With national award in sight, there’s no time for a Holiday vacation

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Can’t imagine Jrue Holiday is overly concerned with the fact he’s in the running for the EA SPORTS player of the year award, not with his team, Campbell Hall, attempting to successfully defend its Division IV boys’ basketball state championship. But my guess is there are plenty of people interested in finding out how well he’s doing in the race for the national honor.

The UCLA-bound senior is currently tied for third-place with Samardo Samuels, 20 points behind the front-runner, Brandon Jennings, a Los Angeles-native. Perhaps Holiday can make up some ground in the standings with a big-time effort Thursday evening against Bakersfield Garces in a semifinal of the Southern California Regional playoffs at Harvard-Westlake High. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.

If Tuesday’s performance in the quarterfinals is any indication of what’s in store, there’s a good chance he’ll improve his stock against the Rams. Beyond that, Holiday could end up with two more chances to sway the EA SPORTS voters -- Saturday’s SoCal Regional finals at Mater Dei High, followed by a March 15th date at the Arco Arena in the state title game.

-- Sean Ceglinsky