Bruin stands tall in role as point guard

  NICOLE MILLER/ Daily Bruin Natalie
Nakase is in her third year in the women’s basketball
program. She is currently the starting point guard for the
Bruins.

By Mayar Zokaei
Daily Bruin Contributor

Chances are, UCLA women’s basketball player Natalie Nakase
was referred to by several monikers during high school.

Shrimp. Tiny. Short Stuff. Starting guard.

For the first two years of college, however, the fourth
attribution served only as a figment of the walk-on’s past.
That is, until fate brushed its mystic hand and Nakase, all five
feet, two inches of her, was thrust into the starting lineup for
the preseason No. 19 team in the nation.

It is a role she doesn’t plan on relinquishing anytime
soon.

“She’s done a real good job at taking a leadership
role,” UCLA women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier
said. “She’s learned a lot from sitting on the bench.
She does some real positive things out there for us.”

The way Nakase acquired her role wasn’t exactly a changing
of the guards. It was more like exodus of the back court.

Erica Gomez, last year’s point guard, graduated.

Nicole Kaczmarski, the freshman phenom who alternated between
both guard spots last season, is taking the quarter off.

And LaCresha Flannigan is academically ineligible.

All that was left was Nakase, Michelle Greco, Jalina Bradley and
a lot of learning.

Greco had the most experience, and Nakase had the most
heart.

“What she lacks in size she makes up for in heart,”
Olivier said. “She’s just a workhorse.”

Good friend Greco agrees.

Even though she’s (5-foot-2), she doesn’t play like
(5-foot-2),” Greco said. “She plays like size
doesn’t matter.”

Few shorter players would list someone tall as their favorite
player, but Nakase isn’t exactly your conventional small
guard. The diminutive guard ironically lists Magic Johnson, the
tallest true point guard in the history of the NBA, as her favorite
player.

But not her idol.

“I might idolize a person’s skills, but I
don’t idolize them,” Nakase said. “If I
don’t know them (personally), I can’t really idolize
them.”

Nakase’s play during her time at Marina High in Huntington
Beach earned her four letters, numerous all-league and all-state
selections, a CIF championship, two league titles and several
school records.

In basketball parlance, she had game.

Unfortunately, most major colleges, including UCLA, overlooked
her skills and accomplishments, and considered only one measurement
of her game ““ her height.

“She actually kind of recruited us,” Olivier said.
“UCLA was the place she wanted to be, and I told her she
could come to our team as a walk-on. Now she’s become a
scholarship athlete.”

It wasn’t as if Nakase was totally snubbed. Cal State
universities wouldn’t leave her alone, and after her banner
year in 1998, UC Irvine became a suitor as well. But Nakase knew
where she wanted to be.

“It’s always been my dream to play here,”
Nakase said. “A lot of people don’t believe me. They
say, “˜You must do gymnastics.’

“They really don’t believe me, I guess, because of
my height. I tell them to come to our games and watch.”

What others would consider a deficiency, Nakase considers a
blessing. In fact, she relishes the fact that she’s
short.

“I am able to use my quickness, and it was an advantage in
high school,” she said. “In college, I’ve noticed
the taller (guards) are easier to get by because they’re
slower.

“Tall people are just slow.”

Nakase, a psychology major, hopes to parlay her experience as a
point guard, essentially a coach on the floor, into a future as a
coach. But she wants to enjoy her time as a Bruin first.

“I love the sport and I love to win. The sport is very
physical and being my height and going against the standards really
motivates me.

“Size just doesn’t matter.”

With contributions by Scott Schultz, Daily Bruin
Contributor.