DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior point guard
Earl Watson has been the heart and soul of the
men’s basketball team for the past four years.
By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Tough does not begin to describe Earl Watson.
Born and raised in Kansas City ““ the second youngest of
six children ““ Watson knows what the “little guy”
has to go through. He has gone through the hardship and the bumps
and bruises that the youngest male sibling must endure.
“Being the youngest of five boys, of course I took a lot
of physical beatings growing up,” Watson said with a
smile.
That toughness helped Watson start all 126 games thus far in his
UCLA career. He will tie Don MacLean’s school record for
starts with Thursday’s game.
His injury report tells only part of the story of how much
Watson has endured at UCLA.
Freshman year, it was a concussion at Washington State.
Sophomore year saw a severely bruised left knee versus Washington,
a bad cut between his middle and ring finger in a game against
Stanford and a right elbow laceration he received while diving for
a loose ball against San Francisco. Junior year brought Watson
laser surgery on his left eye from a cut sustained during the NCAA
Tournament.
In his final season, and perhaps finest hour in Westwood, Watson
has bruised his hip at Arizona State and cut open his chin and the
top of his head against the Bay Area schools while leading the
Bruins to a No. 4 seed in the 2001 NCAA Tournament
The journey has been rough, and that’s the way Watson
wants it.
“I know I am going to get hurt and expect it,”
Watson explained. “I play very physical. I’m lucky,
though, that I haven’t had anything serious that could end my
career.”
“I feel I can play through anything,” he added.
“I have a high tolerance for pain and that’s why
it’s easy for me to just keep on playing.
His teammates say no situation is impossible with Watson beside
them.
“He’s a warrior,” said fellow senior guard
Ryan Bailey. “He’s always going to give you 100
percent, regardless of the score. That’s why I don’t
mind going anywhere with him, no matter the environment we go to
play in. I know that Earl is going to have my back.”
It has been a career in which he set the school record for
steals and led his team to a fourth consecutive 20-win season. With
an overall collegiate record of 88-38, Watson is only the seventh
two-time captain in the programs’ 81 year history.
Wearing his heart on his jersey for each and every game, Watson
is the triggerman in the Bruins’ hopes for a national
championship. He is a senior leader who has the ability to change
the momentum of a game with his playmaking ability. His teammates
heed their floor general and stand ready for battle on his
command.
“During the game, when we huddle up, he helps us out and
gives us inspiration,” said junior guard Billy Knight,
Watson’s roommate. “For the new guys, it starts from
the summertime and fall basketball when you get here. You know to
listen up to Earl.”
Apparently, the Bruins have been paying attention, and it has
translated into an optimism that this year’s team can make a
deep run into the postseason.
“It’s been very different this year,” Watson
said. “We’ve been more consistent this year as far as
the Pac-10 is concerned. We just want to stay sharp and be focused
and have an edge going into the Tournament.”
“Anytime you have a leader that sets a good example, then
the rest of the guys have to follow,” added senior guard
Jason Flowers. “If they don’t follow, then the team is
not going to win.”
For the piston that makes the UCLA motors run, it’s more
than just strategy and skill that have allowed Watson to persevere
and gain the respect of his teammates, coaches and the world of
college basketball.
“Pure determination. It’s a will to play,”
Watson said. “I love basketball and I don’t want to
leave my career wishing I could play one more game. I want to be
able to say I played every game I could.
“I’ve been like that since I was young, playing
outside with my brothers. I love the game so much; my passion is so
strong.”
The coach who didn’t miss the somewhat overlooked Watson
in high school, Bruin Head Coach Steve Lavin, gets excited just
talking about his senior leader.
“The first time we saw him we were looking at JaRon Rush
and Korleone Young on a Kansas City AAU team,” Lavin said.
“And the more we kept seeing them, the more we fell in love
with Earl’s game.
“Without Earl the following summer (that same team) lost
every tournament they had easily won the year before.”
Watson is as close to a go-to player one can find in college
basketball. He craves the ball in tense situations and thrives when
the game is on the line.
Of course, nothing should stress him out more ““ or make
his blood boil hotter ““ than March Madness.
“Somehow the tournament brings out the best in everyone.
The tournament definitely brings out the best in me,” Watson
said. “When I get into that arena, I just feel something
different. I can’t even describe it.”
“I have never seen a player like that,” Knight said.
“He reminds me a little of a Jordan-type player in terms of
desire that can turn it on like that. He can get really mad and
just start playing really hard.
“It makes me just want to play harder and play the same
way.”
It’s been a challenge his final season, knowing that the
book to his college career was slowly closing and feeling the
pressure to take this team to the Final Four. Not for the glory,
but because he feels they can.
“There’s no team that I, or this team, fears,”
Watson said. “Our problems don’t come from the court
but from not being on the same page mentally. Physically, the body
will follow.”
Watson has had the team playing their best when the chips were
stacked against them. He guided them into Maples Pavilion his last
two seasons and helped UCLA defeat a No. 1-ranked Stanford team two
years in a row. On his last performance at home in Pauley Pavilion,
in front of a sellout crowd which included his parents Earl and
Stell, he almost helped UCLA do the impossible: defeat a top-ranked
team twice in one season.
To those close to Watson, it’s the rare intangibles that
may take him to the next level.
“Hopefully, I can follow my dreams and go to the NBA and
have a good career,” Watson said. “It’s going to
take a lot of work, but I love to work hard anyway. It’s
always been the key to everything and it’s why I think I have
been successful.”
“I told him in one of the first conversations I had with
him that he could be like (former Philadelphia 76er) Maurice
Cheeks,” Lavin said. “He can be that silent floor
leader that doesn’t always do the spectacular but does the
simple things that help you win games.
“There’s no question he has the ability to play in
the NBA.”
A thief on the court, Watson will continue to steal every game
he can in the postseason to keep his career going and continue
playing with the people he considers lifelong friends. The people
he has met and the friendships he has formed at UCLA are things no
one will be able to take away from him.
“For four years, Earl and I have battled everyday,”
Bailey said. “On the court, it’s such a bond.
There’s no jealousy that we play the same position.
It’s a love for each other that we’re happy for the
other when we succeed.”
Success comes with hard work. You don’t have to tell Earl
Watson that work is tough.
EARL WATSON STATS SOURCE: UCLA MEDIA GUIDE
Original graphic by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by
CHRISTINE TAN/Daily Bruin