This Earl Becomes a Pearl

Earl Watson watches NFL games on Sundays, and he sees the trend. He notices the backups such as Doug Flutie and Randall Cunningham coming in to steal the show, and he likes it.

“I pay attention to that,” Watson said. “Flutie’s like real old, right? He’s, like, older. That’s great. Some people got certain times where it’s time for them to step up, they can take advantage of it.”

It’s Watson’s time right now. He’s the starting quarterback until Baron Davis’ knee heals. He’ll have to run the team from point guard during the early part of the season, which includes the Puerto Rico Shootout tournament that could bring matchups against a loaded Maryland team and defending national champion Kentucky.

If “real old” guys like Flutie can do it, so can Watson. For the record, Flutie is 36. Apparently that qualifies as really old to a sophomore in college who was only 5 when Flutie threw his famous Hail Mary pass to beat Miami in 1984. It just goes to show how very young this UCLA basketball team is because, at the moment, Watson qualifies as its veteran leader.

I went to UCLA’s first exhibition game Tuesday to get a glimpse of the hyped class of five freshmen. I barely even noticed them. That’s because Watson was mesmerizing, orchestrating everything the Bruins did in their 95-89 victory over the California All-Stars.

He grabbed a defensive rebound, pushed the ball upcourt, threw an alley-oop to Jerome Moiso, who missed a dunk, then Watson grabbed that rebound too. He made a hanging jumper in the lane. He went up against the big boys to bat an offensive rebound two times before controlling it enough to make a one-handed pass to Travis Reed for a dunk. He hit the open jumper. He made a long, halfway-down-the-court bounce pass to Todd Ramasar that evoked memories of Magic Johnson throwing those passes to Jamaal Wilkes.

The stat sheet said JaRon Rush scored 17 points and Moiso scored 13, but it’s hard to recall either of them doing much because it seemed as though almost all of their points came off great passes or lobs by Watson.

Watson had 15 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds.

“He’s someone who helps your team in so many different ways across the board,” Coach Steve Lavin said. “Offensively, defensively, leadership . . . the intangible things that don’t show up in a box score, as well as the very tangible things, in terms of rotating to take charges, making big shots, coming up with the big loose ball, the big rebound.”

There were times last season when Lavin wanted to take Watson out of games but found he just couldn’t, so the smallest guy on the team wound up playing 32 minutes a night.

“Game in, game out, he was always at the center point of a critical play,” Lavin said.

Watson wasn’t satisfied. He bulked up in the weight room this summer, put on 20 pounds and now the 6-foot guard weighs 183. He never was afraid to go into the lane and fight for rebounds, and this way he won’t absorb as much punishment. Don’t be surprised if he does better than the 3.7 rebounds he averaged last season.

“I feel like they just come to me,” Watson said. “I don’t know why.”

Rebounds don’t just come to anyone. Not regularly. Watson comes up with too many important loose balls to be a coincidence. It’s half hustle, half instinct. Even in an exhibition game, Watson went after every ball and chastised himself for the ones that got away. They don’t have padding on the court-side press tables at Pauley Pavilion, but for Watson’s welfare they should.

Even though Watson was the first member of last year’s recruiting class to commit to UCLA, he will be overshadowed by Davis as long as Davis is around.

He recognizes his role, saying, “I know what I’ve got to do for us to win. I know what I’ve got to do until Baron comes back.”

Simply put, he must run things.

“When [your time] finally gets here, you’ve got to handle your business on the court, not let all that work in the summer go to waste,” Watson said.

Davis has confidence in his backup. He says he didn’t face a tougher point guard challenge last season than his daily practice matchups with Watson.

“I always knew he had it in him,” Davis said. “It was just a matter of him feeling confident.”

Now there’s only one thing that concerns Davis, the same worry Rob Johnson might have: “I hope my spot’s still there.”