The Bruins’ season may have come to a disappointing end on
Monday night after a thrilling run to the NCAA Championship game,
but for the young players returning next season, there was a lesson
to be learned.
The players felt the pain of losing in the Final Four, and the
level of play needed to come out as champions.
“It’s just a little incentive for our returning guys
to really strive to get that much better for next year,”
sophomore guard Arron Afflalo said. “Florida was more
physical than us, and out-muscled us.”
One player who will be around to help in that return to the
Final Four is redshirt freshman Josh Shipp, who spent the majority
of this season on the bench with a hip injury.
Shipp began practicing with the team during the end of the
regular season and during postseason play, but he was not at 100
percent physically, which would enable him to come back.
During the Bruins’ epic run through the NCAA tournament,
Shipp was dressed in a suit and tie and cheered from the bench.
“He’s there behind his team and teammates 100
percent,” coach Ben Howland said. “Everybody is
contributing to this program, even the guys that aren’t
playing.”
Shipp acknowledged the appeal of returning this season, but
understood what lies ahead and the importance of keeping his
redshirt season.
“I got caught up in the moment,” Shipp said.
“I was thinking Final Four, excitement, you’ll never
know if we’ll ever get back here. In four years, it’s
not easy to get to the Final Four (twice). But this is all about
UCLA.”
Joining Shipp next year will be nine of the Bruins’ top 11
scorers from this season, and the top two players, All-Pac-10
performers Afflalo and Jordan Farmar.
The Bruins’ will be returning over 80 percent of the
team’s scoring output, 84 percent of its assists, and 78
percent of its total rebounds.
Howland, however, acknowledges the room for improvement for next
season’s team.
“I think we’ll get better and better,” Howland
said. “We’re still evolving as a team. That’s one
of the things about this team being so young.”
“We have very good players in Afflalo, Farmar, Mbah a
Moute, Collison, etc. There’s a lot of young, good players.
No question.”
Though the departure of seniors Ryan Hollins and Cedric Bozeman
from this season’s team results in a loss of leadership that
can’t be put into numbers, the backcourt tandem of Farmar and
Afflalo will likely begin to fill those empty shoes.
And with the return of Shipp to the lineup, Howland can’t
help but feel convinced that the Bruins can maintain their high
level of play heading into the 2006-2007 season.
“You have to remember that Josh Shipp has not been
playing,” he said. “We’d love to have Josh Shipp
healthy. He’s one of our best players.”
A pair of weapons joining the Bruins next season will be
incoming freshmen power forwards Marco Spica and James Keefe, who
are expected to give UCLA a scoring presence inside.
Keefe, a graduate of Santa Margarita Catholic HS, was a
McDonald’s All-American, and is considered one of the premier
power forwards on the West Coast. Spica, meanwhile, is from
Serbia-Montenegro, and has yet to receive a qualifying score on his
SATs.
Both will provide depth to a team already loaded with young
frontcourt players, (Lorenzo Mata, Alfred Aboya, Ryan Wright, and
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute). Keefe, for one, has been verbally
committed to the Bruins since his sophomore year of high school,
and can’t wait to join the team.
“To see how they’re doing this season just gives me
that much more motivation,” Keefe said. “I know
I’m going to have to work harder with the depth on the
team.”
“But its a situation I’m looking forward to,”
Keefe said. “After all, who wouldn’t want to play for a
team that reached the Final Four?”
For a Bruin freshman, that is good thing to hear.
With reports from Seth Fast Glass, Bruin Sports senior
staff