Tonight, the journey begins.
Tonight, the UCLA men’s basketball team opens a new season with an exhibition game against Cal Baptist that the Bruins hope will end with the program’s 12th national championship.
Yet in order to get there, the Bruins will have to rely on a small group of veteran players to lead a large group of freshmen, a vastly different scenario than the team was faced with at the start of last season. Last year’s team had just two freshmen ““ compared with five this season ““ and a staple of experienced veterans.
While the Bruins return a strong core of players who essentially know nothing other than Final Four appearances ““ led by Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, and Alfred Aboya ““ the difference in what will either be a success or failure will be the play of the five freshmen ““ guards Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson, and Malcom Lee, forward Drew Gordon, and center J’mison “Bobo” Morgan.
“I think these guys is ready to play,” Collison said. “Everybody has something to prove; everybody has a lot of hunger. When you have those tools, you go a long ways.”
For coach Ben Howland, the question of whether or not the freshmen are ready to play is inconsequential ““ all of them need to be ready if the Bruins wish to repeat the tremendous success achieved in the past three years.
“It doesn’t really matter because they’re all going to have to play,” Howland said. “But we’re excited about all of them. All five of them are going to be good players. It’s always tough for a freshman to have to go against a junior or senior player who’s had a lot of experience at the college level. It’s a big step.”
Holiday is the one who has arguably received the most attention. The 6-foot-3-inch guard from Campbell Hall was the 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year and is slated to start tonight. In the short time he has been here, Holiday has already determined the secret behind the Bruins’ success: leadership.
“The leadership is there,” Holiday said. “I see why we’ve gone so far the previous years and I’m just taking it all in.”
Holiday added that Collison has taken him under his wing and is mentoring him both on the court and off. When asked what he thought of Holiday’s abilities, Collison rattled off a long list of praises.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Collison said. “He’s good, talented, skillful. But I said the biggest key out of Jrue is he’s real unselfish. Every time a player’s that good and real unselfish, he can go a long ways. That’s all we’re asking Jrue to do, just to be unselfish and as good as you are, don’t put the team on your shoulders. He knows that. He understands that.”
Howland said that the team will look to Holiday to score in a wide variety of ways, whether it be from jump shots, drives, second shots, and in transition.
Another freshman that has stood out is Morgan, who enrolled at UCLA after he was let go from his commitment to Louisiana State University. While Howland said that Morgan still needs to improve his conditioning, he loves the great hand skills the 6-11 center possesses.
“His hands are exceptional,” Howland said. “He catches everything. He sees the floor, he’s got good feel, but his hands are very, very good.”
Due to the departure of Kevin Love and Lorenzo Mata-Real, the Bruins will look to Morgan to provide low-post scoring, as well as Gordon, Aboya and James Keefe.
While the Bruins will miss the consistent low-post scoring of Love, Aboya is more athletic than Love, which will allow the team to push the tempo and run the floor more.
“That’s what we want to get to, but we got no problem slowing it down; we been doing it for the last two years,” Collison said. “But we can get up and down, and I think that’s going to be a good aspect.”
At Pac-10 media day last Thursday, Howland was asked what was the reason the Bruins might be expected to make it to the Final Four for the fourth consecutive year. His answer was simple.
“The reason why you would expect is because there are 10 players who’ve had success, specifically Collison, Shipp and Roll, who’ve been there before, understand what it takes to get there and hopefully lead these youngsters along that path,” Howland said. “That’s a daunting task, but we’re optimistic we’re going to have a good year provided we stay healthy.”
INJURY REPORT: Aboya has a sprained right ankle. He missed practice on Friday and Saturday but is probable for tonight. … Lee has a strained right groin but is probable for tonight. … Junior forward Nikola Dragovic has a cyst in his left foot and ankle and is doubtful for tonight.