Bruin Standout

The right one is light blue, the way water looks on those postcards from the South Pacific. The left one is olive green.

So unusual.

So fitting.

“No contacts,” Jason Kapono says of his eyes. “I’m just weird.

“I would do that,” he says of wearing non-matching contact lenses. “But this is natural.”

As opposed to, say, when Kapono, as the star basketball player at Artesia High in Lakewood, would wear tall socks, reaching to his knees, then short socks with two red stripes ringed near the top over those. Or when Kapono, now a freshman at UCLA, wore a headband just to be different.

Then there were the last two summers, when he bleached his dark hair blond, and the time he smacked Bruin Coach Steve Lavin on the butt while running back on defense after hitting a three-pointer, and the unexpected twists to the recruiting process that brought him to Westwood.

Unique.

Oh, and don’t forget his first season of college basketball.

At the midway point of the Pacific 10 schedule in what has been a disappointing UCLA season, Kapono has proven a rarity again, not merely living up to the star-in-the-making hype that greeted his arrival but also emerging as the most consistent, the most versatile and the most fundamentally sound Bruin.

Always has to be different.

There is a bit of the familiar in this original, though. Quirky in personality, in a fun-loving way, he is also given more to making the smart play than the flashy one. He’ll miss a slam dunk--it’ll be years before teammates let him off the hook for the botch that didn’t get over the front of the rim against Purdue--but make the right pass, move without the ball and exploit his versatility to where he can play four positions, all but center.

Capable on the post.

Deserving of respect handling the ball.

Dangerous on the perimeter.

Unusual. Very unusual.

“You never know what he’s going to do,” junior Rico Hines said of Kapono’s personality. “He’s not consistent in that way. But one thing he is consistent about is his game.”

Especially lately. In the last 13 games, heading into tonight’s critical meeting with USC that carries postseason implications for both teams, the 6-foot-7, 200-pounder is shooting 54.5% overall and 50% from behind the arc, and averaging 17.3 points. That has pushed his season numbers to 51.3%, 46.3% and 15.7, respectively, while joining Earl Watson as the only Bruin to have started all 20 games. His three-point percentage leads the conference.

“He may not have the super-athlete explosiveness or the quickness or the jumping ability,” Lavin said. “So out of necessity, he has developed a game that allows him to play at a high level and play within himself.”

That means being in control, another obvious skill. Maybe even the most obvious.

“What’s unusual is his poise and his confidence for a freshman,” Lavin said. “I think that’s what’s unique and distinguishes him from other freshmen. He has poise beyond his years, a basketball savvy, a basketball IQ.

“Usually, that’s something a player will gain in four years through trial and error and setback. By their junior or senior years, you expect your upperclassmen to have it. But he brings it to the table as a freshman. That’s what makes him unusual.”

What doesn’t?

Kapono didn’t even take a conventional path to UCLA, no matter that he had always had the interest to match the proximity, and that there were well-defined ties with Artesia because Ed and Charles O’Bannon had recently gone from Coach Wayne Merino’s program to Westwood. What he didn’t have the interest in was following--to become “part of a factory.” Big surprise.

The Bruins were also recruiting two other prominent forwards, Carlos Boozer and Kareem Rush, JaRon’s brother, and Kapono wanted to go someplace where he would get to play a lot as a freshman. So he narrowed his choices to Utah, Missouri and Arizona, then let the early signing period in November pass without a decision, the better to see how things played out around the country. UCLA seemed out of the picture.

That made it all the more a Bruin coup when they got him. Rarely has Kapono’s poise and composure been more evident. Rather than make an early commitment he was not comfortable with, he waited until the spring signing period. By then, Boozer had picked Duke, Missouri had signed Rush and made a coaching change, and Rick Majerus was listening to offers to leave Utah.

UCLA, in need of an emotional boost after the first-round tournament loss, got it with the upset victory, nailing down Kapono. He has taken it from there, quickly living up to the hype and becoming one of the most popular Bruins.

As if he could ever not be noticed.

*

USC at UCLA

Tonight, 7:30

TV: Fox Sports Net 2