up the pressure and goes into this week's showdowns against Cal and No. 1 Stanford with a chance to win the Pac-10 title.
The Clint Eastwood of Westwood is Watson, an ageless gunslinger both on the court -- where he's on track to become the first Bruin to start every game in his four-year career -- and off, where he has become a vocal critic of the athletic department, notably athletic director Peter Dalis. Dalis caused a firestorm in January by admitting he'd had two phone conversations with job-hunting Rick Pitino, despite having told Lavin he hadn't spoken to Pitino. "Loyalty has been lost in college basketball, and there's a great example here at UCLA," says Watson. "Coach [Jim] Harrick gets fired for lying, and four years later someone else lies too." What's more, Watson has called for students to get more of the good seats at Pauley Pavilion, and he has made it known he'd be happy not to see Dalis (who hasn't apologized to Lavin for the Pitino matter) make any more locker-room speeches, as he did following the Arizona win. "When things are bad, everyone is ignoring you, but as soon as you go on a win streak, people start showing up in the locker room trying to give talks," Watson says. Something approaching a sense of calm now reigns. Last week Dalis announced that he expects Lavin to return next season, and the coach recently had a long, positive talk with UCLA chancellor Al Carnesale. "I'm just glad we can move forward," Lavin says. "This job is challenging enough. You don't need any of that extra stuff." Issue date: March 5, 2001
For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 28. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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