With six minutes and 28 seconds remaining in the second half of the UCLA men’s basketball team’s first exhibition game, something happened.
The Bruins were leading the California Baptist Lancers 72-39 when coach Ben Howland felt it was time to provide the Bruin faithful with a sign of things to come.
Howland put all five of the freshmen ““ guards Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson, and Malcolm Lee, forward Drew Gordon and center J’mison Morgan ““ on the court at the same time, giving the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class a chance to play together as Bruins for the first time and to show what they are capable of.
The Bruins enter the new season as the No. 4 team in the nation and three-time defending Pac-10 champions, and they’re coming off their third consecutive Final Four appearance. Yet a lot has been said about a possible decline for the Bruins after losing three players to the NBA ““ Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute ““ and one more to graduation in Lorenzo Mata-Real.
However, both players and coaches are confident in the Bruins’ ability to repeat the success the program has experienced in recent seasons.
And the majority of that optimism comes from the presence of the five freshmen, Westwood’s version of “The Fab Five.”
“All five of them are going to be good players,” Howland said. “It’s always tough for a freshman to have to go against a junior or a senior player who’s had a lot of experience at the college level. It’s a big step up.
“They will have a learning curve, ups and downs, and how we help them through that and the leadership of the team and the coaching staff is going to be key.”
The class as it is presently constituted looked different at first. Originally, the Bruins had just four incoming freshmen ““ Holiday, Anderson, Lee and Gordon ““ a group alone that was deemed worthy enough of Scout.com’s No. 1 rating.
However, that soon changed.
Morgan, a 6-foot-10-inch, 248-pound center, originally committed to play at Louisiana State University for coach John Brady. But Brady was fired in February, and former Stanford coach, Trent Johnson, was hired in April.
As a result, “Bobo” Morgan asked for his release from his commitment to play at LSU and eventually found his way to Howland and the Bruins in June.
Suffice it to say, Howland is excited to have a center of Morgan’s ability in the team’s attempt to overcome the loss of Love and Mata-Real inside.
“He’s a very good passer,” Howland said. “Bobo’s biggest strength, combined with his size, he has great hands. His hands are exceptional. He catches everything, he sees the floor, he has good feel, but his hands are very, very good.”
One point of contention with Morgan in the limited amount of time he has been with the Bruins has been his conditioning. According to Morgan himself, this is the first time he has ever truly been in shape.
“I didn’t really have to work as hard in Texas,” Morgan said. “This is a different level. I’m just trying to get better and better every day.”
While Howland said that there is still work for Morgan to do in the conditioning department, he believes that it is improving and he has been impressed with Morgan’s performance in the team’s two exhibition games, especially rebounding the ball.
After losing the team’s top four leading rebounders from last season, Howland stressed the importance of having players on the inside who can rebound the ball effectively. Gordon, a 6-8 forward from San Jose, will give the Bruins both size and strength inside to secure rebounds.
“His strength is his ability to rebound, play physically, play hard, play tough,” Howland said of Gordon. “He has a lot of the little things that he still has to get better at: screening, how to hedge screens. But overall he’s made a lot of progress in the short amount of time we’ve had to practice.”
Crucial in the development of both Morgan and Gordon will be the instruction and example they will receive from veterans James Keefe and Alfred Aboya.
Keefe, a junior, and Aboya, a senior, started in both of the Bruins’ exhibition games and will be looked to as mentors for the two young players inside.
In the limited time he has had to observe and play with them, Keefe said he sees a little bit of himself in Morgan and Gordon.
“(It) just reminds me of when I was a freshman,” Keefe said. “Coming from high school when you can use your size just to score and get rebounds, it’s just a different type of basketball game.”
Gordon already understands what Keefe is talking about.
“It’s a lot different,” Gordon said. “In high school … 6-4, 6-5 are the biggest people you run into. Now you have 6-6 all muscle, just ridiculously athletic. It’s tough.”
For Aboya, the role as a leader is not a new one.
“The three years I’ve been here, I always play hard and my teammates feed off of that, so that itself is a teaching,” Aboya said. “Regarding Drew and Morgan, just telling them everything I’ve been through and help them whatever I can.”
According to both Morgan and Gordon, Aboya leads not only with his words and guidance, but by his sheer athletic ability and tremendous work ethic.
“Going against Alfred every day is intense,” Morgan said. “It gets me ready to play. It gets me over-ready to play. I don’t think anyone plays as hard as he does or rebounds as hard as he does. I think it gets me more ready than I need to be for all the centers in the Pac-10.”
Holiday is the one freshman who has arguably received the most attention and hype of the five. The 2008 Gatorade Player of the Year is the lone freshman slated to start for the Bruins and has already made quite an impact this season.
In his first game at the collegiate level against Cal Baptist, Holiday tallied 12 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, six steals and just one turnover in 23 minutes.
In his second game against Biola, Holiday scored 11 points and brought the crowd to its feet with an exhilarating alley-oop, recalling the incredible athletic ability of Westbrook from last season.
Holiday said that senior point guard Darren Collison has acted as mentor for him on and off the court since the two played with each other in Dallas at adidas Nations over the summer.
Collison said that while he tries to teach Holiday some things that will help him succeed at the collegiate level, there is not much he can tell him.
“The guy just has a knack for the game,” Collison said. “He knows how to play.”
Holiday is slated to start as the shooting guard, yet said he is comfortable at point guard or small forward.
“I really don’t think it matters (where I play),” Holiday said. “As long as I’m on the court, as long as I’m playing defense locking down, that’s the main thing.”
Rounding out the group of freshmen are two talented guards in Anderson and Lee.
Howland said that while there are little things that Anderson needs to improve upon ““ such as not leaving his feet to pass ““ he believes that he will be a great asset to the program for a long time.
Anderson believes that having the chance to go against a preseason All-American in Collison everyday in practice has had a great impact on his game.
“When I say college is a different speed, Darren Collison is a different speed than college,” Anderson said. “He’s just that much quicker than everybody. I think (going against him in practice) is going to help me. I just keep pushing every day, trying to do different things to get myself better. Trying to drive by him just defensively, staying in front of him is hard too.”
In regards to Lee, a McDonald’s All-American, Howland said he was impressed with his ability to handle the ball, rebound and shoot from outside.
“I’m very excited about Malcolm not only this year but obviously his future, his upside, is tremendous,” Howland said.
An added benefit for the Bruins is the chemistry the freshmen have with each other. With the exception of Morgan, all of them are from California and have played either with or against each other for the past four years.
Now that the school year has started and the season officially begins today, Morgan said the five of them spend “95 percent” of their time together.
When asked about playing with Anderson, Holiday said it was like two brothers playing on the court.
“Like me and my older brother,” Holiday said. “We know where each other are on the court. I think coming in, we’re going to be doing the same thing: He’s going to bring it down or I’m going to bring it down. I may not be the first look, but he’s always going where I am on the court.”
If the Bruins wish to return to the Final Four and make it over that last, elusive hump to win the national championship, Collison, who has been to the Final Four in each of his three seasons at UCLA, knows that the freshmen will need to play a big role.
Yet according to Collison, that may not be such a daunting task.
“Those guys get it right off the bat,” Collison said. “It’s good to have freshmen that pick it up real early because once they pick it up real early, it’s going to make it a lot easier for us.”
Which brings everything back to those two minutes and eight seconds when all five of them were on the court at the same time last Monday. Anderson believes that sometime during the course of the season, the freshmen will be asked to stand up at a big moment, and each will answer the challenge.
“I think that there’s going to be a time in the year when all of us have a really big contribution in a game or something like that,” Anderson said. “That pressure is what pushes us and makes us go as hard as we can. We want to come in and contribute to the team.”