Ucla Basketball

Damage control was the order of the day around the UCLA basketball team Wednesday. As the Bruins prepared for their final Pac-12 Conference games of the regular season, against Washington State on Thursday and Washington on Saturday, Coach Ben Howland, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and university Chancellor Gene Block juggled questions in the wake of a Sports Illustrated article that portrayed UCLA's program as one in chaos. In the article, Howland was depicted as a coach who in the last four seasons had lost control of undisciplined and immature players who were partying hard, fighting with each other, bickering with their coaches and cruising through practices.

Can the house that Kareem built become the home that Shabazz renovated? Pauley Pavilion, rather the new Pauley Pavilion, is on schedule to reopen with a $136-million renovation by mid-October, an athletic department official said during a media tour of the arena on Friday. The refurbished digs will be inhabited by a highly publicized recruiting class, as was the case when Pauley Pavilion opened in 1965. The difference this time is that the incoming freshmen can play for the Bruins.

John R. Wooden, who died Friday at age 99, left for the ages an exemplary body of work in which the rewards, ten-fold, outweighed the trials. No rendering of Wooden's legacy, though, is complete without mention of a man who influenced one of sport's most unimpeachable dynasties: Sam Gilbert. If Wooden was the father figure of UCLA basketball, Gilbert was its shadowy one. Gilbert was a small, burly, self-made man with unfettered devotion to the Bruins. He could be benevolent yet, to nose-poking reporters, a bully.

It only took ornery Uncle Bill Plaschke about the time of a fastbreak basket to try and put a damper on UCLA basketball fans' greatest day since, well, in a long time. He points out the obvious about Coach Ben Howland being on the hot seat due to increased expectations brought on by superior recruiting. I guess that puts him in the same elite boat as, well, every other coach in collegiate sports. I guess Howland would have been better off scouring the small private schools to find that next 5-10 superstar so he can keep his job as his team would then be sure to overachieve.

UCLA tonight AT ARIZONA STATE When: 5:30 PST. Where: Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, Ariz. On the air: Radio: 570. Records: UCLA 15-12, 8-6; Arizona State 8-19, 4-11. Update: UCLA has lost two of its last three games in Tempe, and needed overtime to scratch out a 73-72 victory last season. Those Arizona State teams were significantly more talented. The Sun Devils scored eight points in the first half in a 72-50 loss to Washington State on Saturday.

UCLA next at Oregon, Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena, 2 p.m., Prime Ticket ? The Bruins will get their first look at the Ducks' new arena, which played host to its first game Thursday when Oregon played USC. The Ducks swept UCLA last season but have been beset by injuries recently, with only nine available players at one point last week.

UCLA had its heart torn out on Valentine's Day. Arizona turned a basketball game into a sweetheart deal on its home court with an 84-72 drubbing of the Bruins. The final score made it look closer than it really was. Thursday night, Arizona State beat the Bruins. Saturday, Arizona stomped them. This wasn't a UCLA road trip. It was a disaster in the desert. Against Arizona, the Bruins made it into an FTD game. They phoned it in.

When: 1:30 p.m. Where: Sports Arena. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 570. Records: UCLA 2-4, Texas 4-2. Update: Texas has held its last two opponents to 48.5 points a game on 31.4% shooting but that was against Sam Houston State and North Texas. The Longhorns gave up more than 90 points to Oregon State (in a 100-95 overtime loss) and to Rhode Island (in a 100-90 win). Longhorns freshman forward Jonathan Holmes has averaged 13 points and 6.8 rebounds in his last five games.

Name; Pos.; Ht.; Wt.; Previous school; Comment Jordan Adams; SG; 6-5; 205; Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy; One of the top perimeter shooting prospects in the country should boost Bruins' three-point accuracy. Kyle Anderson; PG; 6-8; 215; Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony; A versatile talent who can play the one to the four but will probably utilize exceptional basketball IQ as starting point guard. *Larry Drew II; PG; 6-2; 180; North Carolina; Played two full seasons and part of a third for Tar Heels.

A high school kid dressed in a free sweat suit and giant hip glasses strolled across a red carpet into a television studio in North Carolina on Wednesday, stared into a camera and made the failing UCLA basketball program a brilliant promise. Now it's up to Ben Howland to keep it. When top-ranked prep forward Shabazz Muhammad announced he would be joining two other top-50 recruits at UCLA next season, the Bruins were instantly transformed from mediocrity to meteor. But can Ben Howland maintain the burn?

UCLA will play San Diego State in the Wooden Classic on Dec. 1 at Honda Center. The event, founded in 1994, lost some luster this past season, when it was a Pac-12 Conference matchup between the Bruins and Arizona. Playing the Aztecs returns the game to a nonconference game between solid programs. The Aztecs have reached the NCAA tournament the past three seasons. San Diego State, which has won 25 or more games the past four seasons, returns four starters from a team that finished 26-8 and lost to North Carolina State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Jim Mora begins his first practice as UCLA's football coach today on the verge of becoming the highest-paid coach in school history. UCLA athletic department officials have told the University of California Board of Regents they anticipate generating about $17.6 million in revenues this year from television, multi-media, apparel and other products. A chunk of that will be spent on football coaches, according to requests made to the board by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block in January and March.

UCLA basketball fans will say what they will about Athletic Director Dan Guerrero's announcement Tuesday that Ben Howland would return as the Bruins' basketball coach. Howland might not even know he received a vote of confidence from another source perhaps just as important. The father of the nation's top-ranked recruit, Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High's Shabazz Muhammad, said after UCLA's announcement that he was "happy for Ben, happy for the program. "I think he's going to do a good job and that he'll get the program back on track," Ron Holmes said in a telephone interview.

Ben Howland's exit interview Tuesday wasn't a literal farewell, though some might have thought the UCLA basketball coach was on his way out after a volatile season. In fact, just hours before Howland met with reporters for his final session of the 2011-12 season, UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero released a statement indicating that Howland would be the team's coach next season, his 10th at UCLA. Howland began his news conference by reading a prepared statement, something he said he didn't usually do but that he wanted to do in this case because "I'd just like to make sure I'm clear on my message and not let my emotions get in the way. "  The statement began: "This past season has been the most challenging of my 31 years as a college basketball coach.

Ben Howland will remain UCLA's basketball coach, UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero announced Tuesday. In a prepared statement, Guerrero said that he and Howland had “several discussions” after the volatile season. Guard Jerime Anderson was arrested for misdemeanor theft in August, Reeves Nelson, the Bruins' top player, was dismissed from the team in December and a Sports Illustrated story portrayed Howland as having lost control of his team. “Ben understands full well that the management and oversight of the program needs improvement,” Guerrero said.

In the end, as Ben Howland's most troubling UCLA basketball team was slowly disintegrating on the floor, I couldn't keep my eyes off the bench. Every time a player left the court, he returned home alone. No teammate stood up to cheer him. No teammate walked over to slap his hand or pat his back. Nobody said "good job. " Nobody said anything. If the Bruins' 66-58 loss to Arizona in the second round of the Pac-12 tournament Thursday afternoon was their final game this season, it was a chilling final verdict on the state of the program.