/ STAFF WRITER
Lonzo Ball will almost assuredly leave UCLA after one season.
Measuring by that scale, when the No. 4 Bruins host Stanford on Sunday , their point guard will have entered into the junior portion of his college experience.
He is being asked to mature at an equally accelerated rate.
Ball was deemed a leader from the moment he stepped on campus, but UCLA is urging him to graduate from lead-by-example status to a more vocal role. Bruins coach Steve Alford specifically implored him to speak up after a late-game collapse Thursday against Cal, when a 20-point lead nearly evaporated in the final stages of the 81-71 UCLA victory.