Daley Affirmation: He Can Play

In one of basketball player Kevin Daley’s plans, he would have been a senior at UCLA this season. Instead, while the Bruins struggle, Daley is looking to lead another team to a national championship.

Daley is a senior at Azusa Pacific, playing on a team ranked fifth in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics. The Cougars are aiming for their eighth consecutive conference championship and third consecutive trip to the NAIA’s final four.

A decision Daley made two seasons ago--trading in national exposure for a chance to play more--is paying off now.

A 1995 graduate of Lakewood Artesia High Daley attended Nevada as a freshman. But feeling homesick and not playing as much as he wanted, he returned to Southern California and transferred to UCLA.

As a transfer, Daley sat out the 1996-97 season, then played some as a sophomore in 1997-98, but not enough, by his reckoning.

So he talked to Wayne Merino, his high school coach at Artesia. Merino, who also has coached Charles and Ed O’Bannon, Jason Kapono and Avondre Jones, suggested Daley visit Azusa Pacific and Coach Bill Odell.

“I had no idea about Azusa Pacific,” Daley said. “I had never heard of the school before I came here last year.”

But after visiting the school and talking to Odell, Daley decided to trade the glamour of UCLA for the relative obscurity of Azusa Pacific and a chance to play.

Now, in his second season at Azusa, Daley is comfortable with his decision.

“Sometimes I picture what might have happened if I’d stayed at UCLA,” he said. “But I don’t wish I was there. Some people don’t believe I can be happy here. But would I be happy at UCLA?

“I still might not be playing there.”

He’s playing now.

Daley is averaging 21.7 points and 8.3 rebounds a game while making 50% of his shots, 41.8% from three-point range. Daley, who also has made 83.1% of his free throws, had 31 points and nine rebounds in the Cougars’ 79-73 loss Thursday night to fourth-ranked Biola.

And his contributions go beyond statistics. Daley is the main source of leadership for the Cougars.

“He’s a different player than last year,” Odell said. “His shooting’s so much better from long range and the free-throw line. He’s become the complete player.”

And Odell said that Daley is now the kind of player who would fit in at Westwood.

“He would be able to provide more consistent shooting, which I feel UCLA has needed the last few years,” he said.

Of course, Daley’s improvement only could have happened in a situation where he was playing all the time, which Azusa Pacific provided. But being the big fish from UCLA in the small pond that is Azusa Pacific also has helped Daley mature, something that shooting 500 jump shots a day never could have accomplished.

After only a couple of weeks at Azusa, Daley was involved in an off-campus fight at a party. He said it was about somebody wanting to take a shot at the new big man on campus.

And in one of his first games as a Cougar, Daley was ejected for elbowing an opponent.

“I think a lot of that had to do with my own frustrations,” Daley said of his early problems. “Coming from UCLA I thought things would be easier.”

Said Odell, “I think, emotionally, he wasn’t mature. He thought he was going to come over to our level and be great. But his maturity this year has been so fantastic.”

One reason for that is the restrictions of a small, religious school have changed Daley’s social life and he is concentrating more on his studies and playing.

And though he’s playing in the NAIA, Daley still has professional aspirations.

“If you’re good enough, either the NBA or an overseas league will find you,” said Daley, who has had professional scouts at his games. “I believe that. It’ll be harder than if I was at UCLA, but I’m willing to go through it.”

Another reason for Daley’s improved maturity and ability is his playing time. He hasn’t stopped playing since transferring to Azusa.

After last season, he spent the summer playing for Panama’s national team during Olympic qualifying.

A native of Panama who moved to the United States when he was 13, Daley credits last summer’s experience for much of his development, even though the team failed to make the Olympics.

“I developed my game, got exposure overseas and worked all summer long without a break,” he said.

UNIVERSITY DIVISION

The fifth-ranked USC men’s volleyball team ended a 13-match losing streak against UCLA when it defeated the top-ranked Bruins, 13-15, 15-10, 6-15, 15-6, 15-11, on Friday in the 23rd Kilgour Cup at Pauley Pavilion. Brook Billings had a match-high 33 kills as the Trojans beat the Bruins for the first time since 1991. The victory continued a season of streak-busting for the Trojans, who ended an eight-game football losing streak against the Bruins in November and a 10-game basketball skid against the Bruins last month.

UCLA got a tournament-record 43 kills from Ed Ratledge in defeating Hawaii in five games to win the Outrigger tournament at Honolulu last weekend.

Pepperdine will take another shot at defending NCAA champion Brigham Young tonight. The third-ranked Waves defeated the Cougars on Thursday, 15-12, 15-7, 15-12.

Pepperdine’s Tamie Durdin, the NCAA’s second-ranked women’s golfer, will join some of the LPGA’s top players the second weekend in February at the Los Angeles Women’s Championship at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley. She was one of only two amateurs to receive a sponsor’s exemption.

UCLA two-meter man Sean Kern and USC goalkeeper Bernice Orwig were named winners of the first Peter J. Cutino Award, intended to be water polo’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. Kern, a junior, led the Bruins to the NCAA title in December. Orwig led the Trojans to their first national championship last May in her senior season. Coaches vote for the recipients.

UCLA sophomore Tracy O’Hara recorded the women’s current top collegiate pole vault, clearing 13 feet 9 1/2 inches in the Pole Vault Summit at Reno, Nev., on Jan. 22. Her mark is also second-best all time by a collegiate woman indoors.