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By Jeff Agase

DAILY BRUIN STAFF

jagase@media.ucla.edu

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Matt Barnes (left) was a power forward for four years at UCLA, but might play primarily at small forward with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It didn’t take Dan Gadzuric long to start talking like an NBA player.

Two days after the former Bruin center went to the Milwaukee Bucks with the 34th pick, he was wielding humble optimism like the most loquacious of NBA veterans.

“I think I’m in a really good situation,” Gadzuric said. “It seems like if I work hard and do the things I need to do, I’ll have a good opportunity to play.”

Gadzuric’s analysis isn’t as cookie-cutter as it may sound. Though the talent-laden Bucks missed the playoffs by a single game, their lack of inside presence became a liability that ultimately contributed to their bottoming-out in the concluding months of the season.

Milwaukee centers combined to score just 9.9 points per game.

So while TNT analyst Charles Barkley was jabbering about the size of his own belly, Milwaukee management was patting itself on the back, delighted to see the big man from Den Haag, Holland slip into the second round.

“When that happened, everybody was excited,” Bucks coach George Karl told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Naturally, Gadzuric would have preferred the guaranteed contract commensurate with a first-round selection. Two roster spots are likely to be open, but he’ll have to fight his characterization as a “project.”

“It’s just another thing for me to work hard at and concentrate on, and I think I’ll grow stronger from it,” Gadzuric said.

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Dan Gadzuric, dunking here against Cal March 7, was drafted 34th by Milwaukee.

Pauley Pavilion patrons remember Gadzuric as a typically unpredictable yet occasionally hegemonic presence. Hampered by tendonitis in his knee during his first two seasons at UCLA, and eternally haunted by poor free throw shooting, Gadzuric managed to rise when least expected to.

Near the end of the 2000-01 season, his ankle was in a cast on the morning of a home game against Arizona, but went 41 minutes with 22 points and 17 rebounds in the Bruins’ 79-77 overtime upset win.

Gadzuric is hoping that his conditioning over the last two seasons and relatively injury-free play will put at least one recurring NBA concern to rest.

“Everybody has health problems in some kind of way,” he said. “But it depends on how you recover and on how fast you recover. I can jump, and my knees don’t bother me anymore.”

Matt Barnes also ended up on an NBA team, though his path took a slight detour. After the Memphis Grizzlies selected him with the 46th choice, he was traded, along with veteran Nick Anderson, to Cleveland for Wesley Person.

As the Bruins’ starting power forward for the last two years, Barnes blossomed into a more complete player after developing a respectable three-point shot and earned Sports Illustrated National and Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week honors last season.

But like former USC center Sam Clancy, the Pac-10 Player of the Year who went right before with the 45th pick, Barnes is something of a “’tweener.”

Many believe he is too small to play power forward and still in need of the precise outside game of a small forward, but Barnes’ intensity and athleticism were attractive to NBA scouts looking for second round options.

“It’s been a long process, learning a lot of different things,” Barnes told the Orange County Register. “Now it’s here in the present, and you’ve got to make the best of your situation.”

•••

UCLA announced Friday that Ryan Hollins, a 6-foot-11-inch, 210-pound center/forward from Pasadena’s John Muir High School, has signed a Grant-in-Aid to attend UCLA.

Hollins signed a national letter of intent with Saint Louis University last November but requested he be released from it when head coach Lorenzo Romar left for Washington.

Saint Louis granted Hollins a qualified release, which would allow him to play for UCLA but force him to sit out the 2002-03 season. He has applied for a complete release from his NLI, and if it is granted, will be an eligible freshman this fall.

Hollins averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots per game as a senior.

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