Hollins Finds Himself Buried on the Bench

Ryan Hollins was a starter in UCLA’s first six games. He had been averaging 23.6 minutes.

Now the 7-foot junior is at least ninth in the rotation, behind high school volleyball star Matt McKinney and freshman Lorenzo Mata among inside players. Hollins played only two minutes (one turnover was his only mark on the stat sheet) in an 85-80 loss to Oregon State and never took off his warm-up shirt in the second half.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland has said repeatedly that Hollins suffered a setback when he had knee surgery over the summer. On Friday, Howland’s terse reply as to why Hollins didn’t play in the second half was, “We just played with Matt and Dijon [Thompson] is getting a lot of those minutes too.”

Hollins left the locker room without speaking to reporters, but he seemed unhappy sitting on the bench in the second half.

McKinney, who is struggling because of a mysterious loss of stamina after he plays hard for two or three minutes, had two points and two rebounds. Thompson, who has inherited the power forward spot, had trouble defensively against the powerfully-built David Lucas, Oregon State’s star forward who played in only his second game this season since returning from toe surgery and had a team-high 21 points.

Even though Oregon State Coach Jay John said of Lucas that, “He’s still rusty. I can tell on the quickness of some of his moves,” neither Thompson nor UCLA center Michael Fey could keep Lucas away from the basket.

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While only one Oregon State starter (guard J.S. Nash) played as many as 30 minutes, UCLA freshman point guard Jordan Farmar played 37 minutes, Thompson 32 and Fey 30. Only back-up guard Brian Morrison gave the Bruins more than 10 minutes off the bench -- he played 24 and scored 12 points -- while Oregon State got 18 minutes or more from three bench players. “They had a lot of depth,” Howland said.

Janou Rubin, who had 13 points a year ago against Oregon State, didn’t dress because of a swollen left knee. Howland said he didn’t find out about the injury until 10 minutes before game time and that the Bruins missed Rubin. However the senior has averaged only 3.3 minutes and 1.3 points this season.

UP NEXT

Sunday at Oregon, 4 p.m., XTRA 1150/690, McArthur Court -- Oregon freshman Malik Hairston, who was heavily recruited by UCLA , is averaging 13.6 points and 5.0 rebounds. Ian Crosswhite, a 7-foot junior, leads the Ducks in rebounding, and sophomore guard Aaron Brooks, who is coming off a 34-point game against USC, is the leading scorer (15.2 points a game).