UCLA’s Gomez Takes Women’s Team to Task

On Dec. 23, well into the second half of a basketball game at Connecticut that the UCLA women’s team would lose by 42 points, the Bruins’ captain, Erica Gomez, blew a fuse.

“We had an inbounds play and I was inbounding the ball,” she said recently. “I called a play and one of the four players ran the play correctly. I couldn’t believe it.

“I was hot, and I yelled at them. Cursed them, really. But all I got was a bunch of strange looks, like they were wondering why I was so upset.”

Gomez, 23, a fifth-year senior who is UCLA’s all-time assist leader, had a lot to say about the Bruins, heading into Pacific 10 Conference play with a disappointing 6-4 record.

UCLA, the preseason choice to win the Pac-10 title, had all five starters back from last season’s team, which tied Oregon as Pac-10 champion and reached the final eight of the NCAA tournament.

Yet the team has played poorly, losing by a combined 68 points to Connecticut and Rutgers. The Bruins began the season ranked No. 4 nationally but have fallen to 17th.

It isn’t only the one-sided losses to highly ranked Tennessee, Rutgers, Connecticut and Louisiana Tech that disturb Gomez, it is how the Bruins lost.

“I’m very concerned about this team, to be honest,” she said.

“I’m looking for intensity from our players, and it looks to me like we don’t have any.

“Our team chemistry is just gone. I know we’ve had injuries and haven’t been able to have the same starters together yet, but we have no attitude out there. That loss at Rutgers--that was awful.

“And the worst part was, we forgot about that game the second we walked off the court. People got on the bus, went to the back and started laughing, talking about what they were going to do the next day.

“When I lose, I’m [ticked] off. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I have nothing to say. You’d think after that game the next day we’d have a great, intense practice. There was no change. Everything was the same. Flat.

“I’m the captain of a team that’s about to start the Pac-10 season and the players don’t know the plays? I don’t understand this. I can run every play from all five positions. So can May [Maylana Martin]. The rest simply don’t know the plays.”

Is that the players’ or Coach Kathy Olivier’s fault?

“It’s 50-50,” Gomez said. “To me, it’s just how you play basketball--you’re supposed to know the plays.”

Olivier seemed startled by Gomez’s comments, but attributed much of them to the team’s frustration level. “I think Erica is very frustrated, just like everyone else,” she said. “First of all, Erica is a great leader--certainly the best in my 14 years at UCLA. And she’s very demanding of her teammates. But she’s also a perfectionist, and has a tendency to expect everyone to be like her.

“And she knows as well as I do that with so many people out hurt, we have everyone playing different positions and of course they’re not going to know all the plays by every position. Particularly the kids who haven’t been here four years.”

Gomez, who sat out the season’s first six games after shoulder surgery in September, said the current team doesn’t measure up in attitude to the 1994-95 team.

“My freshman year here, we were awful, 10-17. This team has a much higher skill level, but not even close to the attitude of that 10-17 team.”

Gomez also said she is bothered that she is alone when watching game films.

“I go in and watch the game films, looking for mistakes I made and wanting to fix them,” she said.

“I’m always by myself. As far as I know, not one other player on this team watches game films.”

Olivier said Gomez is mistaken on that point. “As for her being the only one who watches game films, I have no idea why she would say that,” Olivier said. “It’s not true. Players come in at different times during the day and watch them.”

Gomez said she’s not surprised by UCLA’s poor start.

“I saw this coming,” she said.

“A lot of people picked us to win the conference. But I knew this team would struggle, given the mix of personalities we have.

“Look at May. A great player. And if she makes a mistake, you yell at her, and she fixes the mistake. But if you yell at some of the others, they’ll start to bawl.

“I know all people are different, that some people react to situations different from me--but I can’t help it, it still bothers me.

“You know, if this was just about talent, we’d have won all those games. But it takes so much more than that to win, that special attitude. And this team, so far at least, just doesn’t have a clue.”