Foreign Legion

Your basic pair of 6-foot-10, 20-year-old, foreign-bred, NBA-bound freshmen have also become roommates at UCLA.

“My side is usually messy,” Dan Gadzuric said. “His side is clean. But I’m trying to work on that.”

On making his side cleaner, not making Jerome Moiso’s messier.

It is just one of the contradictions that set them apart, even as they have joined to become a formidable big-man tandem for the Bruins.

Gadzuric, the starting center, is a strong inside player and can run, but his moves are still mechanical.

Moiso, the so-called power forward, has a game that is smoother and more refined, but also softer.

“I knew one was going to be extremely athletic, Moiso, and one was going to be extremely physical, Gadzuric, and both were that,” Oregon Coach Ernie Kent said after seeing the twosome in person for the first time.

Teammates know Gadzuric as the quiet one, even as he tells that he can be outgoing.

Teammates know Moiso as the jovial, outgoing one, even as he insists he loves the quiet times. (“Me? Me outgoing? Noooooooo.”)

Both, however, took the same path to UCLA. The long one.

Gadzuric, who turns 21 on Feb. 2, grew up in Den Haag, Holland, about a 50-minute train ride from Amsterdam.

He attended high school at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass., reaching heights that went beyond being named to most All-American teams.

Gadzuric briefly considered turning pro, which meant UCLA had to not only win the recruiting battle against the likes of Kansas, Kentucky and Connecticut, but against the NBA as well. When Bruin Coach Steve Lavin and assistant Jim Saia made their final visit to Massachusetts, they were armed with a consensus that Gadzuric would have been picked in the late teens to early 20s--a realistic range--and sold him on the theory that time in Westwood could push him up to single digits.

“I just wanted to experiment and find out where I would be drafted,” Gadzuric said. “But I wanted to go to college and experience college life, no matter what.”

The results? He’s averaging 8.1 points and 6.1 rebounds in 21.1 minutes a game.

Gadzuric is still raw, especially on offense.

“But everything is at you and aggressive,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Not so with Moiso.

He is easygoing, quick with a smile or a joke, and that passive attitude carries over to the court.

In many ways, he is comparable to Vlade Divac--more comfortable on the perimeter than inside, entirely likable but often in need of an emotional jump start.

“I’m lazy,” Moiso acknowledged. “Yeah. Sometimes I’m just letting things happen. That’s one thing I’ve tried to do in practice, working with the guys to try to get that [mean] mentality. But it’s taking time. It’s not an easy thing.”

Said Lavin: “With Jerome, you’ve just got to continue to encourage him to shoot the ball, to be more aggressive, because that’s not his nature. He likes to shoot. But for whatever reason, there’s stretches when he just doesn’t look aggressively to score. And we need him to score for us to be successful.

“He’s just like he is with his shot. He has a tendency to get down on himself. He never thinks he’s very effective--he just doesn’t think he’s a very good basketball player. He doesn’t think he deserves to start, he doesn’t think he deserves to shoot the ball, doesn’t deserve to be on scholarship.

“I’ve never met such an exceptional player that is so down on himself all the time. You have to always convince him that he’s a good shooter, he’s a good basketball player, he deserves a scholarship, he deserves to start. It’s actually kind of refreshing, but now we’re in a situation where I need him to have more of the confidence that you’d expect from a high school all-star, a McDonald’s All-American. You need some of that confidence when you go on the road.

“We show him video so he can see how effective he is. Then any time I see him, whether it’s in an airport or on the bus, I’d say, ‘Keep shooting the ball.’ That’s the answer to everything.

“ ‘Coach, should I . . . ?’

“ ‘Shoot.’

“ ‘But Coach, you . . . ‘

“ ‘Shoot the ball, Jerome.’

“No matter what it is. ‘Coach, what time does the bus leave?’

“ ‘Just shoot the ball. Keep shooting, Jerome.’

“He’ll be passing up shots in practice. Sometimes he’ll have a two-footer and he’ll be looking around, like who to pass the ball to, and then throw it to some guy behind the three-point line.”

Many of the comments are prefaced with a smile, because that has already become the proven way to deal with Moiso, the gentle approach.

Saia recalls recruiting Moiso last spring.

Moiso was born in Paris, where his mother was studying, moved with her back to the island nation of Guadeloupe in the West Indies within about a month and developed into a promising prospect. So promising that he returned to France as a teenager, mostly for the opportunity to play on the junior national team and eventually, in 1997, the top national squad.

Moiso attended Milford Academy in Connecticut the second half of the 1997-98 school year to improve his English and prepare for the SAT, having already made enough of an impression that all the schools were after him. But when Saia came for a visit, Moiso said he was interested in Central Connecticut State.

“He’s always had that sense of humor,” Saia said. “But deep down inside, he knows that he has this God-given ability. I think that’s his way of taking the pressure off of himself. He’s always teasing.”

Or something.

Moiso played for the international team in an all-star game in Orlando, Fla., against a U.S. squad that included Baron Davis.

“I remember him from that,” Davis says now. “And I remember I was talking to him and he kept telling me that he didn’t speak English. Now, I know that he spoke real good English and I never knew it.”

It was part Moiso and his sense of humor, part not feeling entirely comfortable with the language. Even now, he sometimes hides behind the charade because his English speaking is not at the same level as his comprehension.

He remains a work in progress on the court, too.

Moiso is shooting 54.6%, second best on the team, but is fourth in shots.

In all, he’s averaging 12.1 points and 6.2 rebounds.

Between Gadzuric and Moiso, the 13th-ranked Bruins have two formidable big men who, in many ways, complement each other in game and personality.

As players and as roommates.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tonight

UCLA vs. USC

Sports Arena

7:30 p.m.

For Sp. West

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Jerome Moiso

* Age: 20

* Size: 6-10 1/2, 230

* Year: Freshman

* At a Glance: Grew up in Guadeloupe, an island nation in the West Indies. Moved to France at 17, played for French junior national team, became little-used reserve for the national squad in 1997. Attended Milford Academy in Connecticut in the winter and spring of 1997 to improve his English and prepare for SAT exam.

****

Dan Gadzuric

* Age: 20

* Size: 6-10, 245

* Year: Freshman

* At a Glance: Native of Den Haag, Holland, played high school ball at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass., and was named prep All-American by many publications. Born Feb. 2, so will be a 21-year-old freshman before the conference schedule is half finished.