11. UCLA
Coming back after knee surgery and a burger binge, guard Baron Davis leads the best cast of young players in the land
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 02:00 PM
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Davis' complete recovery from a torn ACL is imperative for this young team to have success. V.J. Lovero |
Just
in
case third-year UCLA coach Steve Lavin was sleeping a
little too well, there was a half-facetious little ripple
of pressure that came his way at an October dinner roasting
him on behalf of the American Diabetes Association.
Appearing on a video monitor
at Madison Square Garden, John Wooden noted that the Bruins
have had topflight
recruiting classes for the last two years. It's not enough
to win, the Wizard said to Lavin, you must win
big.
With Stanford and Washington more heavily favored in the
Pac-10, Wooden probably didn't mean this year. But how many
seasons can Lavin hope to keep together this group of
blue-chippers, which includes four McDonald's All-Americas
in sophomore Baron
Davis and freshmen JaRon Rush, Dan Gadzuric and Ray Young? Long
enough, Rush believes, to win at least one NCAA title.
"This year, the Final Four, at least," says Rush,
"and next year, the championship."
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF JaRon Rush | 6'7" | Fr. | 32.0 ppg** |
| PF Jerome Moiso | 6'11" | Fr. | 18.9 ppg** |
| C Dan Gadzuric | 6'11" | Fr. | 20.8 ppg** |
| SG Earl Watson* | 6'2" | So. | 5.8 ppg |
| PG Baron Davis* | 6'2" | So. | 5.0 apg |
'97-98 record: 24-9
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 12
*Returning starter
**ppg as high school senior ('96-97 for Moiso) |
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How far the Bruins can go will depend a lot on a healthy
return by Davis. One of the country's top point guards last
year, Davis hasn't played a game since tearing the ACL in
his left knee in UCLA's upset of Michigan in the second
round of the NCAAs
last March. His off-season rehab was a series of willpower
tests, some of which he didn't pass. "All I did was
eat," says the
6'2" Davis, last year's Pac-10 Freshman of the Year.
"Fatburger,
In-N-Out Burgers—I ate everywhere, everything." It
was no surprise, then, that his weight shot up by 25
pounds, to 230. "It was hard trying to get through the
ups and downs, working hard but not
always getting any results," Davis says. "Feeling
like, Dang,
I might not ever come back."
When he does come back—Davis, who has slimmed back
down to 210, should be at full strength by the end of the
year—he and backcourtmate Earl Watson will be feeding
three freshmen:
6'11" Gadzuric of the Netherlands,
6'11" Jerome Moiso of France and Rush, an Anfernee
Hardaway type whom roomie and fellow Kansas Citian Watson
describes as a "workaholic perfectionist." Rush
has been playing on AAU traveling squads since he was
seven, and the experience shows. "He has
very
advanced offensive skills for a freshman," says Lavin,
"and he is very
quick."
If Rush is to keep UCLA on the ambitious schedule he has
set, he had better be.
—Kelli Anderson
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