Bruins return to Big Dance after a 1-year absence

Southeast Region
#7 UCLA Bruins (22-10) vs #10 Michigan State Spartans (19-14)
Thursday, March 17
6:20 pm PDT
TV: TBS

Bruins return to Big Dance after a 1-year absence

By Jon Gold, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: 03/13/2011 10:39:30 PM PDT
Updated: 03/13/2011 11:42:11 PM PDT


Around this time last year, UCLA coach Ben Howland was out on the road recruiting, Tyler Honeycutt and Jerime Anderson were in their rooms watching their opponents light it up on national television, and Joshua Smith was in class at Kentwood High in Kent, Wash., contemplating the decision he'd made to attend UCLA a handful of months earlier.

After a 14-18 season, the team's worst in a half-decade, March was a rather uneventful month for the Bruins, a time for players to catch up on some schoolwork, maybe hit the beach, relax and kick back. There certainly was not a lot of basketball for which to prepare.

UCLA was a scattered group after missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003-04.

But there they were Sunday, together once more and ready to find out where they were headed for this season's tournament. The news came in late, in the form of the bracket's last region: Tampa, Fla., as the Southeast Regional's No. 7 seed, and a date with No. 10-seed Michigan State looming.

"The seeding is about what we expected," Howland said during a news conference once players and family cleared out after watching the Selection Sunday special. "A seven, that's no surprise. Every team is tough in the tournament, there's no easy out, but when you get to those seedings - 7-10, 8-9 - you have very tough opponents. Michigan State in particular.

"They were in the Final Four last year with the majority of guys being on that team. They are very much an NCAA Tournament-battled team and program, with (Coach Tom) Izzo probably having the most success in the NCAA Tournament with Michigan State over the past 12 years than anybody."

Ultimately, that's what this game is about, a matchup of two hallowed coaches and two programs that have been in vastly different places the last two years.

Forget Honeycutt, Reeves Nelson or Malcolm Lee. Forget, too, Kalin Lucas, Draymond Green and Durrell Summers. This is not a matchup of talent versus talent, game versus game. No, this is a matchup of grizzled, old veterans, grown men who have appeared in two consecutive Final Fours against 32 combined postseason minutes.

On the entire UCLA roster, only Lee and Anderson have appeared in the NCAA Tournament, both as freshmen in 2008-09. Lee played 19 minutes in a win over Virginia Commonwealth and a loss to Villanova, scored zero points and collected two rebounds. Anderson played even less behind some guy named Darren Collison, got in for 13 minutes and did not score.

Michigan State's Lucas, who ranks fifth in Spartans history with 1,985 career points, has played 322 NCAA Tournament minutes.

"They're a good team, well-established," Honeycutt said. "They were just in the tournament, players returned who have been in the tournament, and deep in the tournament. (Izzo) has been there.

"We're going to have to look a lot to our coach for just exactly what to do and what our mindset needs to be."

That did not appear to happen in the Bruins' last game, a 76-59 loss to Oregon in Thursday's Pacific-10 Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Staples Center.

Second-seeded UCLA (22-10) came out flat, couldn't catch up and ultimately played a lifeless second half in falling to the seventh-seeded Ducks. Some said it was a long time coming, that the Bruins had been playing with fire for so long - overcoming massive deficits, losing big leads and generally playing a bit unevenly - that it was bound to happen.

Howland disagreed with the notion the team has looked almost like two completely different entities during the previous few months.

He disagreed because, well, the Bruins were 19-6 after a 3-4 start that included losses to eventual tournament teams Kansas, the Southwest Regional's top seed, Villanova and Virginia Commonwealth.

"I don't characterize the team as a Jekyll and Hyde," Howland said. "I think it was pretty consistent. You look over the course of the year as a team grows, matures and gets better.

"It was disappointing the way we played the other night no question. But that's behind us, and now we're moving forward."

They will be facing an opponent that knows the ins and outs of tournament play, although the Spartans (19-14) have been just as unpredictable as UCLA and finished the regular season on a 10-10 stretch.

They are moving forward to a Southeast Regional gauntlet that also potentially includes Howland's former team in top-seeded Pittsburgh, No. 2-seed Florida and two teams UCLA already has beaten this season in No. 3-seed BYU and No. 6 St. John's.

They are moving forward together.

"It was easy to see we didn't play the way we should've played. We didn't play as hard as we should," Anderson said of the Oregon loss. "That's something that the coaches, everybody can talk about, but it's all got to start with `me' first, individually.

"Individually, if we all take that upon ourselves, then collectively we'll come together."

As opposed to this time last year, when they were miles apart.