Going Gets Hot; Bruins Freeze Up

Next season, somebody in a UCLA uniform might stay cucumber cool when everyone around him gets panicky.

Next season, somebody might treat the ball as something besides a hot potato with the game on the line.

As for this season, it is finally, mercifully, over.

The Bruins wasted another determined effort, losing to Washington, 91-83, Thursday night in the first round of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament because players who performed heroically for 37 minutes melted down in the last three minutes.

It was a recurring theme for UCLA (11-17), which lost 14 of its last 16 games in Coach Ben Howland’s first season. In some games, the Bruins were simply blown out. But the most frustrating losses for the team, the ones that lingered the longest, ended like this one at Staples Center.

UCLA led, 80-78, with three minutes to play. Then came the unnecessary fouls, sending the Huskies’ Will Conroy, Tre Simmons and Bobby Jones to the line. Then came the tightness in the throat, the tentative Bruin possessions, with four players standing around while point guard Cedric Bozeman dribbled aimlessly.

Soon Washington had seized command, 85-80. The one UCLA player who appeared willing to take control, reserve guard Brian Morrison, came off a screen and made an NBA-range three-point shot with 27.4 seconds left to cut the deficit to two.

Morrison, hampered by injuries since December, scored 23 points, including UCLA’s last eight. He made five three-pointers, and for a fleeting moment it appeared he might deliver a win.

But before another tick of the clock, he fouled out, bumping Simmons on Washington’s inbounds play. The foul preceded by a split second an attempt by the player inbounding the ball, Brandon Roy, to call a timeout, just a final example of bad timing in this out-of-step UCLA season.

Simmons made the free throws. With Morrison on the bench, the next UCLA shot was taken by Dijon Thompson, who missed badly. Two more Husky free throws and a superfluous dunk by Jones, and UCLA retreated to the locker room to talk about next season.

“Losing is getting old,” Morrison said. “Next year it’s going to be different.”

How, exactly?

“Somebody has to step up and take charge,” center Ryan Hollins said.

That somebody might have been in the locker room. Or he might have been in a high school classroom Thursday. The arrival of incoming freshmen Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo Mata is highly anticipated.

“We will be much improved a year from now,” Howland said. “We’ll have returning guys who learned from this, and we’ll have new young kids as well.

“Let the competition begin.”

Unless somebody transfers, the only significant player departing will be senior forward T.J. Cummings, who had 12 points and six rebounds. Bozeman, who had eight assists, and Thompson, who scored 10 points and missed all four of his three-point attempts, will be seniors.

With work in the weight room, Ariza and Hollins could become top players. And a healthy Morrison could provide the perimeter scoring UCLA lacked much of this season.

Yet all the talent in the world won’t matter if they can’t find the fortitude to win the close ones.

“Everybody gets caught up in the emotion of the game and we play too fast,” said Ariza, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Whatever the secret to winning is, Washington (18-10) has found it. Guard Will Conroy scored 20 points, and four other Huskies were in double figures.

The Huskies rebounded from an 0-5 start in the Pac-10 to finish second. UCLA was the only conference opponent they hadn’t defeated. They took care of that detail and are knocking at the door of the NCAA tournament.

“There is no way, as far as I’m concerned, that we shouldn’t be in,” Coach Lorenzo Romar said.

”... We want to be in a situation Sunday where we aren’t wondering, we know.”

UCLA needs wonder no longer. It’s all about the future. Who’s got next?