How Sweet it is
|  | | UCLA coach Steve Lavin saw his team surge after struggling in the middle of the season. |
It's been a Sweet couple of weeks for UCLA men's basketball coach Steve Lavin.
Lavin, who was under fire from fans, media and boosters earlier this season, has guided the Bruins into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Lavin, a recent guest on ESPN's Up Close, told Gary Miller the return of JaRon Rush was instrumental in the team's resurgence.
"From a strict basketball standpoint, let's face it, JaRon Rush is pretty special at both ends of the floor," Lavin said. "On the glass, he's active, he can finish in transition, he can knock down threes from the perimeter, he can post up on smaller guards, and he's a great defensive presence."
Lavin also discussed his career at UCLA, including the team's bizarre "paper" regional title. An edited transcript of Lavin's March 20 comments follows.
Miller: The country is astonished by UCLA being in the "Sweet 16." How surprised are you at being in this spot?
Lavin: Our finish has been pretty remarkable. The win at Stanford, in particular, on their Senior Day, in Maples Pavilion, when they're No. 1 in the country, that was a dramatic win. Even earlier on in the year, when we started off 8-2 with some big wins over North Carolina, DePaul, Purdue, so on, we knew we had potential. We started 8-2, finished the year 8-0, so 16-2 from the start and the finish, it was the middle where we went 5-9 and really struggled, we turned the ball over too much didn't convert free-throws, and the turnovers led to a lot of easy opportunities in transition for our opponents.
Miller: The L.A. Times columnist, Bill Plaschke, writes that you were overheard saying, "Three weeks ago I'm getting fired, now I'm up 35."
Lavin: It makes a good story, so you kind of have to go with it, especially in Los Angeles, like good comic strips and stuff, Dick Tracy or Peanuts, but that credible source, I don't know if he's a photographer or a leprechaun along the baseline. They got the story a little bit wrong. It was actually Tim Higgins and I, a great official and a Final Four ref. He was kidding me. He said there was someone in the Bible, I forget what his name was, and I said "Job," figuring the kind of season we've had. He said, "No, Lazarus." So we were kidding about how crazy this profession is in terms of the highs and lows.
Miller: The essence was there. The thought (about being fired) had to have crossed your mind.
Lavin: When you're at UCLA, with 7 coaches in 21 years, you understand your life span is about 3 years. Anything beyond that is gravy. You know what's inherent in the position, so you're going to be in the hot seat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Miller: The Maryland game: you had to be astonished to blow out a team of that caliber. Are you afraid that the team cannot play any better than that?
Lavin: I'll tell you what, this team is pretty remarkable in terms of maturity and the poise they've shown. I think part of that is because we've had our backs against the wall for a month now, so we've been playing tournament-like games, kind of a Russian Roulette, single-elimination mentality in each of the games this month. So I think that now that we are in this tournament, nothing is really going to throw up for a loop. We don't have the highs and the lows -- a very mature group for as young as they are? We wanted to be able to play at two speeds and that's what this team has done. Earl Watson, in particular, has done a masterful job as our quarterback, our point guard, on the floor -- taking the transition opportunities when they are there, in the break, and then down-shifting and making sure we get into our half-court sets. We get into our structure and then we play inside-outside basketball, and that opens up our three-point attack. Earl has done a great job of establishing those two tempos, first gear and second gear.
Miller: Why has Earl developed so quickly into such a presence from a guy who really was a shooting guard in a point guard's role?
Lavin: Outside when people look into your program, they are not there on a daily basis in practice. I've seen Earl since he was a junior in high school, so I've seen a four-or-five year progression. When you're teaching or coaching like a parent, you're thinking about process, about education, about falling down and being part of success, about learning through failure. Earl is someone who is a hard worker, is open to learning, is eager and comes to practice with the right attitude every day. So you're just seeing the results of hard work. He played well at North Carolina. We are one of four non-conference teams since 1943 to win at North Carolina. Earl played a great game there. He's played great at different times throughout the year, but this last month he's played, not only as well as any point guard in the Pac-10, but as well as any point guard in the country. I just think if kids are allowed to develop and you're patient with them and they have the right attitude about learning, they are going to get better and you're seeing the results of it now.
Miller: What's the big difference between the lull in the middle of the season and the beginning and the end?
Lavin: A couple of things happened. JaRon Rush returning to our team. We had won three consecutive games without him, but he came back at Stanford, hit the buzzer shot in overtime at Maples Pavilion and that gave us an emotional lift. Having our basketball family back together again for the first time all year, we started without Matt Barnes, and then after the third game on the eve of the Gonzaga game, we lost JaRon Rush for 24 games, so when we got JaRon back, we finally got the whole team back together again, so emotionally we were a tighter unit. From a strict basketball standpoint, let's face it, JaRon Rush is pretty special at both ends of the floor. On the glass, he's active, he can finish in transition, he can knock down threes from the perimeter, he can post up on smaller guards, and he's great defensive presence. He's a good player and as a result he's given our team a different dimension with his athleticism, with his quickness, his toughness. Earl plays better. They're like Batman and Robin, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when JaRon's on the floor it helps Earl Watson and all of our team.
Miller: It's almost like when you get a No. 1 starter on a pitching staff and you lose him and everyone has to move up in roles. When you brought Rush in, every guy had to move up in roles.
Lavin: Absolutely, and what's interesting, we're in a society and we're in a profession where bottom line is what's important, it's all about winning. As a coach or a teacher, again like a parent, the process is important. It's learning through failure and it's how you respond to failure: we lost 6 out of 7 and I think that's when we grew the most as a team, so now that we're at the other side of that adversity, there has been growth and development, and we're a better team because of it. You see a lot of teams in the country who peak early, and can't make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Obviously you don't want to lose 6 out of 7 games at UCLA because it doesn't play out well with the alumni, the boosters, the media, as you allude to the chat rooms, letters to the editor, and talk radio, so that's not ideal, but in terms of growing, teaching, and learning, I think we learn through the failures sometime.
Miller: From the Pac-10, Arizona and Stanford are out in the second round. How do you feel knowing that these top seeded teams are not in anymore?
Lavin: One of the things the media is really accurate about, one of the few things they get right? is (the use of the word) "madness." It's very unpredictable because when you think Lute Olson is a future Hall of Fame coach, one of the top coaches in the game of basketball; Mike Montgomery is a future Hall of Fame coach, one of the top coaches; Roy Williams, one of the top coaches in the game. Those are future Hall of Fame coaches and in each of the last two years their teams have not made it past the first weekend of play, and yet they have had great regular seasons. That's one of the double-edged swords in the NCAA Tournament. In some ways it's kind of sad, you have a great season?. Mark Madsen, a player of the year candidate, gets bumped out in the first or second game the last two years. Then a team that just gets hot at the end, like we do, starts to move through the tournament. That's what makes it great, but at the same time it's also why there's such heartbreak when you lose.
Miller: You beat North Carolina (during the regular season). You beat them at Chapel Hill. How different is the team that beat Stanford?
Lavin: I think that Carolina and UCLA are similar in terms of the great tradition. They're living in the shadow of great coaches: Dean Smith at North Carolina, going back even before that with Frank McGuire, and then UCLA with John Wooden. The kids sometimes feel the pressure and the expectations. There's such a standard of excellence that makes it a great school and a great place to work at, because that's why we can recruit the top players in the country. At times it's tougher, a 18- to 22-year-old who is trying to balance the pressure of academic, athletic, and social life and then also win in L.A. in particular in the middle of a media Mecca, so the scrutiny is almost like a protein here and that's unique. I think our kids grow from it, so over their four years, it makes them tougher and more prepared if they play at the next level at the NBA and even for what life is going to be like, because it's pretty competitive. So you can turn that around into a positive. I think the Carolina players are feeling good about themselves at the right time of the year. They show potential. They played a very tough schedule, as we did, and I think that prepared them for the tournament.
Miller: You feel in a way you've been to a Final Four (already).
Lavin: You're alluding to the year we played Minnesota and actually lost in the Final Eight. Jelani McCoy had a chest sternum injury and Clem Haskins did a great job, they had a very strong team. Since they (Minnesota) had that academic problem, so in terms of the books, it looks like we're going to actually back into a Final Four. (Note: in the record books, UCLA is credited with a Final Four appearance because Minnesota used an ineligible player). It doesn't count in the eyes of the alumni, the boosters, and the media. It's still a Final Eight performance.
Miller: Do you have that framed anywhere?
Lavin: No, actually I don't. They don't count. You want the real ones. We would love to win the national title and that's the goal every year at UCLA; you want to win the national championship, you want to win the Pac-10, you want to go undefeated. Some years that goal is more realistic than others, so you have to adjust your goals. Ultimately, you have got to remember it's about education, it's about kids moving towards their degree, even though it's big business at this level there's still teaching and coaching and what's most important is preparing them for life.
Miller: When you talk about the expectations of the season, when it gets to death threats you received this year, do you ever wonder is it worth it?
Lavin: I'll tell you what makes it worth it, is when you see a kid like Earl Watson have a breakthrough, you see your team have a breakthrough and the kind of relationships you have with the players who are feeling the joy and the satisfaction of having success in the tournament. After what they've been through, all that hard work is being rewarded, and that gives you goose bumps or chills when you see Earl Watson coming into the time-out and you're able to give him a big hug after he's knocked down four or five big threes in front of 30,000 people in the Dome on national TV that puts your team in the Sweet 16. That's really special, even though he had the Rocky stitches in his eye. He looked like Rocky after 12 rounds in a heavyweight fight. That's what makes it worth it. That's why I teach, that's why I coach. You've got to understand being in Los Angeles, again the Theater of the Absurd, the insanity of it all is inherent in the position. You've got to have a sense of humor, you've got to have thick skin, and you've got to be able to laugh at a lot of it, like a good comic strip, because that's really what it is. It's kind of surreal.
Miller: You weren't scared at all?
Lavin: Sure, in terms of the death threats, there are always going to be some wackos, some creepy-crawlers, some koo-koos out there. Back when Gene Bartow was here, someone threatened to kill his dog. I really didn't understand that, because his dog wasn't running the practices, he wasn't calling the time-outs, yet someone had a rifle and had Bartow's address and were going to kill the dog. At least they have it right this time, it's directed towards the coach who runs the practices and calls the time-outs, but I think you just have to understand it's a small minority, that doesn't really represent college basketball fans or what UCLA athletics is about or what's great about college athletics. You're always going to have your share of kooks or fanatics in any line of work whether it's politics, coaching or business, you're going to have some attacks.
Miller: Was your confidence ever shaken at any point? Did you ever think that you wouldn't be coaching the Bruins come this summer?
Lavin: You always go through the roller-coaster ride emotionally, every coach does. It's tough to lose, you would rather win than lose, you would rather be ahead than behind, you would rather be lucky than unlucky, as John Wooden told me. You understand that you have to embrace both because you learn from both and that's the way I was raised. I had great parents that raised six kids on an English teacher's salary. I was the youngest of the six and they taught me to learn through tough times, you learn from each experience, you look back long enough to learn, you move forward. I don't know any other way to teach because that's the way I was raised and I had the best teacher's in the world in the home. I was really blessed that way. From a practical standpoint, there is no other way to coach and teach but to move forward and learn so I've really learned on the job a lot through my own failure and from making some bad decisions, and you grow just like the kids do and that's what's really exciting and I'm fortunate to have an administration, a chancellor, an Athletic Director who was willing to take a chance on a 31-year old and they knew there were going to be some growing pains because I had never been a head coach before, but I think at the same time they're really pleased with the success that we have had, even though I am going through the growing pains some times.
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