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By Chris Umpierre

Daily Bruin Staff

UCLA Head Coach Steve Lavin was placed on probation for the remainder of the season by the Pac-10 late Monday for his tirade toward an official during Saturday’s game against Oregon State.

On several occasions, Lavin shouted and made gestures toward Pac-10 Coordinator of Officiating Lou Campanelli, who was sitting nine rows behind the Bruin bench, regarding calls by referee Craig Grismore.

A couple of times in the game, Lavin motioned with his thumb, saying “get him out of here” to Campanelli. On another occasion, he turned around, faced Campanelli and made a throat-slashing gesture.

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said the conference nearly suspended Lavin for Thursday’s game against Cal.

“His comments about the officials were prohibited by conference rules and inappropriate,” Hansen said in a statement. “The officials worked a fine game.”

The league decided on probation after a meeting with Lavin, who flew to the bay area to meet with Hansen and Campanelli, Monday afternoon.

“Basically I wanted to express to them that I’m sorry for my actions,” Lavin said. “It reflected poorly on the Pac-10, on our university and on our program.”

The unusual measure of placing Lavin on probation – ordinarily the Pac-10 suspends or fines coaches for such behavior – means that if the head coach were to get in another similar incident with officials, he could face a suspension. However, technical fouls are not part of the equation.

“I asked them ‘What is probation?’” Lavin said. “I said what if I get a technical foul. They said ‘No, technical fouls have nothing to do with it.’”

UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis, who just last week said Lavin is starting to turn into a coach who “goes nuts on the sideline,” said he almost missed Lavin’s outburst because rain had damaged the reception on his television.

“Initially I thought he was doing something up in the crowd like a lot of people thought,” he said. “And then when the camera focused on Lou (Campanelli), I put two and two together.”

Naturally, Dalis was concerned with his head coach’s actions.

“I think (arguing with referees has) become the culture of college basketball,” he said. “I’m so old-fashioned, I’d not like to see any of that happen.”

This is not Lavin’s first encounter with referees. Just last Thursday against Oregon, he received a technical foul for arguing a call and had to be physically restrained by assistant coach Michael Holton.

Two seasons ago in a game at Washington, Lavin was ejected after committing two technical fouls. He had to be held by players and coaches from going after official Terry Christman.

“I think this is a good wake-up call,” Lavin said. “(It) reminds you what’s really important, which is setting a good example for the young people in our program and behaving in a manner that a head basketball coach at an institution like this should.”

Towards the end of his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Lavin joked about how he’s recently being perceived as a very vocal coach.

“Before, I was a cheerleader and too positive (and) now I’m moving into the angry demonstrative salty coach,” he said. “My first year I was a good defensive coach but a horrible recruiter. Then I became a great recruiter and a bad coach.”

“To me, I’m doing the same thing every year,” Lavin added. “People that are close to me don’t see a dramatic change.”