• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

UCLA freshman Lisa Willis has emerged as one of the team’s top on-ball defenders. The forward has earned more playing time of late with her defensive intensity and marksmanship from behind the three-point line.

Lisa Willis has loved UCLA ever since she first picked up a basketball in the third grade.

Although two of her prep teammates at Narbonne High School, juniors Jessica Cheeks and Ebony Hoffman, currently start for the USC women’s basketball team, Willis chose to come to Westwood.

“I have wanted to come to UCLA for years,” the Bruin freshman said.

“I didn’t want to be in anybody’s shadow,” Willis said. “I feel like I’ve been under Ebony and Jessica’s wing a little bit.”

But that was hardly the reason Willis came to Westwood. Talking to other coaches during the recruiting process, she says, was simple. Five minutes was all she needed to thank them for their interest, but she always let them know that she would be wearing blue and gold come fall.

And Willis has proven more than just the fact that she can hold her own on the court. She brings both a very strong defensive presence and valuable offensive skills to UCLA’s program but also shares the court with eight other guards on the Bruin roster.

“I’m confident in my game,” Willis said. “I know that if I’m not playing, it’s about me, not another player.”

It is clear that UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier is confident in Willis’s game as well.

“Lisa’s a winner,” Olivier said. “She sneaks in there for rebounds ... and makes great decisions on the offensive end.”

Willis’s potential was clear from the beginning of this season when she came off the bench at the University of Hawaii tournament Nov. 23 and added 18 points, three of which came on UCLA’s only three-pointer. She is now surpassed in scoring only by senior guard Michelle Greco, freshman guard Nikki Blue and freshman forward Julia Pitts.

Willis’s defensive skills are likewise showing, as she is one of only six Bruins with double-digit defensive rebounds this season.

“A lot of people can score at this level,” she said. “(Coach Olivier) has been pushing my defense and my rebounding skills ... I guess it helps that I can defend.”

Yes, it does.

But what is most telling about this freshman is not her comprehensive court skills, but the sights she has set for herself and the entire squad.

“I want to win,” she said. “We’re on the rise – the freshmen are here to bring the program up. If we get recruits like this year, we’ll be looking really, really good.”

The next few years are indeed looking good for Willis, as her role on the Bruin team clearly has the opportunity to develop in multiple areas.

But regardless of the years ahead, she will never forget the hard work and hours it took to get here.

“I always wanted this – but I never knew for sure that these would be the hills I’d be walking to class on,” she said.

“I am so thankful that this is where I ended up. I feel blessed, really.”