Civil Defense

Scene I: Tired of Adam Morrison’s act, of his bumping and grabbing and trash-talking during an NCAA tournament game last week, a UCLA player, his arms locked with the Gonzaga star, disdainfully yanks himself free with such force that he sends the All-America forward crashing to the floor.

Scene II: Saddened by the sight of Morrison, again on the floor, this time in tears and anguish after his team had been shocked by the Bruins, 73-71, a UCLA player leaves his wildly celebrating teammates to bend down and console him.

Vastly different scenes. Same UCLA player.

On a team that survived a season-long series of injuries that encompassed nearly the entire roster and has persevered to reach the Final Four, no one is a fiercer competitor than Arron Afflalo, the team’s leading scorer and defensive stopper.

Yet no one has proven more compassionate.

Two days after the Gonzaga game, the postgame scene was repeated. This time, the opponent was Memphis and the player devastated by a season-ending loss was Rodney Carney. But again the player consoling him was Afflalo.

That’s Afflalo, in your face when the game is on, in your corner when it’s over.

He was named, his father Ben said, for Aaron, the biblical figure who exhibited great strength in serving his brother, Moses, among the ancient Israelites. It was Afflalo’s mother, Gwen Washington, wanting to give her son a distinctive name, who decided to change the spelling to A-r-r-o-n.

“It makes me feel proud to see that he has grown up to be such a great man,” Ben Afflalo said, “so tough, yet so compassionate. It’s a heck of a combination.

“This compassion has always been in him. The [Morrison] thing was not calculated.”

*

Afflalo has been captivated by basketball since he was little more than a toddler. He was given a Laker video as a child and would watch it over and over again. The player he watched most closely was sharpshooting guard Byron Scott.

“He had a nice jump shot. Perfect form,” said Afflalo, smiling at the memory.

As Afflalo moved up the basketball ladder, from his backyard to youth leagues to Compton Centennial High, he never forgot Scott.

In tribute, Afflalo wore No. 4, Scott’s number, as he still does today.

Afflalo might have been ready to emulate his hero, but, when he first showed up at Centennial, his coach, Rod Palmer, wasn’t impressed.

“He was pudgy, kind of on the thick side, not real fast,” Palmer said. “He could never finish our preseason sprint in the required time, which always forced the whole team to run again. It was a struggle for him at the start.”

But not for long. Afflalo began to take basketball seriously, including weight training at school and at home.

“I can remember,” Ben Afflalo said, “being woken up by him at midnight to be his spotter [on the weights].”

Afflalo would also engage in furious one-on-one games with teammate Gabe Pruitt, who now engages in five-on-five games against Afflalo as a member of USC’s basketball team.

“He worked his behind off,” Palmer said of Afflalo, “in practice and staying afterward to go against Gabe.”

“Gabe loves to play basketball just like I do,” Afflalo said. “We would play, go eat, play some more, hang around, then play again.”

Afflalo went on to lead Centennial to the 2004 Division III state title.

And by then, his next basketball destination was already set.

When Ben Howland became UCLA’s head coach in 2003, he did his research, checked with his most trusted Southern California basketball sources, and decided that if he was to lift the then-struggling basketball program back to the heights it had once enjoyed, he needed two high school players as his foundation, a pair of guards who could become his dream backcourt: Afflalo and Jordan Farmar.

Howland wasn’t the only one trying to land Afflalo. Recruiters came from Syracuse, North Carolina and Kansas, but they never really had a chance.

Afflalo chose UCLA, and not only because Palmer, his high school coach, was a former Bruin.

Or because the Bruin basketball program had that great tradition.

Or because Howland was such a great recruiter.

Ultimately, Afflalo chose UCLA because he wanted to stay close to his father.

“Being next to your father,” Afflalo said, “you can’t put a value on that.”

*

Afflalo’s value to the Bruins in this, his sophomore season, has been incalculable. Heading into Saturday’s game against Louisiana State, he is averaging a team-high 16.2 points a game, has a team-high 80 three-point baskets, and has led the defense that has led UCLA into championship weekend.

Tall and rangy, short and shifty, it doesn’t matter. If a player, other than a true big man, leads his team in scoring, he can expect to spend his time on the court with Afflalo as his shadow -- an annoying shadow with long arms, quick moves and unflinching determination.

That determination sometimes works against Afflalo. When he went into a shooting slump earlier this season, Howland ordered him to take a few days off. Instead, Afflalo sneaked into Pauley Pavilion to work on his shot.

After scoring four points on one-for-nine shooting at Pauley Pavilion in a game against West Virginia, Afflalo came back to the court long after his teammates had left the building, and, with the cleanup crew and a few sportswriters for an audience, shot for more than hour, working out his frustration.

His shot back in order, his team back in gear, Afflalo is now focusing on the ultimate goal for this season.

“I don’t feel this program will be fully restored,” he said, “until we win a national championship.”

And if UCLA does, there will be probably be some disheartened player from the other team, head down, alone at midcourt, crushed at the sight of the Bruins on a ladder, cutting down their championship net.

Chances are, right beside him, commiserating, will be Arron Afflalo.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The first four

Arron Afflalo’s numbers in the NCAA tournament. Afflalo usually pulls the toughest defensive assignment:

*--* Opponent Result Min Pts Reb Ast Belmont W, 78-44 27 7 7 0 Alabama W, 62-59 36 13 2 1 Gonzaga W, 73-71 28 15 2 1 Memphis W, 50-45 35 15 3 0

*--*

* Afflalo led the Bruins with a 16.2 scoring average in the regular season.