San Jose, Calif. — Every time he takes an ill-advised three, dribbles the ball off of his lower body or makes the pretty pass instead of the simple one, sophomore forward Julian Wright's Kansas University teammates apply a consistent moniker.

"We call him 'wild.' we say he's 'wildin' out,'" KU sophomore Brandon Rush said. "He does that a lot on the court. Like (Thursday), he 'wilded out' a lot."

But when he's calm and in check?

"Then he's probably the best player on the court at the time," Rush added. "He does make some dumb plays. Everybody on the team makes some dumb plays sometimes. But he's one of the players who can make the great plays at the right times."

The one thing teammates can count on is that those great games almost always follow the not-so-notable ones. That's why they likely will be looking his way this evening when KU takes on UCLA at 6:05 p.m. in the HP Pavilion with college hoops' dream weekend in Atlanta on the line.

In Thursday's 61-58 grinder against Southern Illinois, Wright was held to seven points in 28 minutes on the floor. That included a 1-of-4 showing at the free-throw line, highlighted by two misses with roughly two seconds to play, giving SIU one last desperate heave at a tie.

He's the team's third-leading scorer (12.1 ppg) and its top rebounding threat (7.9 rpg), but also carries the distinction of leading the team in turnovers (89) and ranking third in personal fouls (92).

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He's able to block nights like Thursday out and move on and has the track record to prove it, but it doesn't stop there.

"I kind of forget good games, too," Wright said. "Maybe I shouldn't forget the good games when I've had so many peaks and valleys. Every game is different, everywhere. Every game has its own feel, especially if you're talking tournament time."

In the Nov. 24 victory over Ball State, he had 12 rebounds, but was limited to nine points in 34 minutes. Just over 24 hours later, he hung 21 points and pulled down 10 boards on then-No. 1 Florida in an overtime triumph.

Then there was his 23-point effort against Rhode Island on Dec. 30, coming off the bench for the first time all year after scoring five points and struggling from everywhere two days earlier against Detroit.

He also scored just six points and had four turnovers at home against Colorado on Jan. 27, plus a failed windmill dunk in the open floor which needed no theatrics, but ended with him in a heap under the hoop. Two nights later, he scored KU's first eight points and hit all six of his charity tries in a romp at Nebraska.

Most of the rough nights have been overshadowed, though, because KU's depth usually has produced a win anyway.

"I hope teammates are going to be able to look to me as a leader when things aren't going right," he said. "I look back on games to see if I was really able to affect the game regardless of the box score."

While his vocal ability is all well and good, his teammates are counting on numerical production today. Therefore, they're also hoping for the clockwork to keep up.

"Tomorrow's got to be Julian's night, and we need to feed off him, feed off his defense and his energy," sophomore Mario Chalmers said. "He had a bad game versus Ball State and came out and just absolutely dominated the Florida game, and we need a big game from him tomorrow in order for us to get the victory."