LAS VEGAS -- No player in college basketball has received more attention so far this season than UCLA's Lonzo Ball, the dynamic point guard already well on his way to becoming a one-and-done NBA Draft lottery pick.

He's made fun passes.

He's sank incredible shots.

The 6-foot-6 playmaker who routinely garners comparisons to Jason Kidd because of his instincts, and because of the way he sees the court and creates scoring opportunities, is the main reason UCLA is 11-0 and ranked No. 2 heading into Saturday's game vs. Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic here inside the new and shiny T-Mobile Arena. But there is also another reason. And that reason is TJ Leaf.

That's a tweet from Mike Schmitz, a video scout for The Vertical and DraftExpress. He posted it early during Wednesday's 102-62 victory over UC Santa Barbara. As you can tell, Leaf was doing, and continued to do, lots of good and impressive things. The 6-foot-10 forward finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He's now averaging a team-high 18.3 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

Is it possible for the top scorer on a top-two team to be overshadowed? Apparently, yes. That's the #LonzoBallEffect. But know this: NBA front offices are monitoring more than one UCLA freshman, as ESPN's Michael Eaves pointed out:

Which is not to suggest the scouts don't love Ball.

Most absolutely love Ball.

But Leaf is also growing on them. He seems to be symbolic of this UCLA team in general, and what I mean by that is this: Everybody figured Leaf, like UCLA, would be good. But almost nobody predicted Leaf, or UCLA, would be this good -- although Leaf himself stopped short of saying he's shocked by either reality.

"I'm not really surprised by it," he told me after Wednesday's win inside Pauley Pavilion. "Playing with these guys just makes things so easy."

It certainly looks that way.

According to 247Sports, Leaf was the 18th-best player in the Class of 2016 -- positioned one spot below Jarrett Allen, who is averaging single-digits for a 5-4 Texas team, and one spot ahead of Omari Spellman, who was ruled academically ineligible at Villanova. In other words, Leaf was heralded, sure. But he was not a consensus top-10 prospect or an obvious one-and-done candidate.

He is now, though.

"It's just starting to hit us," said TJ's father, Brad Leaf, who played basketball professionally for 17 years in Israel, where TJ was born. "It's kind of weird."

I concede that point, if only because players ranked outside of the top-15 of their high school classes don't normally look like one-and-done prospects barely a month into their freshman years. But Leaf appears to check a lot of important boxes -- most notably that he's doing all the things a modern-day NBA stretch-four does.

He has good size for his position.

He can dribble. He can pass. He can shoot.

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UCLA freshman TJ Leaf leads the Bruins in scoring. USATSI

Leaf finished 3 of 4 from 3-point range in the win over UC Santa Barbara and is now making 54.2 percent of his 3-point attempts on the season. That's amazing -- and way better than current NBA champion Kevin Love shot in his one year at UCLA.

Love shot 35.4 percent from 3-point range that season. Again, Leaf is at 54.2. And it's not crazy to think Leaf could end up having a better season than Love had before Love went fifth overall in the 2008 NBA Draft because, right now, Leaf is averaging more points (18.3 compared to 17.5), more assists (3.2 compared to 1.9) and nearly as many rebounds (9.4 compared to 10.6) as Love did in Westwood, and he's also shooting a higher percentage from the field (67.5 compared to 55.9).

Meantime, Leaf's assist-to-turnover ratio is better too.

It's actually better than 2-to-1.

"There aren't many stretch-fours who even have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, and TJ's is nearly 3-to-1," said UCLA coach Steve Alford. "He's tremendous."

So keep focusing on Ball.

I mean that sincerely.

He deserves it.

But it's probably time for Leaf to start also showing up on National Player of the Year lists, right next to his more celebrated teammate. He's the UCLA freshman most aren't talking about, I know. But he's earned a spot in the conversation.