Flowers Back for Second Try With Bruins

Jason Flowers is back where he started, but in a much different place.

He tried to walk on as a 5-foot-10, 150-pound, 17-year-old, realized he wasn’t ready, stayed at UCLA until the end of that freshman year, then transferred to UC Irvine. Flowers played two seasons for the Anteaters, earning a scholarship for the second, and then decided to try the Bruins again, even though it meant losing the scholarship, sitting out 1999-2000 as a transfer and coming to a situation where he probably will have a minor role at best next season.

He comes back, for now, as a body for practice, but also three years older, two inches taller and 35 pounds heavier. That comes with the emotional maturity of dealing with his mother’s illness and becoming a father.

“I’ve had the chance to start, I’ve had the chance to be on the cover of the schedule,” Flowers said. “It was all great. But this is something much bigger than that. It’s about winning a national championship, it’s about winning a conference championship. So even if I play four minutes all [next] year, it’ll be worth it.

“There’s not too many people, when all is said and done, who could say they were a part of UCLA basketball. To come here and be part of all the tradition is great.”