YOUNG SEEKS TURNING POINT UCLA SENIOR FINDS WAY, BUT NOT AT SHOOTING GUARD.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

One day this summer when he was playing pickup games with a court full of NBA All-Stars, Ray Young passed up one too many jumpers. It earned him a tongue-lashing from Kobe Bryant.

``He got mad because I wasn't as aggressive as I should have been,'' Young said. ``Once I heard that, I stopped thinking. It was bombs away.''

And just like that, Young rained 3-pointers and drove into the lane to sink mid-range jumpers.

Which begs a question that has haunted Young since he arrived at UCLA five years ago as a high school All-American: If he looks at home on the same court as Bryant, Baron Davis, Jerry Stackhouse and Paul Pierce, why can't he look like he belongs on the same floor with Curtis Millage?

Somewhere in Ray Young - past the smooth release, the pogo-stick hops and the physique of an NFL receiver - it seems there is a basketball player waiting to come out.

Not a poser. Not a guy who looks good in layup lines. But a real player.

Young has spent his entire career displaying only flashes of the form that made him one of the top three recruits on the West Coast as a high school senior - a shade behind Richard Jefferson, now with the New Jersey Nets, and ahead of Tayshaun Prince, now with the Detroit Pistons.

Mostly he's been a disappointment, a player whose shooting percentage has declined each season - all the way to 34.8 this year - and whose basketball IQ often appears even lower.

Yet all the unfulfilled expectations have done little to shake Young's confidence. He's always believed he is just one game away from finding his game. Finally, after Thursday's 76-75 overtime victory over California, he thinks he might have discovered it.

Young, a 6-foot-3 senior shooting guard, was plugged into the starting lineup at point guard, replacing injured Cedric Bozeman. If he wasn't the second coming of Magic Johnson, at least he didn't look like David Copperfield.

Young scored a season-high 18 points, including two rare 3-pointers, and added four assists and five rebounds in his best game of the season.

The night wasn't without its problems - he missed a dunk and two critical free throws in overtime, and he fired a what-are-you-thinking jumper with just over a minute left in regulation.

But it was - or could be - a start.

Young again will be in the lineup this afternoon against No. 20 Stanford, which will be trying for its sixth consecutive victory at Pauley Pavilion.

``I'm a point guard in the making,'' Young said with a smile Thursday night. ``I'll have to call Earl (Watson, his former teammate now with the Memphis Grizzlies) and get some pointers.

``I'm a two-guard by heart. I'm still working on it. I need to work on my ballhandling and my decision-making and getting my teammates better shots. There's been a lot of great point guards to come through here. I'm just glad to have the opportunity and to get a win.''

Indeed, Young seems like an unlikely candidate to play the point. He struggles to handle the ball with his left hand, and his decision-making often leaves more than the coaching staff groaning.

Two years ago, when he pump-faked a 22-footer while the Bruins were holding the ball for the last shot of the half against Villanova, the entire student section at Pauley Pavilion shouted: ``Noooooooo!''

At times, Young looks more intent on performing - like the leg-splayed, one-handed rebound he snatched against Cal - than making plays.

Those who see Young when he's not wearing a UCLA jersey aren't surprised by the good things he did Thursday. They only wonder why he doesn't do it more often.

``Ray knows he's capable of doing that every night,'' said forward T.J. Cummings. ``You could see his swagger is back. We've pretty much been waiting on Ray. There's too much stuff in his game.''

That stuff - the good stuff, anyway - also was on display this summer, when Young and Cummings were among the Bruins who would join a group of NBA all-stars for workouts at Memorial Park and St. Monica High in Santa Monica.

Neil Olshey, a shooting coach who runs workouts for clients of agent Arn Tellum, said Young worked extremely hard in the offseason and showed enough in the workouts that he was on the radar of NBA scouts at the beginning of the season.

``He was a different player over the summer,'' Olshey said.

Young was confident enough after a while to bark right back at Bryant.

``I was fouling him and being real aggressive and he got chatting,'' Young said. ``We kind of went at it. Kobe talked to me a lot. He taught me a lot; it was almost like a road map. He'd have a move and a countermove and then another countermove.

``You've got to understand, there's a difference between the pro and the college game. I think I'm more suited to the pro game. When I play with those guys, I hit the open shots and create when I can. I'm more of an open-floor kind of guy. Sometimes here I think too much and force things.

``I'm still trying to find my niche, but I know I've got a lot of basketball left in me.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Despite his struggles, UCLA senior Ray Young might have found a home at point guard.

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

(2) UCLA guard Ray Young switched from shooting guard to point guard Thursday against Cal, and the results were surprising: 18 points, four assists and five rebounds.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer