For Lorenzo Mata, all it took was one play. In the final seconds
of UCLA’s victory over Washington earlier this month, the
Bruins held a slim advantage over the Huskies. Needing a score to
put the game away, Mata did what he knew he was supposed to do.
Leaping above everyone else and snatching an offensive rebound
out of the air, Mata went up strong for the put-back. The crowd at
Pauley Pavilion, already jubilant in anticipation of the impending
victory, went absolutely ballistic.
The fans weren’t the only ones excited. Mata himself ran
back to the sideline, a huge, awkward grin on his face, as if he
were trying to restrain his own emotions but unable to hold it all
back.
“I was so happy, my headband came off,” Mata said.
“I think that was one of the loudest reactions from the crowd
that night.”
His teammates, too, went wild, as everyone took their turn
high-fiving and chest-bumping the most popular Bruin of the
moment.
“We were really excited, you could see him running back to
the huddle,” Michael Fey said. “He had this big old
smile on his face. He was really happy, and we were happy for him.
You could definitely see the joy on his face.”
It only took one play, and the bond between Mata, his teammates
and the fans was sealed.
Less than two weeks later, there exists a burgeoning movement
with Mata at its center, both on campus and in cyberspace. The
Lorenzo Mata Super Fan Club, a group organized by the “Grand
Dragoon,” a.k.a. fourth-year history and political science
student Jake Strom, got its start on thefacebook.com, a popular
internet service among college students.
The LMSFC (for short) already has 83 members as of Wednesday,
including several of Mata’s teammates, and Strom plans to
sell T-shirts proclaiming the virtues of Mata outside Pauley
Pavilion soon.
Mata’s appeal begins with his unique style. At first
glance, he may appear to be unkempt, but it’s his wispy
moustache and closely cropped haircut that distinguishes him from
the rest of the team. His big ears give him a boyish appearance
despite his large frame. But whether due to his facial coiffeur or
simply his attitude on the court, his following among the fans is
growing.
“I believe that there is something about Lorenzo Mata,
some intrinsic quality that makes him utterly fantastic,”
Strom said. “He has the makings to be the greatest cult hero
since Andre the Giant and Daniel LaRusso.”
Mata is not one to disappoint his supporters.
“I never thought as a freshman I was going to have
fans,” Mata said. “I want to keep working hard so I can
get more. I saw a guy wearing my jersey in Pauley Pavilion, and I
thought that was so cool. I want to see more jerseys.”
A simple glance at Mata’s calves, and it will become
immediately clear the reason that UCLA coach Ben Howland recruited
the 6-foot-8-inch post player out of South Gate, a mostly Latino
high school in Los Angeles.
They’re enormous.
Mata’s entire lower body screams of strength and
athleticism, something that Howland feels makes him a unique talent
among big-men.
“There aren’t that many guys that have that kind of
size and are so athletic, in terms of running and jumping,”
Howland said. “In practice, (Mata) can run
forever.”
UCLA has long been without a bruising big man, someone able to
bring physical toughness to the post. Already, the team’s
second-leading rebounder per minutes played, Mata knew he could
fulfill that role, an opportunity he relishes. Howland believes
that one day Mata will become a consistent double-double
threat.
“That’s what I’m all about,” Mata said.
“Rebounding and playing tough.”
Clearly Mata had a place at UCLA, but Westwood turned out to be
a good fit for Mata as well. He visits home frequently and relies
on the support of his friends and family. The fact that he could
remain close to home ultimately sealed his decision to become a
Bruin, despite being recruited by Oregon and Arizona. His family,
and especially his mother, remain Mata’s main priority. His
face lights up whenever he talks about her.
“Just thinking about getting a degree from UCLA means a
lot to me. I had never seen my mom so happy,” he said.
“She comes to all the home games, she waits for me after the
game every night. I just love seeing the smile on her face.
That’s what I’m doing this for, for my mom.”
The first one in his family to attend a university in the United
States, Mata takes special delight in the knowledge that he may one
day have a degree from one of the country’s best
institutions.
He sees himself as an example to his younger relatives and hopes
that his success as a student at UCLA will encourage them to pursue
higher education.
“The thing I’m most proud of is how hard he’s
worked academically,” Howland said. “He had a very good
quarter in his first time at UCLA. That kind of discipline and
dedication that it takes to being a good student translates into
being a good basketball player.”
But although he’d like to be an intimidating presence on
the court, Mata is the ultimate nice guy away from the hardwood, a
goofy kid with whom everyone seems to get along.
“Everybody on the team is my buddy,” Mata said with
a grin on his face.
Beyond the physical aspects of his game are the same intangibles
that fans have already recognized. His blue-collar attitude has
ingratiated him not only to the fans, but also to his coach and
teammates.
“He’s a great kid, a great person,” Howland
said. “The fans look at him as a kid that works really hard,
that plays with a lot of passion. I couldn’t be happier that
he’s having success.”
“I think he is the most popular guy on the team,”
Dijon Thompson said. “Give him two more years, and he’s
going to be a monster.”
Even his coaches aren’t quite sure of Mata’s ceiling
as a player because he got his start in basketball relatively late.
He was inspired by the AND 1 mixed tapes, a collection of home
videos from playgrounds around the country and began trying to
simulate the acrobatic dunks that he had seen. But Mata did not
begin to play organized basketball until he entered high
school.
Always taller and stronger than his opposition in high school,
the transition to elite college basketball hasn’t been easy.
And though he admits the rigors of practice can be difficult at
times, Mata recognizes that the game has opened doors to him that
might previously have been shut.
“Playing basketball has done a lot for me,” he said.
“As I started getting recruited, people told me that my
parents wouldn’t have to pay for college, so I started
working harder and harder in school. If it weren’t for
basketball, I wouldn’t be at UCLA, but I’d still be
working hard, at a JC somewhere, trying to keep everyone in my
family happy.”
Mata has a lot of room for improvement on the court, but in the
hearts and minds of the people around him, he is already a special
player.
For the growing ranks of his fan club, Mata is already starting
a legendary Bruin career, as much for being himself as anything he
does on the court. And as the freshman continues to grow, mature,
and refine his game, it’s safe to say that he’ll be
giving UCLA fans a lot to cheer about in the years to come.