Lavin Will Lay Off Officials

A contrite Steve Lavin said Tuesday that he plans to spend the rest of the season coaching the UCLA basketball team, not fretting over whether his team is getting a fair shake from game officials.

“For me, this will be a good learning experience in terms of really focusing on the coaching and the teaching,” said Lavin, who Monday was put on probation by the Pacific 10 Conference because of his sideline tirade directed at referee Craig Grismore during Saturday’s game at Oregon State. “This was kind of a wake-up call.”

Lavin said he planned to apologize to Grismore.

The conference was ready to suspend Lavin for Thursday’s game against California, but UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis came to his defense and persuaded Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen to soften the penalty.

“I raised some issues with the conference about precedent and things of that nature,” said Dalis, who was careful to say he disapproved of Lavin’s behavior in the game but thought a suspension was unduly harsh, particularly because the coach was not assessed a technical foul.

Dalis said he wasn’t surprised by the probation, considering an August meeting of conference athletic directors in which officiating was a central topic of discussion.

“All of the athletic directors were encouraging Lou Campanelli [who oversees Pac-10 officials] in some ways to restrain our own coaches,” Dalis said. “We have a difficult time restraining them at times. We were kind of imploring him to have us work on that, consistently, throughout the conference.”

Hansen said Lavin will face “strong sanctions” if he violates his probation but the definition of a violation is unclear. Lavin said he can still receive a technical foul, for instance, without running afoul of the conference.