UCLA basketball flying under the radar with young squad

UCLA basketball flying under the radar with young squad
Men's team has just one returning starter.
By Jon Gold Staff Writer
Long Beach Press-Telegram
Posted: 10/15/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT


What happened to that familiar feeling around Westwood?

That inevitable sense of impending success, borne out of three straight Final Fours and countless NCAA Tournament appearances, seems to have dissipated.

Left in its wake, only a young team, stripped to its bare bones, a UCLA men's basketball squad that doesn't have the weight of the basketball world on its shoulders.

Now the Bruins enter a season with diminished expectations after a 26-9 season, their worst since 2004-05.

Only here's the catch.

They kinda like being under the radar for the first time in years.

"This is good for us, it kind of knocks us down a little bit," sophomore forward Drew Gordon said at the team's media day Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion. "I guess they were trying to put us on that pedestal after back-to-back-to-back Final Fours. When you get knocked down, the target kind of gets lifted off our backs. It's not us any more. It's good, because we're a sleeper team - we're a lot better than people give us credit for.

"Just because we're young doesn't mean we're not dangerous."

He has one thing right: The Bruins certainly are young.

UCLA enters the season with just one returning starter, senior forward Nikola Dragovic. Dragovic averaged 9.4 points and 4.3 rebounds for the Bruins last season and will be expected to carry a large share of the scoring burden.

With Darren Collison, Josh Shipp and Jrue Holliday departed, where the rest comes from is anyone's guess.

That's just how sophomore center J'mison Morgan wants it.

"It makes it a lot easier - we don't have to just look for 'that' guy," Morgan said, after the team serenaded legendary coach John Wooden on video, celebrating his 99th birthday. "Last year it was, 'We're in trouble, we need to go to Darren, we need to go to Jrue, we need to go to Josh.' Now I feel like we can go to anybody on the team and they can take care of business."

The Bruins know one thing for sure: They'll have to go to their underclassmen.
(Continue reading at The Long Beach Press-Telegram)