Jrue Holiday of UCLA Unsuitable for NBA Draft

(Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

Jrue Holiday has declared that he will stay in the NBA 2009 draft, and forgo the remaining three years of his college eligibility at UCLA, under premier coach Ben Howland. 

Coach Howland is forced to put a good spin on the circumstances, or risk alienating UCLA's recruiting base. 

But one has to wonder what could have been at UCLA for Jrue and what will transpire over the premature inception of his professional career.

Jrue Holliday's amateur basketball career has been more choreographed than the Bolshoi Ballet's Carmen Suite.  The 19-year old's Campbell Hall high school and AAU Pump n' Run acrobatic slam-dunks and alley-oops are well documented on Youtube.com and Ballislife.com.  At 6'3", 180 lbs., Jrue was ranked the number-two high school recruit by both Scout.com and Rivals.com.  He received the Gatorade 2008 National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award. 

Anchoring UCLA's No. 1-ranked NCAA Men's Basketball Recruiting Class of 2008, expectations for Jrue were stellar.  Yet his freshman year performance was mediocre on a UCLA team that underperformed expectations.  UCLA began 2008 ranked No. 4, but could not hold onto a Top 10 ranking during the regular and were beaten in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in the second round by Villanova. 

Jrue's numbers during this season do not inspire awe: 8.5 ppg with a total of 296 points for the season, only enough for the number five rank on his team.  The rest of his box score is equally underwhelming: 45 percent field-goal average, 3.8 rpg, 3.7 apg, 2.1 TOs, and 1.6 steals.  Still, they were respectable enough to earn him All-Pac-10 Freshman Team Honors.

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