Bruins Might Be a Little Bit Short Against Tar Heels

ANCHORAGE — Thousands of miles from holiday hearth and home, more than 60 degrees of separation from a Fahrenheit comfort zone, UCLA’s little rascals finally make their season and national television debut today.

Unfortunately for the suspension-depleted, short and mostly inexperienced Bruins, their first-round opponent in the Great Alaska Shootout is third-ranked North Carolina, which is big, deep, experienced and already 3-0.

“To play Carolina right off the bat, it’s like a dream come true,” said 6-foot UCLA freshman guard Earl Watson, counted on as one of the Bruins’ key rebounders. “Those are games you play in your backyard and pretend you’re playing teams like that.”

With Kris Johnson not due back in action for several weeks and Jelani McCoy due back later than that, if at all, UCLA is starting two freshman guards in a four-guard lineup and hardly considers its performance in three consecutive days of tournament play here a make-or-break event.

Has a sixth-ranked team ever started a season so seemingly overmatched?

“They’re going to be nervous,” Coach Steve Lavin said of his freshmen. “They were nervous for [a club team from] Lithuania and the intrasquad day. That’s natural, part of the college experience. So, the sooner the better.

“That’s why I’m glad we’re playing three straight games; not one game, a week off, another game, a week off, like we had last year. This time, we . . . play three games and we’ll know so much more by the time we come back on Sunday about our team and our young guys.”

Lavin compares the matchup against North Carolina to the Bruins’ bad--but educational--loss to Kansas at Pauley Pavilion last December.

The Tar Heels, now coached by Dean Smith’s 30-year assistant, Bill Guthridge, feature sophomore point guard Ed Cota and junior stars Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter. They lost only center Serge Zwikker--and Smith, of course--from last season’s Final Four team.

Lavin said that with Watson and Baron Davis in the starting lineup and with Rico Hines, Billy Knight and Travis Reed playing key roles from the outset, starting the Shootout against North Carolina is a testing ground.

“We’re definitely a young, young team,” he said. “North Carolina . . . they’re huge and we’re very small, playing our four guards around J.R. [Henderson]. So we’ll have to shoot the ball well from the perimeter and hopefully our quickness will neutralize in some way their size and strength.

“I’d say rebounding, that’s going to be our biggest deficiency. We’re pretty quick, I think we can press some, our zone will be pretty effective with our quickness. I’m just concerned about our size on the boards.

“You play a team like North Carolina, they’re going to expose your deficiencies, so I can go back as a coach and prepare for the conference.”

In the Bruins’ two exhibition games, Davis, Knight, Hines and Watson were far from shaky--though the baby Bruins say they understand it’s a mammoth step from NBC-Thunder to North Carolina on ESPN in prime time.

Much more experienced UCLA teams have lost in the last two season openers: to Santa Clara in the 1995 Maui Invitational, to Tulsa in the 1996 Preseason NIT at Pauley.

“I don’t know if us being freshmen is a problem,” Watson said. “The only statement we want to make is a positive statement--try to be our best.”

Lavin said of his two freshman starters, “Their temperament is so unusual and their maturity level is so unusual for their age. So it’s easy to forget they are freshmen.

“I’m sure there are times when we’re going to have to be patient and just understand they’re young and they’re growing. But to this point in the season, they’ve exceeded my expectations.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

UCLA TONIGHT

vs.

North Carolina

* 6 p.m. PST

* ESPN

Site--Anchorage.

Radio--AM 1150.

Records--UCLA 0-0, North Carolina 3-0.

Update--The Bruins face a question tonight that may be nagging them all season: How to deal with a pure power forward such as North Carolina’s Antawn Jamison in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout? J.R. Henderson will play center, but UCLA will play a lot of zone and press to try to make it a scattered game. If Henderson gets into foul trouble, the Bruins will be defenseless inside.