Farnham Regains Passion and Role

The reason for Sean Farnham’s promotion to starting power forward Saturday against Iona was far more surprising than the unexpected UCLA lineup change itself.

He was playing with passion again.

That Farnham, the Pauley Pavilion favorite because of his hustle and displays of emotion, had stopped in the first place was the shock. But after dealing with some personal issues, he looked more like his former self in recent practices, prompting Coach Steve Lavin to reward him with a spot in the opening lineup versus Iona after playing Farnham only three minutes in the opener.

“He sets such a high standard for how hard he works,” Lavin said. “He’d probably been subpar. But he returned this week.”

Said Farnham, who responded with eight points and five rebounds in 20 minutes: “I’ve gone through some stuff off the floor that’s been a distraction for me. Being a senior and all, I maybe got a little complacent.

“The last game, I played three minutes. I played two of those in the last two minutes. After that, I had two options. I could either hang my head and sulk or I could come back the next day and practice.

“This is my senior year. Now, I’ve got 28 regular-season games left. Each game and each practice has to mean something special to me.”