There is a hop in his step, an insouciant unconcern in the way he throws himself onto the floor to corral a loose ball. All of a sudden, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has become UCLA's postseason secret weapon.
As third-ranked UCLA (28-3) fought back from double-digit deficits last week against both Stanford and California to finish off a Pacific 10 Conference regular-season championship, Bruins point guard Darren Collison noticed something.
"Luc's the real reason why we are winning these games," Collison said. "Everybody's talking about Kevin [Love], myself, Russell [Westbrook], Josh [Shipp], but Luc's the real reason. He doesn't get double-doubles those last two games? We don't win.
"If Luc's playing the way he's playing, I don't see a team that's going to beat us in the tournament."
The top-seeded Bruins begin the postseason this afternoon at Staples Center with their first game in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament. UCLA will play California, which defeated Washington, 84-81, on Wednesday.
It's not as though Mbah a Moute, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound junior forward, is an unknown player. That's what he was two years ago when he was chosen conference freshman of the year and drew rave reviews for his offensive rebounding energy and his defensive perseverance.
But he has struggled with various injuries the last two years. After averaging 9.1 points and 8.2 rebounds a game as a freshman, his numbers dropped to 8.2 points and 7.4 rebounds last season. This season, he is averaging nine points and 5.6 rebounds.
Mbah a Moute, 21, is still a relative neophyte when it comes to basketball. He didn't seriously play until he was 15.
He was into soccer and handball, sports more popular than basketball in his native Cameroon, and only picked up some desire for basketball because his older brother was playing. His father, Camille Moute a Bidias, a Cameroonian diplomat who traveled internationally, would bring home videotapes of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. Those tapes fed Mbah a Moute's passion.
"I was fascinated," Mbah a Moute said. "I started watching those videos of Michael Jordan and the sport seemed so different. I had never experienced something as beautiful like that."
Mbah a Moute has eight siblings -- five brothers, three sisters -- and he and an older brother cut the bottom of a basket, nailed the basket onto a wooden stick and propped the stick against a wall of the family home. It wasn't a peach basket and the ghost of Dr. James Naismith didn't appear, but every day Luc watched the videotapes of Jordan and tried to copy what he saw.
