UCLA BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK: AFFLALO DEFLECTS NBA TALK.

Byline: BRIAN DOHN

Staff Writer

Arron Afflalo was bombarded with questions about whether he will return for his senior season after the fourth-ranked Bruins beat Stanford 75-61 Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, and he coolly pushed aside the issue time and again.

The junior guard, who scored 20 points in the Bruins' final home game, said he barely gave consideration to whether this was his last game at Pauley.

"You know that the possibility is there," Afflalo said.

"But I'm so focused on the now and what I had to do to beat Stanford, I never thought, 'This is my last game, let me go do what I have to do.' It's not what I play for, and all those decisions come with time."

Sources close to Afflalo said there is a chance he could return for a senior season -- and UCLA is not actively recruiting anyone to fill his scholarship -- but he and his father, Benjamin, said after the game a decision will not be made until UCLA's participation in the NCAA Tournament is complete.

Complicating Afflalo's decision-making process is what transpired last spring.

He declared for the NBA draft, worked out for some teams, but then pulled his name out to return this season.

Therefore, he cannot put his name in the draft and pull it out again this year. It also will cut down on the evaluation process.

But Afflalo said having gone through the process will allow him to handle the uncertainty of it with more maturity now.

"You take care of the now and let those things fall into place later," Afflalo said. "Unlike last year, this year there's less of a worry about it. You just go out here and compete and play for your team, play hard, and those things take care of themselves."

Rebounding edge: Stanford leads the Pacific-10 Conference in rebounding (39.3 per game) and was second in offensive rebounds (12.77), but was beaten on the boards.

UCLA held a 31-27 rebound advantage, and limited the Cardinal to fiveoffensive boards.

"That's the stat of the game," UCLA coach Ben Howland said of Stanford's offensive rebounds. "We were blocking out. Pretty simple."

Undefeated comparison: The Bruins finished 16-0 at home, their first perfect season at Pauley since the 1974-75 team went 15-0, but the nonconference schedules were quite different.

UCLA's nonconference home schedule this season consisted of Long Beach State, UC Riverside, Cal State Fullerton, Oakland, Sam Houston State and Michigan.

In 1974-75, the nonconference home schedule was Wichita State, DePaul, Loyola-Chicago, Oklahoma State, Memphis State, Davidson, Oklahoma and UC Santa Barbara.

UCLA is officially credited with being undefeated at home during the 1994-95 season as well, but did lose at Pauley to California, which later was forced to forfeit the game.