UCLA Basketball: Ranking And Rating The Players In Bruins’ 8-Man Rotation

6. Travis Wear. Rating: 64

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Travis Wear had an ever-increasing role as soon as UCLA center Josh Smith walked away from the basketball program. Since that time, Wear has had to absorb nearly all available minutes at the pivot.

That, to a degree, has been a disaster. Wear’s rebounding skills are incredibly off and it’s maddening watching him crashing the boards.

Even further, he takes far too many shots, and most of those are long-range jumpers which are contested. Travis Wear has, in summation, been pretty sloppy in quite a few areas.

Defensively, he lets the guards blow past him and isn’t very active down low, often getting bullied by more aggressive, yet smaller, centers.

7. David Wear. Rating: 63

Everything that’s been said about David Wear is applicable to Travis Wear, although David plays the 5 far less than Travis does.

David Wear takes similar shots compared to Travis and has laughably similar rebounding skills, as he’s often out-hustled for boards. Defensively, he gets beat just as easily and is bullied even more often than his brother is.

Boy, I should’ve just copied Travis Wear’s summary.

8. Tony Parker. Rating: 59

It’s entirely unfair to stick Tony Parker as the worst player in this rotation, but there’s no denying that his performance has been disappointing.

Once again, though, that’s on UCLA coach Ben Howland, who has been reluctant to play Parker when he wasn’t required to (i.e., when Josh Smith was playing the pivot for UCLA). Parker is played sparingly, even with an incredibly short-handed UCLA squad requiring more of his minutes.

He’s the eighth man in UCLA’s rotation and despite his activity down low, despite his defensive aggressiveness, he’s somehow getting less minutes than the Wear twins. Injury has contributed to this, but marginally so.

Ben Howland will need to learn to play his pieces better if he’s going to keep his job.