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  DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior point guard Earl Watson has been the heart and soul of the men's basketball team for the past four years.

By AJ Cadman

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Tough does not begin to describe Earl Watson.

Born and raised in Kansas City – the second youngest of six children – Watson knows what the “little guy” has to go through. He has gone through the hardship and the bumps and bruises that the youngest male sibling must endure.

“Being the youngest of five boys, of course I took a lot of physical beatings growing up,” Watson said with a smile.

That toughness helped Watson start all 126 games thus far in his UCLA career. He will tie Don MacLean’s school record for starts with Thursday’s game.

His injury report tells only part of the story of how much Watson has endured at UCLA.

Freshman year, it was a concussion at Washington State. Sophomore year saw a severely bruised left knee versus Washington, a bad cut between his middle and ring finger in a game against Stanford and a right elbow laceration he received while diving for a loose ball against San Francisco. Junior year brought Watson laser surgery on his left eye from a cut sustained during the NCAA Tournament.

In his final season, and perhaps finest hour in Westwood, Watson has bruised his hip at Arizona State and cut open his chin and the top of his head against the Bay Area schools while leading the Bruins to a No. 4 seed in the 2001 NCAA Tournament

The journey has been rough, and that’s the way Watson wants it.

“I know I am going to get hurt and expect it,” Watson explained. “I play very physical. I’m lucky, though, that I haven’t had anything serious that could end my career.”

“I feel I can play through anything,” he added. “I have a high tolerance for pain and that’s why it’s easy for me to just keep on playing.

His teammates say no situation is impossible with Watson beside them.

“He’s a warrior,” said fellow senior guard Ryan Bailey. “He’s always going to give you 100 percent, regardless of the score. That’s why I don’t mind going anywhere with him, no matter the environment we go to play in. I know that Earl is going to have my back.”

It has been a career in which he set the school record for steals and led his team to a fourth consecutive 20-win season. With an overall collegiate record of 88-38, Watson is only the seventh two-time captain in the programs’ 81 year history.

Wearing his heart on his jersey for each and every game, Watson is the triggerman in the Bruins’ hopes for a national championship. He is a senior leader who has the ability to change the momentum of a game with his playmaking ability. His teammates heed their floor general and stand ready for battle on his command.

“During the game, when we huddle up, he helps us out and gives us inspiration,” said junior guard Billy Knight, Watson’s roommate. “For the new guys, it starts from the summertime and fall basketball when you get here. You know to listen up to Earl.”

Apparently, the Bruins have been paying attention, and it has translated into an optimism that this year’s team can make a deep run into the postseason.

“It’s been very different this year,” Watson said. “We’ve been more consistent this year as far as the Pac-10 is concerned. We just want to stay sharp and be focused and have an edge going into the Tournament.”

“Anytime you have a leader that sets a good example, then the rest of the guys have to follow,” added senior guard Jason Flowers. “If they don’t follow, then the team is not going to win.”

For the piston that makes the UCLA motors run, it’s more than just strategy and skill that have allowed Watson to persevere and gain the respect of his teammates, coaches and the world of college basketball.

“Pure determination. It’s a will to play,” Watson said. “I love basketball and I don’t want to leave my career wishing I could play one more game. I want to be able to say I played every game I could.

“I’ve been like that since I was young, playing outside with my brothers. I love the game so much; my passion is so strong.”

The coach who didn’t miss the somewhat overlooked Watson in high school, Bruin Head Coach Steve Lavin, gets excited just talking about his senior leader.

“The first time we saw him we were looking at JaRon Rush and Korleone Young on a Kansas City AAU team,” Lavin said. “And the more we kept seeing them, the more we fell in love with Earl’s game.

“Without Earl the following summer (that same team) lost every tournament they had easily won the year before.”

Watson is as close to a go-to player one can find in college basketball. He craves the ball in tense situations and thrives when the game is on the line.

Of course, nothing should stress him out more – or make his blood boil hotter – than March Madness.

“Somehow the tournament brings out the best in everyone. The tournament definitely brings out the best in me,” Watson said. “When I get into that arena, I just feel something different. I can’t even describe it.”

“I have never seen a player like that,” Knight said. “He reminds me a little of a Jordan-type player in terms of desire that can turn it on like that. He can get really mad and just start playing really hard.

“It makes me just want to play harder and play the same way.”

It’s been a challenge his final season, knowing that the book to his college career was slowly closing and feeling the pressure to take this team to the Final Four. Not for the glory, but because he feels they can.

“There’s no team that I, or this team, fears,” Watson said. “Our problems don’t come from the court but from not being on the same page mentally. Physically, the body will follow.”

Watson has had the team playing their best when the chips were stacked against them. He guided them into Maples Pavilion his last two seasons and helped UCLA defeat a No. 1-ranked Stanford team two years in a row. On his last performance at home in Pauley Pavilion, in front of a sellout crowd which included his parents Earl and Stell, he almost helped UCLA do the impossible: defeat a top-ranked team twice in one season.

To those close to Watson, it’s the rare intangibles that may take him to the next level.

“Hopefully, I can follow my dreams and go to the NBA and have a good career,” Watson said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but I love to work hard anyway. It’s always been the key to everything and it’s why I think I have been successful.”

“I told him in one of the first conversations I had with him that he could be like (former Philadelphia 76er) Maurice Cheeks,” Lavin said. “He can be that silent floor leader that doesn’t always do the spectacular but does the simple things that help you win games.

“There’s no question he has the ability to play in the NBA.”

A thief on the court, Watson will continue to steal every game he can in the postseason to keep his career going and continue playing with the people he considers lifelong friends. The people he has met and the friendships he has formed at UCLA are things no one will be able to take away from him.

“For four years, Earl and I have battled everyday,” Bailey said. “On the court, it’s such a bond. There’s no jealousy that we play the same position. It’s a love for each other that we’re happy for the other when we succeed.”

Success comes with hard work. You don’t have to tell Earl Watson that work is tough.

EARL WATSON STATS SOURCE: UCLA MEDIA GUIDE Original graphic by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by CHRISTINE TAN/Daily Bruin