By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
He can look up and down his roster and, for better or worse,
take credit for the collection of names he sees.
For the first time in his six-year tenure as the UCLA
men’s basketball team’s head coach, Lavin has a team he
built, one with plenty of veterans he himself recruited.
It’s true that Jerome Moiso ““ three years into the
NBA and already a journeyman – and JaRon Rush ““ not even in
the NBA ““ would be on this year’s team had it not been
for their ill-advised decisions to leave school early. But
considering the rate at which top players ““ okay, even
mediocre ones ““ are departing college basketball for the NBA,
such losses have to be accepted.
And Lavin, for his part, rarely mentions that Moiso and Rush
could be playing for him this year. He doesn’t have to lament
the losses. He has plenty on his roster to be content about ““
four seniors and one junior, among them four returning starters.
It’s Lavin’s most experienced team since his 1996-97
squad, which he instructed as a first-year head coach.
If Lavin had wanted to, he could have had a fifth senior, Ray
Young, on his squad. But Lavin, observing that Young would
have received little playing time due to the depth of the team,
elected to redshirt the guard instead.
These veterans on UCLA’s team ““ seniors Matt Barnes,
Dan Gadzuric, Billy Knight and Rico Hines, and junior Jason Kapono
““ were recruited by Lavin, have played under Lavin for some
time and understand Lavin’s system. They even talk like him,
using the same clichés he does (i.e. “one game at a
time”).
These are Lavin’s boys, all right.
“The maturity and leadership that those juniors and
seniors provide are the best things we have going for us,”
Lavin said.
That could be true, especially on this team, which lost last
year’s captain, Earl Watson, to graduation and has so many
youngsters ““ four true freshmen, two redshirt freshmen, and
two sophomores.
“It’ been great,” Lavin said.
“It’s like having built-in extra assistant coaches on
the floor. They provide great leadership, direction and insight for
our younger players.”
The most vocal of these veterans is Hines, a shooting guard who
has had trouble shooting so far this season. But despite his
inability to put the ball into the basket, Hines has managed to
contribute offensively, setting effective picks and vocally
directing traffic. He has also become the surrogate big brother to
some of the team’s youngsters.
“He has great energy, a passion to compete,” Lavin
said. “It can rub off on other players.”
“Rico’s definitely the leader,” freshman
forward Andre Patterson said. “If we mess up, he lets us
know.”
Knight, Patterson continued, is the team’s silent leader.
Knight, UCLA’s other fifth-year senior and starting
two-guard, shrugs off any such praise. It’s only his job, he
says.
“If young guys get frustrated, they should ask us
questions,” Knight said. “I remember that in my
freshman year, seniors didn’t talk much to the
freshmen.”
Then there’s UCLA’s best player, Kapono, who
didn’t enter last year’s NBA draft and returned to
Westwood. Good-natured and rather humorous, he seems to be
well-liked by his teammates.
“Players like Jason Kapono keep you relaxed,” said
freshman point guard Cedric Bozeman, who, like Kapono, plans to
remain a Bruin for more than a couple of seasons. “He tells
you to make plays, to be free. That kind of leadership from a guy
like Jason Kapono is key.”
“Kapono is like a senior, he’s played so
much,” Lavin said. “He has a lot of maturity, and
I’ve seen it in practice.”
Gadzuric and Barnes, in their own subtle ways, take part in
passing down knowledge as well.
“It’s a committee thing,” Hines said of the
leadership on the team. “I do a lot of talking because I talk
a lot. Billy and the other guys set great examples.”
According to Patterson, Bozeman and Dijon Thompson ““ the
three true freshman who will see significant playing time this year
““ the collective tutoring efforts of the upperclassmen have
made their transition from the high school game to college game
easier.
“They go out of their way to teach me all of the tricks to
the plays,” Patterson said.
Knight, however, says that getting the freshmen to listen to
Lavin, and not teaching old tricks, is the biggest responsibility
he has as an leader on the team.
“I’m helping them out with listening,” Knight
said. “If Coach tells them something, sometimes they
don’t listen. In high school, they were “˜the man’
on their teams and they’re not used to listening to
anybody.”
And how are the freshmen doing so far?
“I like the way the freshmen have responded to the
leadership and direction,” Lavin said. “There’s
good camaraderie and chemistry. The younger players respect the
upperclassmen. The older players enjoy mentoring the younger
players on walking down that path they’ve already been down.
It’s a good sign.”
It’s a sign Lavin hasn’t seen before. Perhaps it
could lead to something.