These Days, He Has Bruin Fans Hooked : Lesser-Known Bailey Fast Becoming Special Freshman as Harrick’s Super Reserve

Who is Toby Bailey?

A shooter? A dunker? A star? A reserve?

In an era when talented high school basketball players are publicized as shamelessly as movie stars, Toby Bailey arrived at UCLA as that rarest species: little-known freshman.

Coaches, fans, scouts . . . they all saw in him what they wanted to see. Or didn’t want to see.

He made most of those prep all-star teams and averaged 26 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in his senior year at Loyola High, where he started on the varsity all four years.

But, compared to the three other members of the Bruins’ impressive freshman class--omm’A Givens, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson, or to last year’s prize recruit, Charles O’Bannon--Bailey was a quiet question mark.

“I came in with some hype, but it seemed like every guy had something that was like a hook,” Bailey says. “I was just a regular guy, a regular person, 6-5, this and that.

“Kris had his father (UCLA great Marques Johnson) that he could get help with the pub. . . . I mean, (Kris) is a great player, he had something to back it up, but he had a reason to put the spotlight on him.

“J.R.’s 6-9 with guard skills. I mean, that’s something that will catch people’s eye, a 6-9 guy dribbling the ball. Omm’A Givens was a guy from out of town that was 6-11, McDonald’s All-American.

“Everybody had a hook. I didn’t have one. I’m glad I’m past all that, starting to get some recognition. I don’t know what my hook is, though.”

Though Bailey concedes he was deeply disappointed in the early season by his lack of significant playing time, and he still says he will never be happy as a backup, he has emerged as the most thrilling revelation of the UCLA season.

Bailey came off the bench at Louisiana State and made three three-point shots, and last week, at the Arizona schools, scored 28 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in two victories.

“In pressure situations, he’ll have the ball and he’ll just start taking off somewhere,” says UCLA assistant coach Lorenzo Romar. “And when I first watched him play, when he started taking off, I would think, ‘Well, where’s he going?’

“And now I’ve learned that when he just takes off like that, something good is going to happen. He’s a money player. He’s a pressure-cooker player. LSU, first big test on the road, and he just comes right in the game and knocks down a couple of threes, like nothing, like he’s been doing it for 10 years.”

Says UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, leaning toward keeping Bailey as the super reserve: “The reason is he jump-starts us like a battery charger. I like that. He played 35 minutes (against Arizona State), so I don’t think he’s got a complaint.”

Henderson is the freshman who looks the most poised and who five games ago got the starting spot from sophomore Cameron Dollar that Bailey craved, and Johnson and Givens both play in limited spots.

But, off the bench, especially in UCLA’s sweep in Arizona last week, Bailey has been a jolt of energy--flying dunks, three-point bombs and defensive intensity.

“I really like what’s happened with Bailey,” Harrick says. “Now, Bailey may not like it, Bailey’s dad may not like it. . . . But I think that he earned everything he got.

“Charles O’Bannon, (last year) it was 50-50, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But Toby, I never gave anything. Nor J.R. They came in and they played, they sat on the bench, gave him five minutes against Kentucky. . . . He got this, he pouted, he got this, he overcame it, he worked hard.

“Now all of a sudden, his teammates like him in the game. They see him open, they give him the ball, and they’re yelling ‘TAKE HIM!’ I’ve never had a guy (who thinks), ‘Here I’m going to take the ball to the basket and dunk on you.’ ”

Last year, Bailey was only one of a large pack of quality guards in the West--including Trajan Langdon and Ricky Price, who both signed with Duke, Cameron Murray, who went to USC, and Jelani Gardner, who enrolled at California.

Unlike most of the others, Bailey was a forward in high school because he was the tallest, best-jumping player on the team. Bailey was the first to declare his school, announcing July 1, the first day colleges could officially contact senior prospects, that he was going to UCLA, then he watched as Gardner and Price, his childhood friend, were wooed with increasing intensity.

“What happened is he had gotten such a reputation as being a slasher and a dunker in high school that everybody said, ‘Oh well, we don’t want Toby because Toby can’t shoot,’ ” says Toby’s father, John Bailey, who, realizing his son’s future was as a guard, made sure Toby had plenty of action handling the ball even when he was towering over his teammates as a 6-year-old in summer leagues.

“We worked all summer in front of the house here on shooting three-pointers. Just shooting.”

Bailey came to UCLA fall practices knowing that the open starting spot was at Shon Tarver’s old two-guard position and he was determined to fire away confidently from long range.

But, though he was impressive in the exhibition games and clearly was the team’s best three-point shooter, his playing time was restricted and he concedes he was angry.

It came to a head, all sides agree, the day of the Kentucky game Dec. 3, when he played only 10 minutes, scoring one point. The same day Ricky Price started and was named player of the game in Duke’s victory over Illinois.

“That was the worst--I’ve grown up with him, and I love Ricky and I love to see him do well, but you know, we always had this, like, rivalry going,” Bailey says. “As long as we’re both doing well, I’m fine, that’s cool.

“But when I saw him having so much success, I just felt like, ‘Man, he’s in the perfect situation, player of the game, and I’m getting a couple minutes in the Kentucky game.’ I was feeling horrible, I was real depressed.”

Though Bailey says he never seriously contemplated transferring, teammates and coaches saw in his body language that things were not well.

When senior Ed O’Bannon saw Bailey slumped in the locker room, pouting, O’Bannon screamed at him to get up and be happy his team--on Henderson’s last-second free throws--had won.

“I was a little upset (about not starting),” Bailey says. “When they told me they needed a shooter, and all summer that’s all I was doing was shooting, and then I came in here and I was hitting everything. I was hitting all my threes, I couldn’t understand it. I was like, ‘How can’t I start? You said you wanted a shooter, and that’s what I was giving you, a shooter.’

“Now I see that I was giving them a shooter but those other parts of my game that they liked and they recruited me for, I wasn’t using those skills. Now that I look back at it, I understand where they were coming from.”

Says John Bailey: “I guess it may have been harder for him than me because I knew how good UCLA was and how deep they were. I really had a feeling in my heart, after talking to Coach Harrick, that Toby would be OK. I know Toby had only shown one facet of his game and he was getting playing time, so I knew if he ever had a chance to show complete game, he’d be OK.”

And, Bailey adds: “If it’s not broken, how can I scream that it should be fixed? If we’re whupping Arizona by 10 and Arizona State, I’d look stupid if I said Toby should be starting. The goal is for us to win.”

Also, Price’s Duke team has gone on a long losing string, and its coach, Mike Krzyzewski, will sit out the rest of the season because of exhaustion and a back injury.

Instead of focusing his whole game on settling behind the three-point line, Bailey, a light-skinned African American who says he is amused that his new fame has triggered people to ask if he is black or white, has begun to drive to the basket and rebound better. His 12 rebounds against Arizona were the most impressive statistic of the trip.

“At the point before you get your second breath, guys are a little tired, and I’m coming out fresh,” Bailey says. “So I try to exploit that when I first come off the bench, maybe get a steal or do something that gives our team a little spark.”

The turnaround moment, both Baileys and Harrick agree, was the LSU game, when he was left unguarded on the deep perimeter and triggered UCLA’s burst to gain a huge early lead. From then on, though Gardner and Price got more early attention, things have worked out fine.

“Toby Bailey just comes in there, hits three three-pointers, boom, boom, boom,” Harrick says. “Then goes on the road and plays like that at Arizona, Arizona State. . . . Goodness gracious sakes alive.

“I’m glad I got the guard I got.”