Bruins Escape With A Bounce In Their Steps

The game is basketball and in the Pacific-10 Conference, we’re told, the measuring stick is UCLA.

Just when they started making measuring sticks out of bungee cord, we’re not certain.

Elasticity. It’s the one thing the Bruins always bring with them to Pullman. Sometimes their talent takes a powder, sometimes their want-to wanes. On this trip, they just didn’t get enough sack time. But inevitably, when called upon to stretch themselves, the Bruins have just enough to wrap around Washington State and squeeze.

They’ve done it when the Cougars are good, they’ve done it when the Cougs are so-so and they did it again Thursday night to a Wazzu team which can only aspire to so-so.

Or merely so, for that matter.

This time, the Bruins outlasted the Cougars 69-66 at Friel Court, the latest in a series of near-misses that’s beginning to have a Susan Lucci-at-the-Emmys feel to it. Again, it came down to a final shot, albeit one that the Cougars didn’t even come close to getting off - although coach Kevin Eastman did manage to spit a parting insult at referee Richie Ballesteros, keeping his own personal streak alive at, well, we’ve stopped counting.

But, yes, it was again teeth-gnashing, heart-breaking and dramatic and you know what that means:

The number of Wazzu students dressed up as Steve Lavin imitators will probably triple again next year.

UCLA’s slick-backed head coach continues to be amused by this phenomenon - “My guys,” he called them Thursday night - but otherwise he is clearly tiring of the Pullman pattern.

“We got out very fortunate with a win up here,” he said. “For the third consecutive year, we could have easily lost.”

The third year? Hell, this goes back almost to disco.

In the 1990s alone, the Cougars have now come up short by 3 points, 3, 1, 5 in overtime, 2, 4, 8 and 4. No one - no one - plays the Bruins tougher than the Cougars do in Pullman.

Alas, no one in the Pac-10 has a more pitiful record against UCLA this decade than does Wazzu - 1-18.

Like Lavin, Cougars guard Blake Pengelly has only seen three of these, and that’s plenty.

“It seems like it’s something different every time,” he said. “The first two times it was a last-second shot, but different circumstances. It seems like they find a way to win a close game every single way you can possible. It’s hard to point a finger at one thing that changes it up, it’s just a matter of finding a way to win.

“They’ve found every way.” And this year the way was, what, recruiting?

The Bruins have the most heralded freshman class since Michigan’s Fab Five, though possibly the heralding is enhanced by the fact that they play in Los Angeles, where there is a TV camera and a printing press or two.

But the kids are plenty good. To put it in terms easy for the Cougar fan to relate to, UCLA has two freshman big men who are twice as good as the big men Wazzu didn’t get, never mind the ones the Cougs actually managed to sign.

And pretty much all the freshmen were involved in Thursday’s conspiracy. Strapping Dan Gadzuric, who was questionable with a sprained ankle, was instead an exclamation with 16 points and a jam that surely left a dent in the Friel floor. His fellow tower, Jerome Moiso, had two critical blocks of WSU’s Eddie Miller down the stretch and a left-handed flush of rebound that was downright otherworldly. JaRon Rush made the steal of Chris Crosby’s panicky inbounds pass with 22 seconds left and Ray Young jammed home the clinch ing bucket - and the Cougars were left to ponder why the other team’s kids made all the plays while their own veterans muffed scads of chances in the final 8 minutes.

“UCLA is best where they have to get a stop,” reasoned Eastman. He’s right. The Bruins blew a 15-point lead and fell behind by five - and then stopped damn near everything. They also went to the glass with singular zeal - no offensive rebounds in the first half, but 14 in the second, including five in a single possession. And they battled from behind without making a single jump shot outside 8 feet in the second half.

He was not quite so accurate when he claimed that, though it was a disappointing loss, “a lot of good things came out of this one.”

Really? A lot? Well, sure, after missing 13 of their first 14 shots and falling behind by 15 points, the Cougars fought back and put themselves in a position to win. If they’re fishing for congratulations for competing, well, congratulations.

“They outcompeted us,” said Lavin, determined to spread some joy.

“It’s a tough loss for them to take. I know they’re not into moral victories - nobody is - but they challenged us and played as well against us as any team since Stanford.”

In a softer voice, he acknowledged that UCLA’s Tuesday practice was its worst of the year “and you play like you practice.” So draw your own conclusion.

Here’s one for free: The Bruins have a hellacious upside. The Cougars believed they had one when they upset Washington eight games ago, but there’s been no corroborating evidence since.

Still, Cougar students had the temerity to chant, “O-ver-ra-ted!” at the Bruins.

Maybe. But only measured against UCLA.