WEST

For all the criticism UCLA coach Steve Lavin seems to attract year after year, Thursday’s West Regional semifinal against No. 12 seed Missouri in San Jose will be the Bruins’ fifth Sweet 16 appearance in six years. Only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski has matched that.

Lavin’s No. 8 seed UCLA knocked out No. 1 seed Cincinnati in a memorable 105-101 double-overtime victory Sunday.

The UCLA players, much like Pittsburgh’s confident bunch, sounded convincing that a Sweet 16 berth wasn’t enough.

“Missouri’s good and so are Arizona and Oklahoma (the other West Region semifinal match-up),” UCLA guard Billy Knight said. “But we’ve beaten two No. 1 teams this year (Cincinnati and Kansas). I think there’s a lot of teams out there who are scared of us right now.”

UCLA’s vintage comeback performance against Cincinnati has certainly served notice to the rest of the field and made many forget that the Bruins finished sixth in the Pac-10 and entered the NCAAs having lost two games in a row and four of their last six.

The Bruins’ comeback from 11 points down with nine minutes left vs. Cincy stunned even some of their own players.

“We stepped up to the plate and hit home runs,” UCLA guard Cedric Bozeman said. “We will watch [Sunday’s OT win] on ESPN Classic.”