Draft shows UCLA's progress
NEW YORK — For years, UCLA basketball had been expected to produce top-flight draft picks. All-Americans such as Ed O’Bannon and Baron Davis being selected in the NBA lottery had been the norm.
But for the past six years, UCLA has been out of the mix. All of its top-flight recruits under Steve Lavin fizzled out, and none ever reached their potential in terms of getting to the NBA.
But that all ended on Wednesday, when All-Pac-10 performer Jordan Farmar was selected by the Lakers in the first round.
It wasn’t so much that Farmar went in the first round, but the fact that Farmar was taken by such a high profile team as the Lakers, and people (such as ESPN’s Dick Vitale) were talking about UCLA basketball again.
Even the New York Knicks fans, shocked by their team’s selection of South Carolina’s Renaldo Balkman, took a second out of their misery to cheer for the man they recognized for his performance in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
It was a sign of the progress that coach Ben Howland has made during his first three years in the program.
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, a man most Lakers fans agreeably dislike, came up on the big screen at Madison Square Garden to marvel at the professionalism Farmar showed during his workouts and during his interviews, and recognized his knowledge of the game at the young age of 19.
Former Washington guard Brandon Roy, who matched up against Farmar in the Pac-10 for two years and was selected No. 6, also had good things to say about the former UCLA point guard.
“He’s a competitor, and he led his team to the highest level of the sport (reaching the championship game),” Roy said. “There is not much else you can ask for. He is going to have a long professional career ahead of him.”
Overall, it was quite a fortunate night for Farmar. The first point guard was not selected until the No. 21 pick, and green room invitee Marcus Williams was still available a few picks before Farmar.
But the Lakers saw some of the same potential in Farmar that Howland had seen three years earlier, and selected him before other Pac-10 standouts Leon Powe (Cal), Bobby Jones (Washington), and Hassan Adams (Arizona), who all fell to the second round.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas even announced that the Lakers got a steal with Farmar at the 26th pick.
But in the end, the night was bigger than just Farmar. It was a night to celebrate UCLA basketball being back on the map. It was a night to celebrate senior Ryan Hollins being drafted after being considered dead in the water just a year earlier.
It was a night to celebrate UCLA having 100 players drafted, more than any other university in the nation. And it was a sign to all potential recruits that UCLA is once again a place where a player’s NBA dreams can be realized.
In the next few years, forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will likely be taken in the draft lottery or at least the first round. So will current recruit Kevin Love if he decides to come to UCLA.
But no matter how highly those players get drafted, or how big their contracts are, the 2006 season and the 2006 NBA Draft will be remembered as when UCLA basketball was put back on the map.
E-mail Parikh at sparikh@media.ucla.edu if you were shocked Kevin Pittsnogle didn’t get drafted.
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