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By Chris Umpierre

Daily Bruin Staff

It is one of CBS’s favorite video clips to run during their NCAA tournament coverage.

With just seconds left in the game, Princeton is shown draining the clock at midcourt. Then UCLA forward Charles O’Bannon bites on a stutter-step fake by Tiger forward Gabe Lewullis. Princeton guard Steve Goodrich passes the ball to the cutting Lewullis for a textbook backdoor play to bounce the defending national champions from the 1996 tournament.

Several pundits across the nation, such as the New York Times, are predicting another such upset when fourth-seeded UCLA takes on 13th-seeded Hofstra in a first round NCAA Tournament game this afternoon. The upset is definitely a possibility for a program that has suffered more than its share of first round losses.

In addition to Princeton, there’s Tulsa in 1994, Penn State in 1991 and most recently, Detroit Mercy in 1999.

“You learn around here you can’t look past anybody,” UCLA guard Jason Flowers said.

Bruin shooting guard Billy Knight said his team was doing just that two years ago when they overlooked little-known Detroit Mercy.

Senior Rashard Phillips and the rest of his senior-laden team made the Bruins pay by showing UCLA the door. In one of the 1999 NCAA tournament’s biggest upsets, Detroit Mercy stunned UCLA 56-53 in the first round.

“I remember seeing them warm up and Detroit Mercy was ready,” Knight said. “In their warm-ups, they were real focused. Our team was lackadaisical in the layup line.”

“I could sort of tell from the start,” he added. “If I see that now before the game, I’ll tell everyone to get more focused.”

The ingredients for another first round upset are there. Like Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra is a senior-dominated team, with seven seniors.

Spearheaded by senior forward Norman Richardson, who averages 17 points a game, Hofstra is widely regarded as the strongest No. 13 seed in the tournament. The Hofstra Pride is America’s hottest team, winning 18 straight games, albeit against mostly inferior competition.

Like Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra has been to the tournament before. Last season Hofstra was seeded 14th and lost to Oklahoma State, 86-66, in the first round. Because of that experience, they aren’t in awe of playing in the tournament.

They are well past the “I’m-just-glad-to-be-here” attitude.

“Last year we were so excited (to get into the tournament), we were running on adrenaline the whole time,” Hofstra guard Jason Hernandez said. “This year we’re more composed.”

Like Detroit Mercy and Princeton, Hofstra can play a slow-paced game, the same type of game that opponents have shown is the recipe to upsetting UCLA in the first round.

Although they also like to run, the Pride played slowdown games against Rutgers (a 58-52 win), Manhattan College (a 57-43 win) and Delaware (a 68-55 win).

Because UCLA has played in a number of “grinders” this season, Head Coach Steve Lavin isn’t concerned if Hofstra wants to play a zone defense and put a premium on shots.

“The majority of our games have been played at a grinding, screeching halt,” he said. “A lot of our opponents try to play us that way.”

So could UCLA, who has proven during the season that it has the horses to make a deep run in the tournament, lose again in the first round?

“There’s not going to be a Detroit Mercy first round knockout,” Watson said with conviction after his team’s 96-94 loss to Washington last weekend. “Because I’m going to do whatever it takes to win. Whatever it is, I’m going to do it.”

“It’s my last year. I’m going to try my hardest to pull this together on the court and off the court. If I have to pull someone to the side, I’m going to do it,” Watson added.

Maybe UCLA’s first round loss came a week early. Possibly Saturday’s embarrassing defeat to 20-loss Washington in the team’s final game of the regular season was the kind of defeat that will force the team to focus on its first round opponent. Their coach sure hopes so.

“The loss Saturday got rid of any false sense of security,” Lavin said. “A stinger like this for a group of kids like ours should eliminate that from happening again.”

There is one significant difference from the current Bruin squad and those UCLA teams that were upset in the first round. Now, the 2000-2001 Bruins are a veteran team.

UCLA has nine juniors and seniors on the team, four of whom are in the starting lineup. These upperclassmen have played in a number of tournament games and understand they can’t afford to take any team lightly.

“Sitting at home, you wonder how things like (losing to Detroit Mercy) can happen and it’s because you look past your first round opponent,” Flowers said. “That won’t happen with this team. We have seniors like myself and a lot of older guys. We’ll definitely be ready.”