[Basketball Preview]: Looking forward

When Cedric Bozeman first stepped onto the UCLA campus as a
freshman, he may as well have been greeted with a ticker-tape
parade.

One of the best high school players in the country in 2001, the
Santa Ana product chose Westwood as his final launching pad to
inevitable stardom and a Bruin roster filled with upperclassmen as
eventually his to guide.

At 6 feet, 6 inches, and close to 200 pounds, Bozeman was
heralded as a basketball marvel. He possessed the size and strength
of a small forward, but also the superior ball-handling and court
vision of a point guard, where he felt considerably more
comfortable.

“I heard he was a great player, someone so big and so
different,” sophomore Josh Shipp said. “Everyone wanted
him.”

Yet in his first three years as the floor general for the
men’s basketball team, the hype and the versatility have not
amounted to much individual on-court success.

Bozeman has averaged a seemingly lackluster 6.2 points per game
in his career, and is one of only two returning players not to have
recorded a 20-point game in a Bruin uniform.

He’s undergone three surgeries, the most recent of which
to repair a devastating ACL tear in his right knee that sidelined
him for the entire 2004-2005 season, including the team’s
NCAA Tournament run.

And he’s been part of two of the most disappointing years
in the program’s history, in which UCLA went a combined
21-36, the first time the Bruins had back-to-back losing seasons
since 1942.

But don’t feel compelled to make excuses for him, because
Bozeman is not one for looking back. For Bozeman, life
couldn’t get much better than it is now.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Bozeman said.
“Really. I’m having a ball. None of that has fazed me.
You have to take things seriously, but I’m carefree, while
ready to play at the same time.”

When UCLA opens its season tonight against New Mexico State at
Pauley Pavilion, Bozeman will be embarking on the final chapter of
a collegiate career that has thus far lacked the revelry and
notoriety that accompanied his arrival to Westwood in 2001.

Then again, Bozeman has never made it a point to seek that flair
on his own, and seems quite content not to find it at UCLA.

He still believes he’s every bit of the player he was
glorified to be when he came out of nearby Mater Dei, and possesses
all of the skills scouts and college head coaches once drooled
over.

But according to his father, Rudy Bozeman, the college game
hasn’t been conducive to exposing Cedric’s
strengths.

If he needs to shoot from the outside, he will. If he needs to
take his man off the dribble, he will. When asked to be his
team’s playmaker in his junior season, Cedric responded by
leading the Pac-10 in assists.

Otherwise, Cedric is more than willing to sacrifice any
individual goals and possible future plans for the NBA for the
betterment of the team, even at the expense of padding his own
resume.

“He doesn’t want to be a hero, he just wants to be a
team player,” Rudy said. “Whoever gets him at the next
level, they’re going to get a steal. In college, it’s a
system. And whatever the coach asks him to do, he’ll do.
He’s just always trying to help his team.”

He will be asked to do the same this year, as Cedric is prepared
to see the majority of his minutes at small forward and power
forward, where he will start for the beginning of the season.

Such a drastic adjustment may have required the massaging of
egos for some players, but UCLA men’s basketball coach Ben
Howland didn’t have to ask twice.

“From what I heard, people expected me to be the next
“˜this’ and the next “˜that’ coming into
UCLA,” Cedric said. “I’m a team guy first. A lot
of people fail to realize that. The only way I’m going to be
successful is if my teammates and team are successful.”

Most players view an open lane to the basket as an opportunity
to score. Cedric also sees it as a chance to kick the ball out and
notch an assist.

Most players work on their offense to attract attention from NBA
scouts. Cedric, for several years, has been tabbed the
Bruins’ best one-on-one defender.

Most players measure part of their value by examining the box
score after games. Cedric ignores all numbers except the final
score.

It’s an attitude not befitting a superstar in his sport,
but one that has been ingrained in Cedric his whole life.

Rudy remembers taking his son holiday shopping when he was in
elementary school and watching all of the other kids in the store
begging their parents to buy them toys. When he offered to buy
Cedric something, his son usually declined politely.

“It was just weird, but he never wanted anything,”
Rudy said. “But he’s always been that way, even as a
little kid.”

Lashing out orders and getting in his teammates’ faces
could never be confused for Cedric’s leadership style, and
it’s easy to see why.

Growing up in Fullerton, his father arranged pick-up games in
Cedric’s grandmother’s backyard for his son to play
older competition.

When Cedric was in elementary school, he squared off against
middle school players. His father would watch closely as his son
would get knocked to the ground and struggle against his bigger
opponent, and wondered why Cedric would laugh it off instead of
getting angry.

“He just doesn’t talk a lot,” Rudy said.
“I used to be quiet like him until I worked at the probation
department at juvenile hall. It brought me out of my shelter. He
hasn’t been brought out of his shelter. He just has the
demeanor of a very humble guy.”

Even when Cedric began high school at Mater Dei, he was a
virtual unknown, so much so that the coaching staff had never heard
of him and was preparing to play him on the junior varsity
team.

Never one to let his words speak for themselves, Cedric was
willing to oblige the temporary demotion until he got an
opportunity to show his abilities on the basketball court. His
father wasn’t as patient.

“If I wouldn’t have said anything, Cedric would have
went on and played junior varsity, scored something like 50 points
a game, and never would have said anything to the coach,”
Rudy said. “His play alone would have opened his
coach’s eyes.”

Entering his senior season at UCLA, some fans are hoping Cedric
opens their eyes and mimics the last-season resurgence of his
longtime friend and former teammate Dijon Thompson.

But as Bozeman would be the first to admit, he’s not
Thompson, and last year’s freshman class isn’t new to
the college scene.

Sophomore guard Jordan Farmar has quickly assumed the role of
his team’s vocal leader, a position he began to groom himself
for in his first year last season.

And though Bozeman recognizes he is the oldest carryover from
the Steve Lavin era and easily possesses the most game experience
on the roster as one of only three upperclassmen, this year’s
team isn’t in thirst of senior leadership as last
year’s squad was. His role will be carved a little
differently than Thompson’s.

“People really didn’t expect that much out of Dijon,
so I think he surprised a lot of people,” Bozeman said.
“I would hope I could do that too. But I’m a team guy;
that’s my motto.

“But this year, Jordan basically has to be the leader.
We’re going to follow his lead. He’s an extension of
the coach. I’m definitely not looking to take any type of
leadership away from him. The more leadership we get from him, the
better we are.”

“(Bozeman) leads by example and he shows us how hard
we’re suppose to go at it,” Farmar said.
“He’s not selfish at all.”

Almost to a fault.

Rudy recalls watching his son as a freshman in Pauley Pavilion,
inwardly pleading that when a lane to the basket opened up or his
son was guarded by a small defender, he’d take the ball
strongly to the basket. He used to cringe when Cedric passed the
ball off, but was never surprised when he did.

“That’s just been me for 23 years,” Bozeman
said. “That’s the way I am, that’s the way
I’ll continue to be.”

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