August 5, 2007

UCLA's Mata, Roll team up with Oregon's Taylor for friendly competition at summer league
Joining forces

By Jeffrey Dransfeldt

HOLLYWOOD — Lorenzo Mata leads the fastbreak. Michael Roll passes up an open 3-pointer for a foray to the hoop. Bryce Taylor takes a Mata pass and flies for a one-handed dunk.

Exchange the conventional for the unconventional when it comes to summer league play in the Say No Classic, an NCAA-approved summer league at The Point. The competitiveness of a Oregon-UCLA matchup is absent, replaced by friendships born from years playing together growing up.

The mild-mannered Taylor of Oregon joined Franchise Boys, which features the Bruins’ Mata and Roll and is coached by Rico Cabrera Jr.

The Pacific-10 trio helped the team roll to a 97-62 blowout of Hoosier Daddy. UCLA alumni Jordan Farmar and Aaron Afflalo watched from the sideline.

“It’s just fun, really,” Taylor said. “It’s more just playing with your friends than really competitive. Even when Pac-10 season comes around, you’re competing with other schools, but you’re still going to be friends with the guys that you know on the other teams.”

Roll has been using the summer league expanding his offensive game and disproving scouting reports that he’s only a jump shooter by attacking the basket and taking turns bringing the ball up court.

He has shown during the league he has the ability to take it to the basket.

“I’m going to try and do other things to help (UCLA) out and this is the time to work on it and people are getting the chance to see it now,” Roll said.

The league, which features players from Division I powers UCLA and North Carolina, also has players from the mid-majors Cal State Fullerton and Santa Clara, along with community college players who are trying to show they belong.

“Everybody in the whole league, they see the Pac-10 (guys) and they always want to prove their worth and show that they might be better,” Roll said. “We always get people’s best shots in the league.”

The bruising Mata, who will be a senior, is trying to improve on his free-throw shooting, which was woeful for the Bruins last season.

He’s had mixed results this summer, making 19 of 35 from the line in eight games.

“He’s really been concentrating,” Cabrera said. “He’s worked on his form and his technique.”

Mata, who had his jersey ripped on a drive to the hoop during the win over Hooiser Daddy, showed his chemistry with Taylor, running a pick and roll with the Southern California native, taking a pass and dunking the ball. The game’s outcome secure late in the game, Mata flipped a no-look pass to a cutting Taylor, who elevated for a crowd-pleasing, one-handed dunk.

Taylor, a starting guard for Oregon, made likely his only appearance of the summer, but he made it a memorable one.

The 6-foot-5 Taylor had a game-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

“Bryce commands a lot of respect from almost everyone in the gym and in the area and across the country,” Cabrera said. “He just welcomes the moment much as he did when he was here at Harvard-Westlake for the big game.”

Mata and Taylor were teammates on the Amateur Athletic Union team, Pump ’n’ Run, in spring and summer of 2003. Taylor played with Roll on Hanks Franchise Boys last year.

“We just know how each other plays,” Taylor said. “Mike’s a shooter. I can do a bit of everything, but just try to play the right way pretty much. It’s summer league. No one’s taking it too seriously, but at the same time you want to play hard and show what you can do.”

All three — Roll, Mata and Taylor — met in an early Pac-10 matchup lastJanuary. Oregon, coming off its first loss of the season in an 84-82 upset to USC, gave UCLA its first loss of the season, 68-66.

“It was big,” Taylor said. “It just gave us confidence. It let us know we were for real and what we had to build off of.”

UCLA returned the favor in February in Los Angeles, but months later, the trio was together again on the same court, sharing the basketball and complimenting each afterward. It’s a sight fans might not expect from opponents within the Pac-10.

“I believe so,” said the soft-spoken Mata when asked if Taylor’s improved. “He’s probably one of the contenders for Pac-10 Player of the Year.”