PHILADELPHIA ““ With just over four minutes left in the game and the UCLA men’s basketball team trailing Villanova by 24 points, UCLA seniors Darren Collison and Alfred Aboya were taken out of the game. A few seconds later, fellow senior Josh Shipp joined them on the bench.
It was the final time the seniors would leave a college court, and a crushing 89-69 loss to the No. 3 Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Wachovia Center on Saturday was far different an ending then each had envisioned.
While the final, meaningless minutes were played, the three sat despondently. They talked about the injuries they had suffered during what was a physical game. They talked about the play of the younger guys. Their focus was on the game at hand, with them not wanting to realize that these were their final moments as UCLA basketball players.
In the locker room following the game, Aboya, with his knees wrapped in ice and his blue jersey at his feet, still had not grasped the idea that his college career was over.
“Going into the game I didn’t think that this was going to be my last game,” Aboya said. “And I haven’t realized that this is my last game yet. It’s obviously disappointing ending your career with a beat-down like this one. But you know, it is what it is. It’s the end of my UCLA career, and now I’m looking toward the future.”
Saturday marked the end of a tremendous run by the three seniors, who constitute the winningest class in the history of the program.
It was not the destination that they hoped it would be; that destination was Ford Field in Detroit, 443 miles from Philadelphia.
Nor was it under the desired circumstances ““ a humbling loss in the second round instead of a joy-filled net-cutting celebration on Apr. 6.
Despite the disappointment surrounding the team and Saturday’s devastating loss in which the Bruins fell behind early and never recovered, UCLA coach Ben Howland expressed the immense pride he had for his three seniors and his frustration in the way their careers ended.
“It’s really disappointing for me personally because of the great career our three seniors in particular had here,” Howland said. “When you think about Darren, Josh and Alfred, what they’ve meant to the program, it’s just painful for us to lose in this fashion.”
Shipp had trouble finding the words to express the emotions racing through his mind.
“Right now, just still in shock that it’s ended like this,” said Shipp, who scored a team-high 16 points.
Seemingly taking the loss just as hard, if not more so, were the freshmen, who were disappointed at not being able to advance to a fourth consecutive Final Four. Yet, the impact that Collison, Shipp and Aboya had on the younger players was evident.
“Alfred’s going to be one of the players that I look up to forever, regardless of NBA or high school whatnot,” freshman Drew Gordon said. “He’s just someone I try to model myself after.”
Following the game, freshman guard Malcolm Lee said Collison came up and had a few words for him.
“(Collison) was like, “˜Come on, you got to do it for me next year. I know I let you down this year but just go come back next year with a vengeance,'” Lee said.
For the Bruins, the attention now shifts to next season. Again, there will be three seniors ““ Nikola Dragovic, Michael Roll and James Keefe ““ and five incoming freshmen.
And there will be those five freshmen from this season ““ Lee, Gordon, Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson and J’mison Morgan ““ each a year older, each a year more experienced.
“(The freshmen) are the biggest reason why we had so much success this year,” Collison said. “Everybody talked about the seniors, but it’s really the freshmen.”
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Bruins this offseason will be the future of Holiday, who came to UCLA as one of the top players in the country and as the 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year.
A lot of speculation has been made about whether or not Holiday should or will enter the NBA Draft in June, but for now, Holiday has his mind made up.
“As of right now I’m coming back,” Holiday said. “We just lost, I’m not really thinking about anything else except for the loss. I haven’t been thinking about anything else except trying to get back to the Final Four.
“My season just ended. That’s really what I’m worried about right now.”
Howland said he will meet with Holiday and his family and let them know what his thoughts are, but for now the team will take some time away from basketball.
“There’s no urgency for that,” Howland said. “He has plenty of opportunity to decide what he wants to do with his family.”
With the sounds of the game between Connecticut and Texas A&M heard in the background from the Bruins’ locker room, Aboya was asked how he wanted this class to be remembered.
“Just how hard we played and how even if we’re down we never give up, we always fight.”