TAMPA –

Moments after a soul-crushing, head-scratching, 76-59 loss to Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament, the UCLA basketball team was not thinking positively, not searching for any thread of silver lining.

In retrospect, though, with the locker room looking more and more like an infirmary, the Bruins have conceded that maybe a quick tournament exit was just what the team needs going into its NCAA Tournament second-round matchup with Michigan State tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum.
Only a little concession, though.

“This team probably could’ve used a little rest, although we would’ve liked to have played in the Pac-10 championship,” said junior guard Malcolm Lee, one of the walking wounded. “But we took advantage of what was given to us, and I feel like the team has a lot of legs and a lot of springs, and we’re going to need that.”

Lee enters the tournament a little less than two weeks removed from suffering a small cartilage tear in his left knee in the team’s regular-season ending win at Washington State on March 5. Lee played 28 minutes in the loss against Oregon, but has practiced at nearly 100 percent for the last week. On Wednesday, he went through a typical workout with the team earlier in the day, had his knee iced and shut down, doing only light shooting in the team’s 4:30 shoot-around.

Meanwhile, after the loss, the three Tylers – sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt, freshman guard Tyler Lamb and walkon Tyler Trapani – survived bouts with strep throat, while junior guard Jerime Anderson was able to beat a viral illness.

The biggest lingering medical issues are junior guard Lazeric Jones’ left wrist and right middle finger, which have drastically limited his effectiveness in recent weeks. Jones has just two double-digit scoring games in his last 11, and has scored just 15 points on 6-of-29 shooting in the team’s last four games.

“My legs feel better, my body feels good right now; as far as the wrist, there’s really nothing I can do about it,” Jones said. “I’ve been having some OK practices, and I’m just trying to stay confident heading into these games.”

Head coach Ben Howland has been supportive of his point guard, both vocally and in playing time. Jones has averaged 30 minutes in his last five games, and Howland has encouraged him to continue to work through his shooting slump, while highlighting his passing, as Jones has 24 assists in the five games.

“I’m still confident,” Jones said. “Coach continues to tell me he has my back and he wants me to go out there and be aggressive. I feel like the shots will fall when it’s time for them to fall. Hopefully this is the game where they’ll fall.”