Greensboro, N.C. ? Steve Lavin has survived to see another day, to coach in another NCAA Tournament.
That didn’t seem likely when the Bruins got off to a 4-4 start and athletics director Peter Dalis contacted Rick Pitino twice without Lavin’s knowledge.
While Dalis denied he talked to the former Boston Celtics coach about the UCLA job, it fueled speculation that Lavin was on his way out of Los Angeles yet again.
Now, two months later, Lavin is the Pac-10 coach of the year as the fourth-seeded Bruins (21-8) prepare to face Hofstra in the opening round of the East Regional today.
Lavin has won 21 or more games in each of his five seasons since taking over the storied program from Jim Harrick. But nothing ever seems to be enough.
He called the atmosphere surrounding his program “the theater of the absurd” during his news conference Wednesday.
“You have to keep a sense of humor,” Lavin said. “You have to realize you’re going to be a gigantic dartboard, a big pinata that is going to get whacked and not take yourself too seriously.”
UCLA has had seven coaches since John Wooden’s national title runs in the 1960s and ’70s. Only Harrick won the NCAA championship in 1994-95 but he, too, was ousted.
Lavin was an assistant under Harrick for five seasons.
“I was fortunate enough to watch Jim Harrick deal with the highs and lows and that rollercoaster ride,” Lavin said. “That was a real advantage. When I did become the head coach I had a reference point. But it’s different when you move those six inches over from an assistant to a head coach.”
Harrick is also here this week as coach of Georgia, which made the field as an at-large team.
Lavin was patient, cordial and witty during his news conference, answering some of the same questions he’s been asked for five years about his job security and pressures he faces on a daily basis.
“You can’t take yourself so seriously that you can’t laugh about it and see the theater of the absurd and the insanity of it all and still continue to coach and teach on a daily basis,” he said. “That’s the most important thing. That’s what keeps you going and makes you thankful to be working at a place like UCLA.”
It’s not like this UCLA team hasn’t given the critics plenty of ammunition, losing to Cal State-Northridge at home in November and falling to last-place Washington in the final PAC-10 game last weekend.
But the players insist the season so far has been a success.
“We had an eight-game winning streak, a six-game winning streak, we beat Stanford and Arizona and everyone said we were inconsistent,” guard Earl Watson said. “It’s amazing.
“But coach very seldom talks about the challenges he has to face. The most amazing thing is his resilience. He has been a great leader for our team because we follow his lead and fight back during tough times.”
Lavin has made it to the regional finals once, but UCLA was blown out of two other regional semifinals and lost to Detroit in the first round in 1999.
Lavin and Hofstra coach Jay Wright, whose club enters the postseason on an 18-game winning streak, are good friends and can pass as twins. They are often mistaken for each other at coaching conventions and Final Fours.
Wright said he and Lavin talked this year about the pressures his buddy faces.
“He knows he has to be a positive head coach at UCLA because there is so much negativity around him. I admire him for that,” Wright said. “After what he went through this year, I like my situation a lot better.”
The other high-profile team in this sub-regional is Duke, which finished as the nation’s top-ranked team each of the last three seasons.
The Blue Devils (29-4) won the Atlantic Coast Conference title for the third straight time last weekend in Atlanta, but shot just 38 percent from the field and 60 percent from the foul line.
Defense was key as Duke forced 62 turnovers and had 38 steals.
“The postseason is not about looking pretty and it’s not about having gaudy numbers, it’s all about surviving and moving on,” All-American Shane Battier said.
Duke has been a No. 1 seed four straight years, winning its last three games over No. 16 seeds by scores of 99-63, 99-58 and 82-55.