SAN FRANCISCO – On the rooftop deck at Pac-12 Network studios, where his second season unofficially began with Thursday’s media day, UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford and his only scholarship senior, Norman Powell, are holding court over lunch, jawing back and forth and laughing.
Alford is discussing Powell’s much-improved shooting stroke, when the senior guard first interjects, joking with the Bruins coach about how many shots he’s going to take now since UCLA lost three of its best players – Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams, and Zach LaVine – to the NBA draft last season.
“I’ve got a cannon now,” Powell says with a laugh, “nothing but net!”
Then, a smiling Alford fires back.
“I’ve labeled you as the best driver in college basketball,” Alford says. “That’s already out there. You’re going to make me look silly when you catch it on the wing and do that.”
On the doorstep of an important sophomore season to the Alford era, the lighthearted banter paints a different picture of what is ultimately a much more challenging reality for UCLA – that four of its five starters and three NBA first-round draft picks are gone from last year’s squad, and that they’re being replaced by talented, but mostly inexperienced pieces. One freshman, Jonah Bolden, was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, due to his move earlier this year from Australia to the United States. Another piece UCLA planned on having, fifth-year transfer guard Jon Octeus, wasn’t accepted to UCLA, even after Alford and his staff “thought for sure” there would be no issues.
But through it all, there is still Powell, who will step into the role he’s been waiting for since coming to UCLA – he’s likely to be the team’s top scoring option, its best defender and its leader on and off the court. Alford, who frequently has lauded his trust in Powell, compared the role to what former Arizona guard Nick Johnson did last season.
“It’s not easy to get better every year, but he’s gotten better every year,” Alford said. “We need him to get even better. He has to shoot the ball better. He’s going to have to defend, and we already asked a lot of him defensively.”
Leadership may be the most important aspect of those expectations, especially given how frequently Alford has reiterated how “quiet” this year’s team has been thus far. Point guard Bryce Alford will help, but Powell knows the majority of that onus is on him, even if he’s not the most vocal leader.
That responsibility became immediately clear to him in late April, when Adams reversed course and declared for the draft.
“Once he put his name in the draft, I knew it was going to fall on my shoulders,” Powell said. “I was kind of happy. This is what I wanted. I always found myself being a leader growing up.”
He called Adams shortly after he made the decision, to thank him for leaving.
“Now it’s my time,” Powell told him.
The talent losses are considerable and undeniably worrisome, but with Powell stepping into a much larger role, Alford actually seemed at ease Thursday. Asked about Powell being the face of the program, he smiled.
“At least it’s a pretty face,” he said.
OPEN SEASON
You won’t get many arguments about who deserved to be No. 1 in the Pac-12’s preseason poll; though, one of 32 voting Pac-12 media members unexpectedly chose UCLA as the top team in the conference.
But after Arizona at No. 1, the next six teams could be tightly bunched, with UCLA slotted at No. 4, while Utah (No. 2) and Colorado (No. 3) were ranked just ahead. Behind the Bruins, Stanford, Cal, and Washington weren’t far behind that second tier, either. The bottom of the league remains well-established, with USC slotted at 10th, but overall, the Pac-12 seems ripe for parity after its near-unanimous top team.
“For the rest of the league,” Arizona State coach Herb Sendek said, “you could probably put everyone in a hat and shake it up.”
BACK TO PAULEY
More than two months after a water main broke on UCLA’s campus and a flood tore through Pauley Pavilion, ruining its floor and doing significant damage, UCLA basketball finally is ready to return to its iconic arena.
UCLA expects to return to normal at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, with the final touches being put on a massive overhaul that resulted in a new floor and a litany of minor changes. The team had been practicing at the Student Activities Center on campus, but the building’s courts are not regulation size.
The Bruins play their first exhibition game against Azusa Pacific next Friday at Pauley.
BACKCOURT ADDITIONS
Of all the changes heading into Year Two of his rebuild of USC basketball, second-year coach Andy Enfield seems most encouraged by his backcourt, which will get one new and one not-so-new addition this season.
Freshman point guard Jordan McLaughlin, who Enfield referred to as “an elite recruit” has looked impressive enough to convince Enfield and his staff already that he’ll be capable of filling a large role this season.
“We’re expecting big things from him,” Enfield said of McLaughlin. “I think he came to USC for that opportunity, to be relied upon as a freshman. He’ll have that opportunity.”
And then there’s guard Katin Reinhardt, a former Mater Dei player who transferred to USC from UNLV and sat out last season. Reinhardt, Enfield said, has lost 18 pounds and is “shooting at an extremely high level”, while also improving substantially on the defensive end.
“If he can keep that up,” Enfield said, “I think with Jordan, Katin, the other guys we have on our roster, we should have a pretty big backcourt.”
Contact the writer: rkartje@ocregister.com
