ANALYSIS: NEW BRUINS SAME AS OLD.

Byline: Jon Wilner Staff Writer

They have a new lineup, they've got a new offense, they're more mature, and they're bigger and stronger. But after eight games, the season already feels familiar - like the UCLA Bruins are once again destined for 20 wins, third place in the Pacific-10 and an underachieving performance in the NCAA Tournament.

Sure, they're talented enough to win their home games and beat mediocre teams on the road. But based on what they've shown so far, the Bruins won't be challenging for the Pac-10 title anytime soon, and it appears they'll struggle against disciplined, well-coached teams in the Tournament. Like Miami. Like Detroit Mercy. Like Gonzaga. Like Colorado State.

For the third consecutive season, the Bruins' practice habits are poor, their fundamentals are lacking, and their half-court offense is on life support.

They haven't run the new system (the ``1-4 high'') any better than they executed their freewheeling motion offense from 1997-99.

Proof is in the performance.

Of UCLA's eight opponents, four were outmanned: Fairfield, Iona, Morgan State and Maine.

Two more, DePaul and South Florida, were athletic but poorly coached teams that engaged the Bruins in a frenzied, fast-breaking affair.

Only Gonzaga and Colorado State forced UCLA to execute its offense against fundamentally sound, well-designed defenses. In both cases, the Bruins failed miserably.

They scored 43 points against Gonzaga, a record-low in Pauley Pavilion, and 54 against Colorado State.

They had 15 assists and 28 turnovers in the two games combined.

They shot 32 percent from the field.

Those numbers translate to embarrassment in Maples Pavilion and McKale Center.

The 1-4 attack is highly structured. Using screens and passes, it's designed to spread the defense and funnel the ball to center Dan Gadzuric and power forward Jerome Moiso in the low post. If the defense plays man-to-man, Gadzuric and Moiso look to score. If the defense double-teams, they pass to open 3-point shooters.

It's a great concept. But the reality is that no offense predicated on structure, precision and skill is going to work for the Bruins, at least as they are currently composed. If they had five Jason Kaponos, then fine. He's skilled enough to handle it. The 1-4 also works reasonably for Moiso, although he's more comfortable 12 feet from the basket than six.

But a structured offense does not work for point guard Earl Watson, shooting guard Ray Young or Gadzuric, and that's 60 percent of the starting lineup.

Here's why:

When Watson is roaming the court, scoring from the wings, rebounding and creating havoc with his tenacity, he's an all-conference player.

But unlike Tyus Edney, Cameron Dollar and Baron Davis, Watson is not a natural point guard. He's shackled by any system that demands exactitude and restricts his ability to improvise. Often, he seems frustrated by the 1-4 high.

Young, much like former Bruin Toby Bailey, is a fabulous athlete who's unstoppable on the fast break or slashing to the basket.

But the half-court offense is short on slashing and long on skill. Young is an inconsistent perimeter shooter (like Bailey), he's a sloppy passer into the low post, and he hasn't shown he can score off the dribble. He, too, seems better suited to the motion attack.

Gadzuric is great on the offensive boards, he can dunk with the best of them, and he'll even hit an occasional jumper. But give him the ball in the post with his back to the basket and a quality defender on his hip - that's what the offense calls for, after all - and he has no answers.

Why? In 15 months at UCLA, Gadzuric has not developed one effective low-post move. Not a jump hook, not a turnaround, nothing. Clearly, bad habits are to blame. Ninety minutes before a recent game, Gadzuric was seen hoisting left-handed 3-point shots toward the west basket of Pauley Pavilion.

He did this for 10-15 minutes.

Stanford will let him take all the 3-pointers he wants.

The man-to-man isn't UCLA's only problem. Its zone offense was as inert against Gonzaga as it was against Detroit Mercy in the NCAA Tournament nine months prior. It's no surprise: attacking a zone requires precision and skill, crisp passes, hard screens, off-the-ball movement and deft perimeter shooting - qualities the Bruins display when the fancy strikes them.

At this point, two weeks before Pac-10 play begins, the Bruins have three options:

They can scrap the 1-4 high and return to the motion attack. This seems unlikely, both for practical purposes - it's a bit late to start over - and for the panic message it would send.

They can maintain their current standards and habits, beat bad teams, struggle against mediocre teams, lose to good teams and never seriously challenge Arizona and Stanford for the Pac-10 title.

Or they can join the elite. This requires a massive shift in approach and execution, but it's not impossible. To do it, the Bruins must improve their fundamentals and sharpen their practice habits, which means correcting mistakes that are often overlooked: stupid passes, sloppy screens, bad footwork and bad shots.

The alley-oop, for instance, works one time in four, yet Watson and Ryan Bailey try it again and again. Young continually throws errant passes in games because he throws them in practice. The Bruins leave their feet on defense in games because they feet their feet in practice.

Lorenzo Romar, the former UCLA assistant and Pepperdine coach, once told a story of his summer as an assistant on an all-star team coached by Utah mastermind Rick Majerus. Majerus was such a detail freak, Romar said, that he'd berate players for taking shots one inch closer to the basket than designated.

UCLA's staff doesn't need Majerus' temper, but greater attention to detail in practice would help the Bruins execute better in games - especially against fundamentally sound, well-prepared opponents who feast on every mistake.

So no, the Bruins' destiny is not locked in a 20-10, third-place vault. Their postseason fate is not sealed in a half-court cell. There's plenty of time to join the elite, but they had better get busy.

UPS AND DOWNS 

UCLA's offense has hummed against the six outmanned and poorly coached teams on its schedule. But against the well-prepared defenses of Gonzaga and Colorado State, the Bruins have struggled.

GON/CSU OTHERS

Pts/game 48.5 90.5

FG percent 31.9 51.3

3 FG percent 21 39

asst/game 7.5 19

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

PHOTO (color) Jerome Moiso is one player who can handle UCLA's 1-4 high offense, but other starters can't.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer

CHART: Ups and downs (see text)