Finally his time to Dance

It was Jan. 13, 2007.

Forward Josh Shipp, out with an injured right hamstring, stood by himself outside the USC locker room.

The rest of his Bruin teammates were being hounded by reporters and were celebrating their greatest victory of the season.

Shipp, however, stood alone.

For Shipp, that day was eerily similar to UCLA’s 2006 run through the NCAA Tournament, when the Bruins rolled off win after win while Shipp could only watch from a distance.

“It was a very hard time,” Shipp said of his injury last season. “It took away the one thing I had done for the majority of my life.

“During tournament time, it got more difficult, because I thought I could play, but I just couldn’t do it.

When the No. 2 seeded Bruins take the court against No. 15 seed Weber State today, there will probably be no one more anxious than Shipp to be on the court with his teammates.

After all, Shipp had promised himself the day since UCLA lost to Florida in the championship game that he would do what it would take to help the Bruins get back there again.

“The Florida loss was especially difficult for Josh,” said Debbie Shipp, Josh’s mother. “He felt like if he had been out there, he could have definitely helped the team, and the result might have been different.”

THE INJURY: Prior to last season’s hip injury, Shipp had never missed an extended amount of time playing basketball.

Things had always gone right for him.

He was a Nike All-American at Fairfax High School, he got to stay close to home by attending UCLA, and he was one of the surprises for the Bruins during his freshman year when UCLA made the tournament for the first time in three years.

So when Shipp was told by doctors that he would need surgery on his hip and that he would miss eight to 12 weeks prior to his sophomore season, Shipp was devastated.

“After the progress our program had made my freshman year, I really wanted to be out there,” Shipp said. “It was a major setback when I first found out.”

Shipp eventually returned from the injury last season, appearing in four games, but the pain was just too much, and Shipp and his family decided to shut it down for the season.

It was one of the hardest decisions of his life.

“I was thinking more about the hip than I was about basketball,” Shipp said. “That was a major concern. I knew I didn’t want to suffer like that for the entire year.”

Following the season, Shipp was instructed to rehab on the injury and work on the hip, in hopes of a sound return to his third season.

But according to coach Ben Howland, Shipp did not take his rehab seriously at first, and progressed more slowly than he would have liked.

“Kids who (are) 19 or 20 years old, they think that everything will just be fine; I mean, I was like that,” Howland said. “Once he understood how difficult the process was, he worked incredibly hard to get back into shape.”

And that hard work got Shipp and the Bruins to where they are today.

A NEW ROLE: When Shipp came into UCLA as a freshman with Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo and Lorenzo Mata, there was no real foundation within the Bruins’ team.

Dijon Thompson was a senior and the Bruins’ leading scorer, but other than that, the Bruins’ main contributors were its three prominent freshmen, Shipp, Farmar and Afflalo.

There were no set, defined roles on the team.

For Shipp, this season has been different, not only because Howland’s system has significantly evolved since Shipp’s freshman season, but there have been players (Darren Collison, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) who have taken increased roles on the team.

The change has taken Shipp and his mother by surprise.

“It gets frustrating at times; I have to admit,” Shipp said of having to limit his role. “But at the same time, I want the team to win, and I will do whatever is needed for the team to do that.”

“The offense is restrictive for him because they don’t run anything for Josh,” Debbie Shipp said. “But, Josh is doing whatever it takes, creating plays for others. It is frustrating because people are so used to him doing other things, but he is going to do what is best for the team.”

If you look at the stat sheet, it will say Shipp is the second-leading scorer on the team with 13.5 points per game. But when you look at accolades and the players who Howland always talks about, it’s Shipp who is always missing from the list.

Afflalo is the All-American, Collison is the speedy “nation’s best point guard,” and Mbah a Moute is the scrappy rebounder who the fans love.

So where does that leave Shipp in the mix?

“I do all the little things that go unnoticed,” Shipp said. “As long as the team wins, I don’t care what people say.”

Howland, in fact, recently has come out in defense of his redshirt sophomore forward, stressing the improved defense Shipp has been playing and the scoring Shipp adds to the team.

“There is no way we are where we are without Josh,” Howland said after the victory over Arizona a few weeks ago. “He is being underrated I think right now as a good defender. I think he’s become a much better defender for us than he was his first year.”

NBA PROSPECTS: For any top-level player at a quality basketball program such as UCLA, the reality is that the NBA is always on the players’ minds.

For Shipp, the dream is a little more tangible as Farmar, his former teammate and roommate, is playing right down the freeway for the Los Angeles Lakers.

But that doesn’t mean it’s something Shipp is currently considering.

“The NBA, playing at the highest level is the goal of any college basketball player,” Shipp said. “But it’s not anything I’m focused on right now.

“Being so close to Jordan, I know what’s out there.”

Shipp has said he is not worried about the fact that his 3-point shooting and rebounding average has significantly dropped since his freshman year.

After all, people who know basketball, as his mother Debbie Shipp said, know what Josh can bring to the court.

“Numbers lie sometimes,” Shipp said. “You can’t always go by the numbers; they don’t always tell the whole story.”

“People don’t understand that what is asked of Josh is less than what he can really do,” Debbie Shipp said. “The people around him know the kind of player he really is.

“You have only seen flashes of it this year.”

With March Madness fully in effect starting today, Shipp could choose no better time to showcase those flashes of brilliance that people have been waiting to see.

As Farmar showed last year with a successful postseason performance, Shipp could parlay that performance into an NBA first-round draft pick.

“I’m not worried about that,” Shipp said. “I know that as long as our team goes far and we do well, I will get all the recognition I need.”

SHIPPS BY HIS SIDE: When Shipp was considering which school to attend, his decision was not very difficult.

UCLA had one of the best basketball traditions in the country, its coach was one of the top coaches in the country, and most importantly, it was within a 15-minute drive of his Fairfax home.

And for Shipp, that meant being close to his mother and grandfather James Knight.

“My mom is my everything. I bounce everything off of her,” Shipp said. “She has always been there for me.”

Shipp’s mother has been in the limelight this year as she had to choose who to root for when the Bruins have played Arizona State and Josh’s younger brother, Jerren Shipp.

During both games, Debbie Shipp wore hats with emblems of both teams.

“I am so grateful that I have had three sons (Josh, Jerren, Joe) who received scholarships to attend college,” Debbie said. “It’s been especially a blessing that Josh is only right down the street so his grandfather and I can attend all his games.”

Debbie was especially involved with Josh last year when he was making the decision whether to shut himself down for the season.

Debbie met with Josh’s doctors and talked to him multiple times per day.

“It was a scary time, because we didn’t have a frame of reference (regarding his injury),” Debbie said. “Luckily, I was able to give him that support system.”

Now, Debbie will surely go on to influence the next major decision of Josh’s life: when to declare for the NBA draft.

Debbie has been consistent in the fact that she wants all her children, including Josh, to get their college degrees.

“It’s the only thing I ask of them,” Debbie said. “I know that there is not much else Josh can do to make as much as playing in the NBA, but that college degree stays with you forever, and I want him to be able to know how to manage the money when he earns it.”

TIME IS NOW: Despite whatever happened at the middle of the season, Shipp is now out to prove what he can do these last few weeks.

Shipp, in fact, has shot 52.8 percent from the field, and averaged 16.3 points per game during his last six games.

During last Thursday’s game against Cal, Shipp was the only reason the Bruins were in the game, as he scored 15 first-half points and was perfect from beyond the 3-point line.

Shipp said the difference has simply been his mind-set.

“I am just out there having fun again,” Shipp said. “That’s when I am at my best. I was thinking too much during the middle of the season.”

With the Bruins coming off of two losses and heading into the do-or-die part of their schedule, there would be no better time for Shipp to be the lethal third scorer that he was expected to be.

“Josh running on the breaks and playing well makes us a much better team,” Collison said. “We love the way he is playing right now.”

For Shipp, this part of the season is so valuable, because he knows it may never come again.

He, more than anyone, knows the feeling of watching from the sideline during the most critical time of the year.

“I would love more than anything to get back there,” Shipp said. “Hopefully, I can play this time around.”

Shipp will certainly have a chance, starting today against Weber State in the first round.

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