UCLA basketball reloads
Smith column: The Bruins open basketball practice with a lot to replace.
Marcia C. Smith
Columnist
The Orange County Register
masmith@ocregister.com
Wed Oct 14 2009
LOS ANGELES - UCLA guard Jrue Holiday sends his regards … from Philadelphia, where the former Pac-10 All Freshman Team guard is now working his way into the Sixers rotation.
“UCLA has got some players coming back -- well, not a lot of starters, but a lot of talent,” said Holiday, a one-and-done starter who left Westwood to be the Sixers’ first-round selection (17th overall) and took with him one bag and his freshman contributions 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
“Coach (Ben Howland) will make sure they’re ready.”
From the other side of the country, you could expect UCLA’s season outlook to appear blurry in the distance. But even up close, as in Pauley Pavilion, where the Bruins held Media Day on Wednesday, the forecast for the 2009-10 season seems too cloudy to call.
The Bruins have lost four of five starters and four of their five leading scorers who were on the court for a combined average of 28.8 minutes a game. The departed starters – senior point guard Darren Collison, freshman wing guard Holiday, senior forward Josh Shipp and senior center Alfred Aboya -- accounted for 62 percent of the scoring, 47 percent of the rebounding, 68 percent of the assists and 65 percent of the steals.
Success this season will be determined by how well the very young and slightly experienced Bruins make up for the veteran players who guided them to a 26-9 record (13-5 Pac-10, second), a trip into the second round of the NCAA tournament and a No. 18 final ranking in the Associated Press poll.
“We’re out to prove the world wrong,” said sophomore and projected starting guard Malcolm Lee. “People think that we’re not going to do much this season because so many players left. We still have a lot of good players here.”
There’s no doubt the Bruins will be competitive. Barring significant injuries, they will have a winning record, likely finish in the upper half of the Pac-10 and potentially contend for an at-large NCAA tournament berth.
But at first blush, the Bruins, who begin practice Thursday, barely resemble the teams that before last season had made three consecutive Final Four appearances. Howland works with a roster of seven sophomores and five incoming scholarship freshmen.
“We’ve got a lot of new players and young players who will compete for minutes,” said Howland. “We came back from losing this much before 08-09 and did well but I haven’t had this young a team since I was at Northern Arizona.”
Howland does, however, return three seniors in guard/forward Michael Roll and forward Nikola Dragovic and center/forward James Keefe. All three logged more than 14 minutes a game last season, and are projected to start.
Speedy and skilled Lee and point guard Jerime Anderson averaged 10.7 and 8.6 minutes per game, respectively, and will round out the starting five.
But there’s good news and bad news with almost every place on the Bruin floor.
(Continue reading at OCregister.com)
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