Role Players
Twenty-four games into the season, Reeves Nelson says he and his teammates are still trying to figure out their roles on the team, particularly at clutch times. UCLA returned just one starter, Nikola Dragovic, but he was no more than the fourth option at times for the Bruins last season. Michael Roll, meanwhile, has gone from 17 minutes per game and two starts last year to more than 35 minutes per game and the team scoring lead.
"It has been tough, because everybody really didn't know their role coming into the season," Nelson said. "That had a lot to do with the early season struggles, and we've kinda gotten past that and realized what we need to do to get the team to win. But sometimes we lapse back into what happened at the beginning of the season."
There are no leaders on this team. No one to help the freshman along. Next year will be different when Honeycutt and Nelson take the leadership roll over.
Say what you will, but it looks like we fielded a team of bench players this year. Hope 2011 is kinder...........
Someone on the team has to step up, to get in the face of other players and demand the effort, and to lead by example. Take a look at the leadership role Ed O'Bannon played during the last national championship run. UCLA hasn't had anyone like that since then. Typically, it's a senior, but none of the seniors this year seem to either have that desire or temperament. I think Reeves Nelson will eventually develop into that type of leader, but it's hard, especially for a freshman, to take on that role.