Keith Owens

Owens was born in San Francisco, California. He was 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) and played center in high school at Birmingham High in Van Nuys, California.\n', '

Owens was more concerned with his education than being able to play basketball. He rejected athletic scholarship offers from Cal Poly Pomona and Hawaii. He attended college at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) instead, where he made the Bruins basketball team in his first year in 1987 as a 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) walk-on under coach Walt Hazzard. However, Owens played so infrequently that year that he calculated his points and rebounds by the minute rather than by the game. By his sophomore year under new coach Jim Harrick, Owens earned a scholarship. He became an integral part of the team in his final two seasons. In his senior year, he was co-captain of the team and averaged 6.3 points and 5.3 rebounds a game and…