For UCLA to return to the Final Four this year, its extolled class of incoming recruits, led by Jrue Holiday, would have to be fabulous.
So far, they’ve been less Fab Five and more Flub Five.
Indeed, they’ve just been Fab-less.
Saturday in Seattle, the fans were treated to a show by a star freshman, only it wasn’t Holiday.
Huskies’ rookie point guard Isaiah Thomas, all 5 feet, 8 inches of him, torched UCLA for 24 points, causing flashbacks of former Washington mighty-mite Nate Robinson and, well, the original NBA star Isiah Thomas.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way when the year started. Isaiah Thomas was an undersized afterthought entering the season. UCLA freshman guard Holiday was the natural successor to Kevin Love’s first-year brilliance.
Holiday was the No. 2 ranked player in Rivals.com 2008 recruiting class. Thomas was No. 92.
Yet it was Thomas who stole the show Saturday and announced himself as the most important freshman in the conference.
Holiday is the best of a highly touted freshman class that was expected to help maintain UCLA’s dominance in the Pac-10 after Love and other stars from last year’s team bolted early to the NBA. Hitherto, the recruiting class hasn’t done nearly enough to keep UCLA among the elite.
Let’s be clear: Holiday is no bust. It’s even hard to say he has disappointed. But he is simply not the difference-maker the Bruins need him to be.
He has improved his defense as the season has unfolded, but his offensive game has remained in first gear. The talent is there, the NBA scouts still love him, he just has yet to explode and lead UCLA on the offensive end, say, the way Thomas did for the Huskies in Saturday’s 86-75 Washington win.
Since Pac-10 play began this month, Holiday is averaging a pedestrian 7.4 points per game while shooting only 43 percent. Not exactly game-changing numbers.
Holiday played a solid all-around game in Seattle. He finished with eight points, six assists and five rebounds. But solid isn’t good enough for this team.
There were moments in Saturday’s loss when Holiday created offense and senior point guard Darren Collison worked around screens off the ball. This fit works well for both ““ Collison is a terrific outside shooter who could benefit from having open shots, and Holiday can look to score or distribute by breaking down his defender off the dribble. I doubt we’ll see a sudden shift in Holiday’s role where he starts the offense with the ball a lot, but it might be the jump start he needs.
The 6-foot-3-inch guard has yet to attempt more than nine field goals in a Pac-10 contest and has shot only 11 free throws in seven conference games. These numbers are simply too passive for someone with such a knack for knifing into the lane and scoring with a magician’s assortment of bank shots, scoops and floaters.
If the UCLA research community could find a way to inject Nikola Dragovic’s fearless gunslinging aggression into Holiday, thus morphing him into a legitimate first-option scoring threat capable of taking over a game, UCLA would be a dangerous team in March.
Unfortunately, it seems that Holiday, and the Bruins, are at least a year away from being a threat.
If you think Holiday and the freshmen can be the keys to success this year, contact Taylor at btaylor@media.ucla.edu.