Freshman forward Reed: a sign of what’s to come

Monday, April 6, 1998

Freshman forward Reed: a sign of what’s to come

SIDEBAR: Young players, top recruits will step up to play out
UCLA’s future

By Brent Boyd

Daily Bruin Staff

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Call him the glimmer of hope, the
shining star, the light in the distance. It doesn’t really matter,
they would all fit just fine.

Whatever cliche you choose, the simple truth is that on a day
that was about as dark as it could be for the UCLA basketball team,
Travis Reed was the one bright light for the Bruins.

UCLA was out-manned, out-coached and, ultimately, out-classed by
Kentucky in its 94-68 loss in the South Regional semi-finals, and
all forms of common sense concluded that Reed should have been the
reason for such an abomination to occur.

Reed should have been the scapegoat for the Bruin loss. After
all, he was the most inexperienced player on the court, and he had
the responsibility of replacing Pac-10 freshman-of-the-year Baron
Davis in the starting lineup; it has been more than four months
since Reed’s most recent start, no less.

He was supposed to be the liability in the Bruin line-up. But,
instead the freshman forward turned out to be a promising omen of
what the future of UCLA basketball will be.

Although his seven points and 2-of-13 shooting from the field
certainly weren’t numbers to brag about, his play under the boards
and on the defensive end more than made up for any lack of
offensive prowess.

His 10 rebounds were second only to J.R. Henderson’s 11, while
his seven offensive boards were two more than anybody else in the
building. Half of UCLA’s six blocks belonged to Reed. His two
steals tied for a team-high, and considering that the Bruins had 19
turnovers and that he had only contributed one was downright
astounding.

"I think this is a little preview of how (Reed) can play,"
senior guard Toby Bailey said. "He played like a monster today. He
played like we know he can play – grabbing rebounds, getting
put-backs. He’s going to be real good next year."

Like the rest of the team, Reed was dramatically shorter than
his Wildcat counterpart – his 6-foot-7-inch frame left him as the
second-tallest Bruin, but he was smaller than three Kentucky
starters.

As a result, nothing came easy for the Fontana High School
graduate, and his short-range shots were consistently challenged by
the likes of Nazr Mohammad and Scott Padgett. He missed eight shots
within point-blank range of the basket.

But he came through when the Bruins needed him. Though the final
score may show that the few baskets were of consequence for UCLA,
Reed did his best to keep the squad in the contest.

A 70-second span in the first half saw Reed score a lay-up,
block a shot, assist Kris Johnson on a three-point basket, then
follow a Toby Bailey miss with a put-back. After Johnson nailed
another three-pointer, UCLA trailed only by seven – the closest it
would get for the remainder of the game.

Then, in the Bruins’ only other significant run – a 7-1 rally at
the beginning of the second half which cut the Kentucky lead to
41-30 – Reed connected on two free throws and made two big
rebounds.

"It was a real confidence booster," Reed said. "I felt good out
there; I wasn’t as nervous as I was coming off the bench in the
first couple of games (of the tournament)."

In fact, his performance against Kentucky was merely a
continuation of a solid tournament run for Reed.

In UCLA’s upset of Michigan in the second round, Reed made four
of his five shots on his way to a total of 11 points and three
rebounds in 22 minutes of action.

Again, Reed played his best when he was needed most. Michigan
had cut the Bruin lead to 67-66 with four-and-a-half minutes
remaining, but in a span of three minutes, he scored six points to
help put the Bruins up 77-68 with just over 60 seconds remaining,
and eventually prevailing 85-82.

His tourney performance put the finishing touches on a year that
has to be considered rocky at best for Reed.

Subbing for a suspended Jelani McCoy at the beginning of the
season, Reed averaged nearly 14 minutes per game in the first nine
contests of the year. Included were back-to-back 14-point games and
a 10-rebound performance against New Mexico.

However, once McCoy returned Reed saw limited action – he played
only a total of 79 minutes over the next 15 games, and many of
those were during garbage time.

Then, after McCoy resigned with six games remaining in the
regular season, his playing time gradually increased again heading
into the tourney.

In those minutes he was usually reliable, but never flashy; his
job was to get rebounds and not to score, and he knew that.

"Next year, probably, I’ll be able to showcase a bit more of my
skills," he said. "This year we had enough scorers and things, but
now I’m going to accept my role for next year."

What exactly that role will be, nobody is quite sure yet.

It would figure that he would gain a spot in the starting lineup
along with classmates Baron Davis, Earl Watson and possibly Rico
Hines. But with a highly-touted recruiting class anticipated to
sign with UCLA, it still remains undetermined where, or if, he will
start.

The ultimate decision-maker remained non-committal just after
defeat.

"Next year we are going to have a unique situation where we are
going to have 12 players that are freshmen or sophomores," Lavin
said.

As for Reed?

"I’m just getting ready for next year. Now I see what I can do
out there and have a chance to prepare myself for next year," he
said.