Could moving Eric Dailey Jr. to small forward help | College News

UCLA’s basketball group would possibly downshift its lineup in an attempt to hasten success.

Eric Dailey Jr. mentioned Wednesday that the plan subsequent season was for him to transfer to small forward, which might presumably entail Tyler Bilodeau switching to energy forward to take Dailey’s vacated spot.

“It’s my natural position,” Dailey mentioned after a identify, image and likeness occasion on the scholar store on campus. “We kind of played a little small-ball with Tyler at the five last year and with our new recruits coming in, we’ve got more size at the forward and power forward positions.”

The departures of Kobe Johnson and Lazar Stefanovic have created a void that Dailey would possibly fill. But a lineup that includes the 6-foot-8 Dailey at small forward and 6-9 Bilodeau at energy forward would need a new middle. The Bruins introduced in switch large males Xavier Booker from Michigan State and Steven Jamerson II from San Diego to man the center after the departures of Aday Mara and William Kyle III.

Other choices to play small forward may embrace redshirt freshman Eric Freeny, sophomore Trent Perry, redshirt sophomore Brandon Williams and Jamar Brown, a switch from Missouri-Kansas City.

A naturally gifted scorer who can create his own shot, Dailey recommended that defending smaller gamers than he did as a energy forward final season wouldn’t be an subject, particularly since he performed all 5 positions as a freshman at Oklahoma State.

“It’s really the same for me,” mentioned Dailey, who averaged 11.4 factors and 4.0 rebounds final season for the Bruins, who completed 23-11 after shedding to Tennessee within the second spherical of the NCAA match. “What y’all don’t know is I played guard my whole life — I actually played point guard, I played shooting guard, really until college and I started playing the forward position just because of my height, but [coach Mick] Cronin has seen me play the guard position before and he knows I can do it. Being that wing, just being in transition and flying around defensively is my job here.”

The Bruins may do every part quicker subsequent season after touchdown Donovan Dent, the Mountain West Conference participant of the yr who was maybe the highest level guard within the switch portal. The newcomer shortly impressed his new teammates final week during a campus go to.

“He’s a very down-to-earth, humble guy, and he really just wants to work,” Perry mentioned. “You guys have seen it [when Donovan helped New Mexico beat the Bruins in November] — downhill playmaking, can shoot the ball, and so he’s going to be a great addition.”

Said Dailey: “Definitely that factor we need that can get downhill and spray the ball out to shooters and find guys and push the ball up the court.”

Perry indicated that he was prepared to put within the work needed to take a huge leap in manufacturing after averaging 3.7 factors in 11.4 minutes per recreation final season.

“Everybody had high expectations of me possibly going to the [NBA] draft this year, me possibly playing more, you know, what-ifs,” Perry mentioned, “but it didn’t happen because I was behind D.A. [Dylan Andrews], I was behind Skyy [Clark] and I learned from it; I had to stay patient, I had to keep working, keep my head down, so the biggest jump for me is just basically staying locked in. You know, I know what I can do, I know I can impact the game, but I’m going to have to do that at a high level next year. … I’ve got to produce three times as much as I did this year.”

Expectations are high for UCLA subsequent season each internally and externally — ESPN ranked the Bruins No. 14 nationally after the switch portal closed this week.

“We just want to improve what we’ve already built,” Dailey mentioned. “We’ve got the same core, we’ve got some added pieces and we’re really going to kick things off this next year. It’s going to be bigger.”

That may additionally embrace the starter at small forward.