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By
Nick
Prevenas
NBADraft.net
3/23/08
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Kevin
Love
Icon
SMI |
I know you’re
sick of hearing about UCLA.
I know you’re
tired of seeing the puff pieces. I know you’re burnt out on
seeing the Bruins top the majority of your co-workers’ brackets.
Me? I’m
not tired of UCLA at all. In fact, I can’t get enough of them.
Yes, I picked
UCLA to win it all. I picked them for all the reasons you’ve
heard a million times — wonderful coach, excellent depth,
suffocating defense, top-notch backcourt, Kevin Love, etc.
However, I believe
UCLA will win this year’s NCAA Championship because this team
appeals to everything I like about basketball.
See, modern
hoops is split into two schools of thought, which I call Flash and
Fundamental.
Flash constitutes
all of those moments that make us jump out of our seats, call our
friends, log onto Youtube. Flash creates “the buzz”
we search for anytime we devote two hours to a basketball game.
Flash is Vince
Carter jumping over Frederic Weis, Gilbert Arenas screaming “Hibachi!”
and Dwight Howard taking it to the rack with more power than a locomotive.
Fundamental
is what Dr. James Naismith envisioned when he first cut the bottom
out of a peach basket. It’s an effective drop step after establishing
post position. It’s going glass four steps to the left of
the elbow.
It’s Tim
Duncan. It’s Carlos Boozer.
All too often,
it seems as if Flash and Fundamental are in direct conflict with
one another, even if most basketball fans have a soft spot for both.
When they clash, Flash might win the battle, but Fundamental tends
to win the war.
But UCLA represents
a beautiful hybrid. The Bruins need to win, if only to prove once
and for all that Flash and Fundamental can co-exist.
No offense to
Memphis, Kansas, North Carolina or any of the other title hopefuls,
but a national championship from these squads doesn’t mean
anything, in a macro sense.
Simply put,
a UCLA championship would matter more.
Russell Westbrook
is UCLA’s Flash. Not only is Westbrook the Bruins’ top
defender, he is a borderline Internet cult hero.
Type his name
into Youtube and you’ll see tens of thousands of views on
his two signature dunks: Jan.
5 at Cal and Feb.
23 against Oregon.
Westbrook told
me he prefers the Cal dunk, but both are pretty nasty.
In each contest,
Westbrook sprinted down the center of the floor and embarrassed
anyone who dared to step in his way.
After UCLA held
on to beat Arizona 68-66 on March 2, I asked Darren Collison about
his teammate’s status as a Youtube sensation.
“We love
it,” Collison said. “We’ve all [logged onto Youtube
and] watched him. It’s awesome.”
And you know
it is only a matter of time before Westbrook’s at-the-buzzer
exclamation point to cap the remarkable comeback over Texas A&M
is uploaded.
Westbrook’s
style has proven to be a perfect complement to Collison, the Fundamental
aspect of the UCLA backcourt.
Since returning
from injury on Nov. 28, the sophomore has re-established himself
as one of the nation’s premier old-school floor generals.
The slippery
Collison has proven adept at the “the defender’s outstretched
arm is six inches over the rim, so I’ll shoot it seven inches”
tear-drop move, as well as the “we need the momentum back
on our side, so I’ll drain this back-breaking 20-footer right
before the media timeout” jumper.
Collison’s
game is a hybrid between Mo Cheeks and John Stockton, with his propensity
for backcourt steals nearly equaling his table-setting skills.
Of course, any
Fundamental discussion regarding UCLA would be incomplete without
any mention of the Pac-10 Player of the Year.
It actually
makes me sad that more post players don’t approach the game
like Kevin Love. It shouldn’t be considered noteworthy to
see a big man grab a rebound with two hands, pivot, and immediately
fire an outlet pass the length of the floor for an easy lay-up.
But Love remains
an anomaly, with his 3-point range, his superlative footwork and
his textbook box-out technique.
All young big
men should be forced to watch UCLA games, just to see how Love keeps
the ball high and how he keeps his head up after rebounds.
“I wish
I could take credit for Love’s skills, but he came here with
all of that already learned,” said Ben Howland — for
my money, the best coach in college basketball.
Love remains
a divisive NBA prospect, mainly due to his height (listed at 6-10,
but closer to 6-8) and his running style (best described as a “heavy
jog”).
But on the college
level, Love is one of the most purely entertaining players to watch.
He proves that sharp skills and flawless technique can make up for
athletic disadvantages. Don’t believe me? Ask DeAndre Jordan.
Flash and Fundamental,
working together in a yin and a yang type of arrangement, not against
each other.
This is how
basketball should be.
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