Roll on a roll in new role

Photo by Ric Tapia / Icon SMI

UCLA's Roll has a different role
By MARCIA C. SMITH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
December 16, 2009 1:32 PM

The Bruins' guard has been seeing a lot more playing time than in years past.

LOS ANGELES -- Michael Roll never seemed like the kind of player who'd rally his UCLA teammates in the locker room and tell them to hop on his back and shoulders.

For the past three seasons, he had been role player, a quiet, workmanlike guard who clocked in at the scorer's table and jogged on the floor to hit a few threes and give the Bruin starters a water break.

But that's what is remarkable about Roll. This season he has appeared to be much more than he seemed. Oddly enough, he has been even more than he dreamed.

"I definitely didn't see myself carrying a team," said Roll, a fifth-year senior out of Aliso Niguel High. "I knew my role was going to be to step up this year with all the young players coming in, but I didn't expect this."

So, Roll, who for so long had measured his playing time in single digits, has had to become the Bruin logging the longest and most laboring shifts.

"He has been the most consistent guy on the team ..." said Bruin coach Ben Howland. "I've had to play him too many minutes."

In nine starts this season, he has averaged the most minutes (34.8), most points (14.0) and most assists (4.0). That's double the minutes, double the points and more than double the assists from last season.

In preparation for his final college season, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound wing guard conditioned himself in the offseason to handle the heavier work load: two-a-day basketball workouts, ball-handling drills, 500 shots a day and daily weight-room sessions devoted to strengthening his legs and back.

"I knew I was going to be taking more shots," he said. "I wanted to be ready."

It's the part outside of the shooting and defending that has had to come on the fly. He had to become a leader, which is something he watched others do on past Bruin teams that were stacked with veterans and returning starters.

But with this season's Bruin roster of six freshmen and six sophomores and an unsettling 3-6 start, the once-reserved reserve can't hide.

It takes steeled courage to jump to front and center and become the blond, broad-shoulder and sometimes brooding figure of the UCLA basketball team. Roll has done that.

He has praised his teammates' improvements after victories and taken the hot seat behind the post-game news conference microphone after several sobering defeats.

This hasn't been easy in a season in which the Bruins have opened with the worst mark since 1945-1946. The frustration – you could see the tension in his forehead – hits him hard.

In this past Saturday's 72-54 loss to Mississippi State at the Wooden Classic at the Honda Center, Roll yelled after striking back-iron on a three-point attempt. It wasn't a oh-no-I-missed shout but a primal exclamation of dissatisfaction and annoyance.

"At that point, we were down and I wanted to make every shot," said Roll, who had a team-high 17 points and a career-high six rebounds in the game. "I missed and thought, 'Damn, we could have been that much closer.'"

Roll, who has played more career games (124) than any other active Pac-10 player, is pulling from his experience to nurse the team through its growing pains.

On the court, Roll is constantly having to direct, motioning players to the places where they can help out defensively. The players are learning around him. Mistakes are made. Sometimes he has looked like tour guide who has 10 seconds to point out all the attractions at Disneyland.

"We talk a lot on the court just to get a better feel of where I can get him better shots and what our team needs to do," said sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson of Canyon High. "He is a lot more vocal than he was last year. I think it's kind of hard for him to step up all of a sudden because he had been just a role player before."

In the locker room, Roll has had to speak up to keep a young and struggling team from feeling beaten down. He talks to freshmen about balancing their schedules, conserving their energy, sacrificing their social lives and committing to basketball.

"Mike has been the one that the other guys on the team would look to and say, 'He's someone I look up to,'" said Howland. "He's done a good job."

It has been a job that nobody expected him to fill. But that's the thing about Michael Roll, though. He is much more than the role player he once was.