T.J. Leaf keys UCLA offense inside and out

LOS ANGELES — As both college basketball and the NBA have evolved in recent years, it’s become more and more important to have, or develop, a stretch four.

The position is almost exactly what it sounds like: A player with the size and strength to be a good post-up player but also the shooting ability to be a consistent perimeter threat, too.

Exhibit A: UCLA freshman T.J. Leaf, a quintessential stretch four.

Leaf is so valuable to the Bruins because of his versatility — and how he makes UCLA one of the nation’s hardest offenses to game plan against.

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“You can stick him in the post when teams go four guards against us,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said. “A lot of teams can play four guards against you, and the guard might be able to guard that stretch four out on the perimeter. But with T.J., if you go four guards against us, we can post you — and guards can’t guard him in the post. Big guys have enough trouble guarding him in the post. … I think we're almost impossible to — it's really hard for teams to play four guards against us, because you have to put one of those guards on T.J. (because the one big would have to cover UCLA center Thomas Welsh).

“T.J. is so skilled inside. He's an elite rebounder. His second jump is ridiculous. He handles the ball well, so if he gets a rebound he doesn't outlet it; he can bring the ball up as a point forward. He's so versatile of how we can use him and he's been so efficient for us.”

Leaf, like many kids who fall in love with basketball before a big growth spurt in high school, grew up as a guard, a shooter, a perimeter guy. When he did grow, his father encouraged him to keep that skill set while polishing an inside game to go along with it — even if the inside game felt uncomfortable at first.

Leaf, a five-star prospect, quickly realized how valuable his blended skill set was during his recruitment.

“When you can do multiple things like that, it just makes you more of a hot commodity,” Leaf said.

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This season, Leaf leads UCLA — one of the nation’s most efficient offenses — in scoring (16.2 ppg), rebounding (8.2 rpg), field goal percentage (61.6%) and three-point shooting percentage (45.6%), though he rarely attempts more than four threes per game.

Though teammate and fellow freshman Lonzo Ball is the big name on this year’s UCLA team — and you hear about him almost daily because of his whatever new outrageous claim his father has made to the media — Leaf has been just as important to the Bruins’ success, particularly on the offensive end.

And, against a long, talented Kentucky team, he could be the key to a Bruins victory. He was the first time the two teams met, back in December — Leaf’s 17 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and a block helped UCLA to a 97-92 win at Rupp Arena.

Expect more of the same, if UCLA wants the same result this time around, too.

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