"A couple of plays, I got frustrated out there," he said. "You have to brush that off."
So far, he has taken a similar approach to his college career as a whole, all the hype that surrounds him, the expectations that he will dazzle immediately and go straight to the NBA this summer.
Even as his shooting percentage dipped over the last few weeks, the kid was trying to stay patient.
Just like Dad
The Holidays are an athletic family. Shawn and Toya both played college ball and their eldest son, Justin, is a forward at Washington. Jrue Holiday, who also has a younger brother and sister, takes after his father.
"Dad's the quiet one," he said.
Back at Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, "Jrue was goofy like any kid who wants to have fun," basketball Coach Terry Kelly recalled. "As humble and gentle as anyone you would ever meet."
The kind of kid who swept the gym floor like everyone else and volunteered as student manager for the girls' tennis team, though it turns out he had ulterior motives.
"You really didn't have to do anything, just write down the scores," he explained. "I got out of school early. We traveled to Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. And there was so much food every day -- I never had to bring a snack to school."
The thing is, Kelly never saw Holiday get down. But over the course of four seasons, which included three state titles, he noticed something else.
"Jrue would get emotional on the floor," the high school coach said.
Not in an outlandish or obnoxious way, but enough that people around him knew. Yet, since arriving at UCLA, Holiday says he has tried to temper that part of his game.
Maybe it has something to do with the challenge of stepping up a level.
Or maybe it has been a reaction to Coach Ben Howland's style of basketball, tightly controlled, with a constantly rotating lineup.
"Coach obviously knows what he's doing," Holiday said, adding: "I'm not really the type to look for the glory or be the person who wants to be on the front cover of a magazine or the UCLA media guide."
But lately, he's been thinking about his high school days.
Getting mad
Over Christmas break, Holiday ran into an old friend, former Taft High star Calvin Haynes, who now plays for Oregon State. Haynes told him: You have to be more aggressive on offense.
A lot of people have been saying that.
"From coaches to old friends, guys I've played with," Holiday said. "Or just random people."
