Humbled, sheepish, and a little bit more mature, UCLA’s
four precocious freshmen are approaching the end of a season that
they agree has been more difficult than any of them first
imagined.
Back in October, when Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp
and Lorenzo Mata donned Bruin uniforms for the first time, the
heralded foursome vowed to lead the team deep into March. With less
than two weeks remaining in the regular season and UCLA’s
NCAA Tournament hopes hinging on a strong finish beginning tonight
against USC, the freshmen have had to reassess their goals.
“I expected more,” Farmar said. I expected us to be
a lot better as a team. I expected us to be able to hold our own
without such an adjustment process. I just didn’t expect it
to be as hard as it has been.”
Season-ending injuries endured by seniors Cedric Bozeman and
Janou Rubin and the pressure of resurrecting the storied program
haven’t made the learning process any easier.
Farmar, the only true point guard on the UCLA roster, has been
forced to build his stamina to where he can play nearly 40 minutes
per game. Afflalo, the team’s best defender, has sacrificed
his role in the offense to mark the opposing team’s best
perimeter scorer each game. Shipp, perhaps the most instinctual
player of the four, has improved his rebounding to offset
UCLA’s deficiencies in the area at the center position. And
Mata, the only one of the freshmen who comes off the bench, has
dealt with a diminished role while working to improve his on-ball
defense.
“This is the best freshmen class I’ve had,”
UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “They’ve been thrown into
playing more minutes than any freshmen I’ve ever had. We have
three guys averaging over 30 minutes per game in conference. That
doesn’t happen very often anywhere.”
No other coach in the country, in fact, relies more heavily on
his freshmen than Howland does. Washington State has eight freshmen
on its roster, and sometimes Kentucky and Oregon have started three
this season, yet each of those teams features multiple veteran
players who have proven to be consistent threats.
Among UCLA’s other players, only senior Dijon Thompson,
the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, has demonstrated
that capability.
“He’s really the one guy who’s been able to
take some pressure off of them,” Howland said.
The UCLA coach is not alone in showering the freshmen with
praise.
Arizona’s Lute Olson and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo
lauded the toughness, courage and tenacity of the foursome, who
were considered one of the five best classes in the nation when
they signed last year.
Former UCLA coach Steve Lavin, now a color analyst for ESPN and
ABC Sports, also is a believer.
“This class is the most productive of any in the country
statistically,” said Lavin, who coached at UCLA in 1998-99,
the last time the Bruins started three freshmen.
“Not only is it impressive you have three freshmen
starting on a team that is having success, but statistically
it’s not even close. UCLA is clearly No. 1 in terms of
production.”
Farmar, who ranks in the top 10 in the conference in points per
game (13.6), assists per game (5.13), steals per game (1.39), and
minutes played (34.65), is the biggest reason why.
Though Afflalo and Shipp also have taken advantage of their
opportunity to start, averaging 10.1 and 9.0 points per game
respectively, it is Farmar, Sporting News’ National Freshman
of the Year at the midway point in the year, who could rake in the
postseason awards.
The freshman point guard is one of the favorites to be named the
conference’s top freshman this season along with USC’s
Gabe Pruitt and Oregon’s Malik Hairston, and his statistics
certainly stack up favorably with some of the nation’s best
as well.
“He’s one of the best in the country,” Howland
said.
Farmar and Afflalo, teammates in the McDonald’s All
American game this past year, said they don’t waste time
comparing themselves to the other top freshmen around the nation.
Though both acknowledged that they’ll compare notes with
friends on other teams every once in a while, neither seemed to
believe that winning awards or seeing how UCLA’s class
stacked up against the best in the nation was very significant.
“In high school you looked at that kind of stuff, but not
now,” Afflalo said. “It’s pointless to look at
that stuff right now. It was nice being rated so high, but
it’s time to move on.”
Echoed Farmar, “I’m just trying to do what I can to
help us win, and if in the process I get other awards, then
that’s great.”
The awards will come, and so will the wins, if not next year,
then the year after that.
Though that may not be soon enough for the freshmen,
there’s no question they have already eclipsed the
expectations of their teammates and coaches.
“They’ve filled some pretty big shoes and exceeded
some expectations,” Thompson said.
All that’s left to do now, of course, is to meet their
own.