UCLA's Dragovic recovers his shooter's touch
By MARCIA C. SMITH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Jan. 27, 2010
Updated: 4:29 p.m.
Patience seems to be paying off for the Bruins' senior forward.
LOS ANGELES -- He doesn't remember the violent war. He can't recall the bomb blasts that rocked homes, took out concrete walls and cracked the street.
Nikola Dragovic's most vivid memory of his childhood in Serbia-Montenegro came when he was about 5 and his father, Vitomir, a professional basketball player, grabbed him from the stands inside a crowded gym and carried him onto the court during halftime.
He clutched a ball twice the size of his head. He rose through the air in his father's arms and heaved the ball at the basket a few feet away.
"That was one of biggest games in Serbia-Montenegro, about 8,000 people were there, and I hit the shot," recalled Dragovic, the UCLA senior forward. "Growing up, everybody was always telling me to be a shooter because my father and uncle were shooters, but that day was the first time I knew what they meant."
Going into Thursday night's game at Oregon, Dragovic leads the Bruins (9-10, 4-3) in Pac-10 scoring, having averaged 13.7 points in the past seven games and reaching double figures in eight of the nine past contests. After an early season slump, he is their shooter again.
His three-point shot is back to having the kind of arc that kindergarteners' can use as a template for their rainbows. His touch has returned. His confidence is steeled.
But even Dragovic knows that his touch can go. He opened his senior season with a handful of bad shooting nights: 2-for-14 (1-for-9 from three-point range) against Cal State Fullerton, 2-for-10 (0-6) against Long Beach State, and what Coach Ben Howland called, "an all-around poor game," in going 0-for-9 against Mississippi State.
Dragovic also realizes, after four years away from home and his family, that few things are consistent. His college life, both on and off the court, has been even less predictable than a Magic 8-Ball.
Will Dragovic continue to play well? Ask again later. Can the young Bruins (9-10, 4-3) rely on him? Reply hazy, try again. Will he get arrested again? Cannot predict now.
What hasn't wavered through the shooting droughts and the two police arrests – one battery case was dropped, the other assault case is still pending -- has been the Bruins who've stood behind him.
"I've had confidence in myself all the time but I'm really appreciative that I've had a coach and team who believes in me and what I can do," Dragovic, 22, said. "These years haven't been easy, with all the adjustments to life, the language, the culture and the problems with the law. I've become a stronger person because of them."
Dragovic arrived in Westwood barely able to speak English. He couldn't understand his teachers in class or Coach Ben Howland's instructions on the court. He had to sit out the first 10 games of his freshman year on an NCAA suspension for unknowingly playing on a Serbian club team on which some of his teammates received money.
He was homesick. He grew sad, isolated and even lost in basketball oblivion before turning to his teammates, particularly his freshman year roommate Russell Westbrook, to learn the language and the culture.
He stopped playing for the Serbia-Montenegro junior national team, which he led to three European championships, to devote himself to offseason Bruin workouts and a rigorous conditioning regimen that trimmed his weight down by 25 pounds. This was a career decision for Dragovic, who grew up a fan of Reggie Miller and Kevin Garnett and who had aspired to play professionally in Greece, Spain or Italy.
But just when life started to get easier for Dragovic at the start of his junior year, he landed in jail for a day, arrested on a charge of misdemeanor battery for allegedly pushing his former live-in girlfriend to the ground during an argument. The charges were dropped but the news, which made the Serbian papers, disappointed his family.
Still, his parents supported him. Howland backed him. The coach suspended Dragovic for the 2008-09 season opener, pushed for his progress and inserted him into the starting lineup for the final 21 games of the 2008-09 season.
Howland never lost faith in the 6-foot-9, 216-pound Dragovic, who entered this season as the returning Bruin with the most starts and highest scoring average (9.4 ppg). He believed Dragovic was a talented shooter and a good kid who would become a senior leader to this season's young Bruins.
Howland proved his unwavering support in accompanying Dragovic to turn himself in to police on a assault charge stemming from an Oct. 24 incident outside a Hollywood concert venue. Dragovic, who served a two-game suspension for the altercation, entered a not-guilty plea in the case, which has its next court date on Monday.
"Coach showed me what kind of man he his when he stood behind me, especially the second time," said Dragovic. "He didn't need to but he stood behind me and trusted what I told him. His help meant a lot to me."
Through the early season slump, Howland kept playing Dragovic and told reporters, "I expect him to bounce back. I believe he will."
Howland told Dragovic to stay patient, remain confident, to watch the target not the ball and to focus on all parts of the game. Howland knows Dragovic is his shooter.
And that's all Nikola Dragovic remembers being since he was a child.
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