UCLA PREVIEW: NO SHORTAGE OF SUBPLOTS FOR UCLA-CAL.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

BERKELEY - The UCLA basketball team returns to the site of the resurrection tonight. This time, though, the Bruins are no longer in need of a seance. All they're looking for is a little confirmation.

A win in the manner of last year, when the dead-men-walking Bruins rallied from a 19-point deficit to rout Cal 83-62, won't jump-start them toward another brilliant season-ending, job-saving run.

They've already won eight of their last nine, and who knows what it will take to secure coach Steve Lavin's job?

What a win would do is establish the Bruins as no worse than the next-best team in the Pac-10 Conference, behind No. 1-ranked Stanford and No. 7-and-closing Arizona.

And, more importantly, it gets them off to a good start on their rugged, 15-day midseason march that goes next to Stanford, then USC, DePaul and home for Arizona.

``There's no comparison to last year,'' said senior captain Earl Watson of last year's trip north, when the Bruins carried a 13-11 overall record and were 4-8 in conference.

``Last year, we were in a tough position. We probably couldn't lose again and still get in the (NCAA) Tournament. This year, we're still playing for first place. It's important in those terms.''

The Bruins (12-5, 6-1) come into Haas Pavilion for tonight's 7:30 game on equal terms with the Bears (14-5, 5-2), whose only losses in the past 15 games have been at Arizona and Stanford.

The two story lines of the game figure to center on how Cal will handle UCLA's full-court press and how UCLA can minimize the impact of Cal star forward Sean Lampley.

Then there are the subplots to consider: Ray Young and Matt Barnes will be making their annual Bay Area homecoming; Dan Gadzuric almost attended Cal; and Cal center Solomon Hughes walked into the UCLA coaches' offices this summer to inquire about transferring there.

Yet, not far from anyone's mind is the elbow that Cal center Nick Vander Laan planted in Gadzuric's face last year. The blow, which knocked Gadzuric off his feet and sent him to the bench, later earned Vander Laan a reprimand from the Pac-10 office.

``There's still a lot of bad vibes,'' Watson said. ``It's still not appreciated. I guarantee you everyone remembers that. It was very, very close to being intentional.''

Other Bruins believe it was. A few minutes earlier, Vander Laan had furiously swung his elbows after clearing a rebound but didn't connect with anyone.

``I know he did it on purpose,'' Bruins guard Billy Knight said. ``He aimed once, then he aimed again.''

Gadzuric said he doesn't harbor any ill will toward Vander Laan and didn't want to discuss the incident. But he did acknowledge that it fired him up.

The play, on which no foul was called, resulted in a fast-break dunk by Lampley that put Cal ahead 40-38. Gadzuric spent a couple of minutes on the bench, gathering himself, then spent the final 15 minutes delivering blows of his own.

He had a career-high 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds with four blocks, two steals and two assists. After taking the elbow, Gadzuric had eight points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

``When he came back, he was really pumped,'' said Knight. ``He came back and got a couple of dunks, and when he does that it gets the whole team pumped.

UCLA vs. CAL

Tipoff: 7:30 p.m., at Haas Pavilion

TV/Radio: Fox Sports Net 2; 1150-AM

UCLA (12-5, 6-1) update: The Bruins have won five of the last six meetings at Cal. One key question is how effective the Bruins' press will be. Cal's Shantay Legans, who has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1-to-1, is one of the more underrated point guards in the nation. But the Bruins have had success forcing the ball out of the hands of USC's Brandon Granville and Oregon's Luke Ridnour and making other players to handle the ball. South Florida, a team similar to UCLA, used a 1-3-1 half-court trap to force Cal into a season-high 23 turnovers in a 79-69 loss to the Bears two weeks ago. UCLA turned the ball over just 18 times in sweeping the Oregon schools.

Cal (14-5, 5-2) update: How much do the Bears rely on power forward Sean Lampley? They are 13-2 when he leads them in scoring, 1-3 when he does not. Lampley, last week's Pac-10 Player of the Week, averages 18.9 points per game, leads the team with 6.9 rebounds per game and is second with 63 assists though he has a team-leading 69 turnovers. ``Sean, for our team, does it all, as evidenced by the fact that when he hasn't played well we've struggled,'' Cal coach Ben Braun said. ``A lot of our surge is because of Sean. He's starting to make guys around him better.'' The Bears, since starting 1-3, have lost only at Stanford and Arizona. They are 10-0 at home.

-Billy Witz

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: UCLA vs. CAL (see text)