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Three days after he absorbed a vicious blow to the face, breaking his nose and making him so unsteady that his coach yanked him from the game after a brief return, Eric Dailey Jr. started a video call with his father.
Never mind that it was Christmas Eve, or that the UCLA sophomore forward hadn’t been outfitted with the custom mask he would need to play again. There were holiday tidings to share.
“In the gym, buddy, you know what it is,” Dailey said. “I don’t use my nose to play, I use my legs. My legs and arms are good.”
A day later, in the early hours of Christmas morning, there was another message from the same place.
“I’m going to get some shots up,” Dailey said, “and go eat with coach.”
Kobe Johnson finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the UCLA men’s basketball team committed just three turnovers in a lopsided win over Penn State.
While most of his teammates slept, Dailey pressed his finger on the infrared scanner outside the practice facility. Granted entry to his refuge, he wasn’t trying to make a point or show anyone up. Alone with just the echo of a bouncing ball, it was time for the Dailey dose of extra work.
“For me, basketball is my sanctuary, it’s my life,” Dailey said. “Outside of this, I’ve really got nothing and if you want to be good at something, you’ve got to give it your all.”
Not every workout is an hours-long slog. Sometimes he’ll come in for 20 minutes of free throws. Other times, it’s just to get treatment. But everything has a purpose.
During his solo session on Christmas Eve, Dailey cycled through a series of three-pointers, pull-up jumpers, free throws and post moves, every shot intended to prepare him for what he might face against Gonzaga four days later.
He went on to make four of five three-pointers while scoring 18 points during a triumph over the nationally ranked Bulldogs, showing once again why he’s the most consistent player on a team that six weeks later is surging with seven consecutive victories.
Dailey’s leaning left-handed jumper in the lane over two Michigan State defenders with 7.5 seconds left last week powered the Bruins to what might have been their most impressive win of the season. Five days earlier, he made eight of nine shots during his team’s 26-point rout of Oregon.
“Everybody thinks this is rocket science sometimes,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said of basketball success, “but I know this — it’s hard to get better if you’re not in the gym. A lot of guys, especially in this era when you put money in guys’ pockets, they’re at nice dinners trying to impress UCLA volleyball players and girls basketball players and cheerleaders.
“You know, Eric Dailey’s in the gym.”
Sitting across from the visiting team’s bench inside Pauley Pavilion, Eric Dailey analyzes his son’s every move.
Is he holding the form on his shots? What is his body language saying? What does he need to do better?
While he waits until after the game to deliver his verdict, the elder Dailey invariably sends his son the same pregame three-letter text message: “BTA.”
“That’s our motto,” Eric Sr. said with a laugh. “Bust Their Ass.”
A former team captain at Texas Christian who went on to play 10 years professionally — the last five after a second injury to his knee ligaments — Eric Sr. considered winning habits his son’s birthright. When the boy was 3, his father positioned a chair near a Fisher-Price goal in the kitchen and taught him basic offensive actions.
“Start on the block, curl around the chair, jump shot,” the younger Dailey said of the routine.
Dad was fine with his son being a momma’s boy because tagging along with her to work had unusual basketball benefits. An assistant coach with the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars at the time of Eric’s birth, Shell Dailey first took her son to a game while scouting when he was 6 weeks old. He eventually followed her to practices and games while she coached at the University of Florida and IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Eric learned more than the inner workings of the game while hanging out in locker rooms and arenas with his mom, who had played at the University of Texas. Shell talked about the importance of defense and other aspects of the game often ignored by younger players.
If Mom was his mental coach, then Dad was his trainer.
His eighth-grade schedule included 6 a.m. shooting sessions, practice at 8, weights at 9:30, lunch at 10 and class from 1 to 5 p.m., a routine that’s similar to the one he follows at UCLA. Eric Sr. worked with his son on ballhandling, moves, developing instincts — anything that would make him more well-rounded.
Along the way, the son’s game started to resemble that of his father, with one exception.
“I have a jumper,” Eric Jr. said. “My shot’s way better.”
When he wasn’t playing for his middle and high school teams, Eric competed for international club teams that toured the United States. He spent summers playing for club teams based in Spain and Italy. The goal was to face some of the world’s top players and focus on skill development instead of just scoring.
The lack of participation in American club basketball until late in his high school career came with a downside. Eric wasn’t ranked among the elite U.S. prospects, leading to his exclusion from the McDonald’s All-American team even as he became increasingly involved in a USA Basketball program that churned out NBA players.
“My whole life I’ve been overlooked,” Eric said. “Nobody’s been talking about me, like, I wasn’t always the highest-rated guy; I was always the guy left out of things.”
It’s a grudge that’s remained firm, often driving him during workouts. His father figured this is how it might turn out.
“I wanted him to be where he is now, to have a desire,” Eric Sr. said, “because if I tell you you’re No. 1 when you’re 12, you’re not even hungry at 20 — man, I’ve been No. 1 already, you know? So by design, I didn’t put him in that system.”
Seeing the ball go in the basket during workouts gives Dailey confidence that the same thing will happen in games.
He prepares for unlikely situations — anything that might pop into his mind — during a drill called “Imagination.” It’s something he believes helped him during UCLA’s recent victory over Oregon, when he briefly lost the ball late in the shot clock, got it back, spun and stepped back into a three-pointer.
“Nobody works on that,” Dailey said, “but I used to work on just spinning, shooting, just imagination.”
His work is reflected in his accuracy, the 6-foot-8 Dailey’s 52.6% shooting best among the team’s guards and forwards while his average of 12 points per game trails only that of forward Tyler Bilodeau (13.8).
There’s improvement to be made considering Cronin told Dailey he wanted him to convert 40% of his three-pointers and he’s at 37.1%, the second-best percentage on the team. Cronin’s bid to maximize his potential was one of the reasons Dailey transferred to UCLA last spring after spending his freshman season at Oklahoma State.
Another lure was the arrival of transfer Skyy Clark, whose family has long been close to the Daileys. Clark’s father, Kenny, was a childhood friend of Eric Sr. and his uncle, Steve Rhem, was the best man at Eric Sr. and Shell’s wedding. Skyy and the younger Dailey consider themselves cousins.
The Daileys heard stories in basketball circles about how Cronin was unreasonably difficult, only to learn otherwise once they met him on what turned out to be Eric’s only official visit before committing to the Bruins.
“People were just telling me horror stories like, ‘Oh, he’s hard on the players and this and that,’ ” Eric Sr. said, “and I’m thinking to myself, what do you mean, man? Is he chasing them outside and putting a gun to their head and shooting them? Do I need to worry? Nah. He holds the players accountable, he makes them work hard.
“Coming to meet Cronin, man, it was just like meeting myself. He’s like me — I need somebody because not a lot of people are going to push E. as hard as I pushed him.”
The elder Dailey saw it for himself in practice when Cronin made his left-handed son pass with his non-dominant hand to improve his ballhandling, stopping play whenever he failed to comply.
The younger Dailey said he appreciated having a coach as driven as himself. Eric impressed Cronin by moving to Los Angeles in May, a month before the start of summer school, and showing up in the gym each morning for two-hour workouts.
“People give their opinions talking about, ‘He’s crazy and all this,’ ” the younger Dailey said of his coach. “I think it was good — I like crazy, that’s been my thing. I’m crazy too — the things I do aren’t normal.”
Like what?
“Waking up at 6 a.m. every day,” Dailey said with a chuckle. “It’s February, I’m still waking up at the same time like it’s the offseason.”
Calendars are useless in the household where a ball and access to the gym make every day feel like Christmas.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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