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Thursday, January 29, 1998

Stalwart Bruins stand by their man

M.BBALL: McCoy expected to contribute play against WSU today

By Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

As rumors continue to circulate about embattled center Jelani McCoy, the No. 8 UCLA men's basketball team will seek refuge tonight in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins face off against Washington State at 7:30 p.m., and despite rumors to the contrary, McCoy is expected to see action.

"I'm sure Jelani will bounce back," UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. "Against Stanford, he played really well and played the entire game. (Against Louisville) he didn't play as well."

The subject of questions regarding his status with the team for the past week, McCoy will maintain his space in the rotation. Against the Cougars, he will have his first opportunity to rebound from a horrendous outing against Louisville last Sunday, in which he scored only two points in 14 minutes, spending much of the second half on the bench.

"My job, my obligation to my teammates is to go out and perform way better than I did last time," McCoy said. "If you have a bad game, you've got to bounce back, you've got to play 100 times harder and play 100 times better than you did the last game."

While questions regarding the status of a team member could prove fractious, if not lethal, to another team, UCLA (14-3, 5-2 Pac-10), which has been involved in more than its share of scandal recently, finds itself unfazed by a position that has become all too familiar.

"This has not been a difficult week, in terms of preparing our team," Lavin said. "No more this week than other weeks. There's been more difficult weeks. This team's better prepared to cope with distractions that are being played out in the press."

The Cougars (8-10, 1-6 Pac-10) have been faced with personnel issues of their own, the most significant being the loss of senior guard Rodrigo de la Fuente to a professional team in his native Spain. De la Fuente was leading the team in scoring when he made the jump to FC Barcelona on Jan. 4.

With the loss of de la Fuente, the scoring load has fallen on senior forward Carlos Daniel. Daniel, who stands in at 6-feet-7-inches, leads the team in scoring with 16.9 points per game and rebounding with 9.9 per game.

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