The two most-hyped freshmen coming into the season, Ryan Hollins
and Michael Fey, finally lived up to their billing last night.
Hollins, starting just his second game of the season in place of
injured sophomore Andre Patterson, set career highs for minutes
(34), points (11), rebounds (11) and blocks (7).
Besides Jason Kapono’s 44-point game at Washington State,
Hollins’ performance last night was quite possibly the most
impressive all-around showing from a Bruin this season.
And Fey also had one of his best games of the season, scoring a
career-high 11 points in 12 minutes while adding four rebounds.
“People don’t realize that these two seven-footers
are going to be beasts,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin
said.
What a turnaround it has been for both guys since just one week
ago both were confined to the bench. Neither saw any action against
Stanford last Thursday, and it looked as if it would be a lost
season for both.
“I had no idea,” Hollins said when asked if he
thought he would see any significant minutes this season. “I
was just waiting for something to happen.”
He finally got a break at Cal on Saturday.
After UCLA stunk it up in the first 20 minutes, trailing 40-23
at halftime, Hollins came in and played an impressive 15 minutes in
the second half.
He finished with four points, three rebounds and one very
impressed coach.
“Ryan played with the edge that we need,” Lavin said
after the Cal loss.
He was told Wednesday that he would get the start last night and
was excited even though he was expecting to get the starting
nod.
“I had a feeling I would get it from the Cal game,”
Hollins said. “I could tell the way practice was
flowing.”
He responded by being the force in the paint that UCLA has been
looking for all season.
Opponents’ strategy had been to pound the Bruins inside
because of their lack of size.
But last night, Oregon was forced to go largely to an outside
game, attempting 30 three-pointers because it couldn’t get
many quality shots in the paint.
Hollins had seven blocks last night, the highest by any Pac-10
player in any game this season.
“His shot blocking is excellent for us right now,”
guard Ryan Walcott said. “He stands on the backside and swats
the ball, and that’s great. Other teams know he’s
there.”
Fey, the other part of the freshmen duo, also unveiled a new
strength of his game last night.
The center had previously been confined to a role of a
rebounder, scoring just on put-backs and open dunks.
But last night, he put up several shots from the high post,
going 4-for-5 from the field.
“We were running plays and I was getting open,” Fey
said. “My teammates did a good job of finding me.”