UCLA Basketball: Aaron Holiday officially declares for the NBA Draft

UCLA basketball’s junior point guard, Aaron Holiday, has officially declared for the draft and will forego his final season of eligibility with the Bruins.

What has been assumed all season long is now a reality as the UCLA basketball team is losing their leader from this past season as Aaron Holiday took to Twitter to announce that he is leaving Westwood after three seasons and entering the 2018 NBA Draft.

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After having his best season with the Bruins, Holiday is taking his knowledge of the game to the pros where he is expected to be taken in the first round.

Holiday has been the heart and soul of the Bruins this past season. After coming off the bench for Lonzo Ball in 2016-17 (which came a season after he started along side Bryce Alford), Holiday led the Bruins into battle as the floor general in 2017-18.

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It was an inconsistent season for the team which started with drama in China and ended with controversy surrounding UCLA’s coach Steve Alford, but none of that seemed to phase Holiday. Bruins fans knew that the junior would play every contest with everything he had.

On the season, Holiday averaged 20.3 points, 5.8 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game, the best season stats of his career. Holiday also had the most points per game in the Pac-12, rightly making him a candidate for Pac-12 Player of the Year (that honor went to Arizona’s Deandre Ayton).

Holiday had led the Bruins through the up-and-down season, though many of the peaks would not have happened without the point guard leading the way. Despite the fourth place finish in the Pac-12, UCLA was able to beat Arizona in Tucson and took both games form crosstown rival USC. They even took out Kentucky in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Holiday was key figure in all of these games.

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After all of this, Holiday is now ready to take his talents to the next level and though this was expected, UCLA fans in general are sad to see him go after three years in blue and gold. Go get’em, Aaron!