Turning over a New Leaf

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – When UCLA came to Lexington on Dec. 3, all eyes were on the point-guard battle between star freshmen Lonzo Ball and De’Aaron Fox.

That won’t change Friday when the third-seeded Bruins (31-4) and second-seeded Wildcats (31-5) meet in the South Region semifinals at FedExForum, but plenty of Kentucky eyes will also be on another freshman that perhaps flew under the radar the first time.

“I remember he played really well,” said Kentucky freshman forward Wenyen Gabriel, who drew the starting assignment opposite Leaf in the two teams’ first matchup, a 97-92 UCLA win. “He was playing aggressive. He had a good game. I feel like it’s a little different. There’s no element of surprise this time.”

Leaf, a consensus five-star, top-25 ranked prospect coming out of high school, was able to fly under the radar a bit early in the year at UCLA thanks to Ball. Ball has been one of, if not the most talked about freshman in all of college basketball this season with his dazzling passes, court vision and poise.

Aiding Ball’s play has been the 6-foot-10 athletic, sweet-shooting Leaf.

“Well, I know what I can do on the court and quickly found out what TJ can do on the court,” Ball said Thursday. “We played in high school, I think he averaged like 40 and 20. I knew he would be a big help and Ike (Anigbogu) as well, and when you mix the young guys with the old guys and make something great, and that’s what we have.”

Kentucky quickly realized that in the two teams’ first matchup. Leaf scored 17 points in that game on 7-of-12 shooting, grabbed 13 rebounds, including four offensive rebounds, dished out five assists to two turnovers and had one block and one steal in 32 minutes.

“Well, he killed us on the backboard, too. It wasn’t just what he did, but he was more physical than we had expected,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said. “He drove the ball more than we expected. That includes our staff, too, now.”

In addition to Gabriel, Leaf also caught Kentucky senior forward Derek Willis a bit off guard. Willis, who played 22 minutes to Gabriel’s 17 on Dec. 3, said he didn’t take Leaf’s game for granted, but he also didn’t know the California native could do all the things he could do.

“He kind of surprised me in a sense,” Willis said of Leaf. “I feel like we played sort of similar, and he’s a good player. So just got to take it how it is, and I feel like we’re peaking at the right time. We’re playing really well, and a lot of us are playing the best basketball we’ve ever played. It’ll be a fun game tomorrow, though. It’ll be fun.”

Among those Wildcats who are playing their best basketball is Willis, who has started each of the past seven games and has become a much more well-rounded player. Including the Southeastern Conference Tournament, Willis is averaging 7.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game in postseason play. Since becoming a starter on Feb. 28, Willis has blocked 17 shots over the past seven games (2.4 per game).

Leaf, then, should be a great test for Willis and the rest of the Cats – many of whom insisted that the No. 1 reason they are different now than they were in December is their defense.

One of five finalists for the Karl Malone Award, given annually to the nation’s top power forward, Leaf leads the Bruins in scoring at 16.2 points per game and ranks 14th nationally in field-goal percentage at 61.6 percent. He leads UCLA with 11 double-doubles this season and has scored in double figures in every game but three (one of which he played just five minutes before exiting with an ankle injury). 

Additionally, Leaf is grabbing 8.2 rebounds per game and is dishing out 2.5 assists to go with his 1.1 blocks per game.

“I don’t know if it’s just for those guys, but we all want to win every time we set up on the court, especially a big matchup like this,” Leaf said. “We’re all very competitive and we don’t even think about losing. We just want to win. So, we’re just going to go out there and give it our all.”