In today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lavin actually picked UCLA as one of his top 5 picks to win it all (and he wasn't talking about the Pac-10 tourney):
http://www.ajc.com/wednesday/content/epaper/editions/wednesday/sports_44e0a769d2c1804600e7.html
Either a Duke Vitale, classic "cover-his-ass-right-before-the-Final-Four-in-1995" move, but I'm sure it's much more sinister than that. Of course, if that was true, that would take actual intelligence on his part.