Bruins Are Told to Work It Out

Their season ended with the fragile UCLA Bruins being slammed into the ouch zone, at the mercy of the picks and screens of Texas Tech’s aggressive, muscular players.

Seven-footer Ryan Hollins was shoved into the seats with what appeared a fingertip flick from 6-foot-8 Devonne Giles. Jordan Farmar, UCLA’s 170-pound point guard, exhaled audibly as he was sandwiched by 185-pound Ronald Ross and 185-pound Jarrius Jackson, both guards.

After the Bruins’ first NCAA appearance in three seasons, and with the welts and bruises to support it, Coach Ben Howland said he had one suggestion for his freshmen -- Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo Mata -- and for his two 7-foot juniors, Hollins and Michael Fey: “Get in the weight room.”

Farmar, though, had his head up after Thursday’s definitive 78-66 loss to the Red Raiders in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Even though the Bruins led only once -- 2-0 against Oregon State -- in their last two games and weren’t really close to winning in the first round of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament, either, no one wanted to look anywhere but into the gym.

“I know within myself I can work harder,” Farmar said. “So I can play 40 minutes like Texas Tech guards did. They’re in great shape, great physical condition, their bodies are in great shape.”

Farmar, Afflalo and Shipp all averaged more than 30 minutes a game during the last two months, and Howland said lack of depth had been one of UCLA’s big problems. In practice, Farmar had no true point guard to work against. And when senior guard Brian Morrison came up lame after bruising a thigh, he played only 17 minutes against Texas Tech.

“That really hurt us,” Howland said.

UCLA has a five-man freshman class scheduled to arrive next fall and will get back point guard Cedric Bozeman, a fifth-year senior who sat out this season after having knee surgery. Two of the big men will be given opportunities to play significant minutes.

Ryan Wright, 6-9 and 225 pounds, averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds this season for Loyola Catholic in suburban Toronto. Wright told Hoop Life, a Canadian basketball publication, that he needed to put on weight.

“In high school, I’m able to body some guys and do whatever I want, dunk on them under the net and stuff,” he said. “At the next level, guys aren’t going to let you do that. So I’ve got to get really physical and improve my weight.”

Alfred Aboya, 6-7 and 240 pounds, struggled in the middle of his season at Tilton Prep in New Hampshire after he’d gone home to Cameroon in Africa to visit his sick brother. Aboya missed three weeks of the season and came back having lost about 10 pounds.

However, last week in the New Hampshire playoffs, he had 34 points and 21 rebounds to help his sixth-seeded team upset the third-seeded team in the quarterfinals.

Also joining the Bruins will be two players who led their teams to CIF Southern Section championships -- point guard Darren Collison from Etiwanda and swingman Mike Ross of Aliso Niguel. They will be joined by 6-7, 190-pound Luc Richard Mbaha a Moute, also from Cameroon and playing at a Florida high school.

“Practice is going to be a lot better because we’ll have more healthy bodies out there,” Farmar said. “We’ll be able to compete in practice.”

Howland can only hope he will need to play Fey and Hollins fewer minutes next season. Neither offered toughness in the post, and neither showed the ability to routinely catch the ball and shoot without dribbling or traveling.

Hollins, a high jumper in high school, wasn’t able to do any serious weight training last summer after having knee surgery.

“I hope Ryan can get stronger this summer,” Howland said.

The Bruins will also need to replace Thompson’s scoring. The senior averaged more than 18 points a game and scored 20 points or more 11 times.