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UCLA basketball: Former Bruin weighs in

By David Wharton
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With the Bruins playing their opener against Cal State Fullerton at Pauley Pavilion tonight, Ed O’Bannon sees positives and negatives to the coming season.

A consensus All-American for UCLA in 1995, O’Bannon blogs that it will be tough for his old team to replace point guard Darren Collison and muses that it would have been nice if Jrue Holiday, last season’s much-hyped freshman, had not jumped to the NBA so quickly.

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‘I really hoped Jrue would stay,’ O’Bannon writes. ‘I would’ve loved to see him dominate at the college level and take this team on his shoulders.’

Furthermore, O’Bannon says: ‘If Holiday would’ve been on this team, the expectations would’ve been through the roof.’

Instead, UCLA ranks among the ‘others receiving votes’ for the top 25. Ever the Bruin, O’Bannon has hope for a squad consisting largely of freshmen and sophomores.

‘That’s really what NCAA basketball has come down to,’ he says.

-- David Wharton

Sports Now
David Wharton

David Wharton has filled an array of roles – covering the courts, entertainment, sports and the second Persian Gulf War – since starting as a Los Angeles Times intern in 1982. His work has been honored by organizations such as the Society for Features Journalism and Associated Press Sports Editors and has been anthologized in “Best American Sports Writing.” He has also been nominated for an Emmy and has written two books, including “Conquest,” an inside look at USC football during the Pete Carroll era.

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