LOS ANGELES — A traditional basketball court is, obviously, a flat, level surface. But there’s really only one way to describe how Lonzo Ball runs on it: Downhill.

“That’s Lonzo’s biggest asset,” UCLA teammate Bryce Alford said. “When he’s going downhill at 100 miles per hour, that’s when he’s best and that’s when we’re best.”

Said Bruins coach Steve Alford: “He plays downhill, at a pace nobody else in the country can play at. He’s 6-6, he’s long, but I swear he can dribble it while he’s in the air. He can definitely pass while he’s in the air. He has the incredible ability of, he can go end line to end line probably faster than anybody off the dribble — and he can definitely go faster via the pass, which is even a better skill as a point guard. He advances the ball either by dribble or pass faster than any point guard in the country.”

That’s probably the best place to start with Ball, because his speed helps determine the pace of any game he’s involved in — and just how many easy buckets UCLA can get in transition, an area of its game the team takes a great deal of pride in. Perhaps it’s a layup, or even a spot-up three. Or if that’s not an option, Ball knows when to slow down and find open looks for teammates in more of a traditional half-court offense.

MORE HOOPS:

“In my mind, he’s one of the great players I’ve coached against. I think he’s the best, or one of the best, players in college basketball today. … Nobody impacts the game more than Ball,” said Arizona coach Sean Miller, whose team went 1-1 against the Bruins during conference play. “The thing about Lonzo Ball is he’s kind of that old-school point guard where he doesn’t need to score to dominate the game.

“There are plays that he makes in the game that you can coach 100 games, and you might not see a play like that. In our game (on Feb. 25), I would say he had four or five signature plays — like, an incredible pass to (Thomas) Welsh down the middle in transition, you’re mad at your own team for not getting back but the ball’s moving so fast, it was such an incredible pass, there’s not much you can do. He steals the outlet in the first half, takes two dribbles and he’s at the rim. … He gives them a dimension that not many teams have.”

MORE HOOPS:

It’s no coincidence that much of that dimension comes from unselfishness — the passing, the way he finds teammates like Bryce Alford or T.J. Leaf in places on the court they’re most comfortable shooting from. Ball likes the challenge of making his teammates look better, both offensively and defensively, and actually be better, too.

“If you talk to him, he doesn’t even talk about next level or anything,” Steve Alford said. “it’s about our next game and our next practice, and that’s the thing that I’ve appreciated most about Lonzo. We’ve known from the get-go, from last June, that come early April, he’s gone.”

Yet he doesn’t play with one foot into the college basketball world, and the other already in the NBA, despite all the pre-draft chatter that he could end up the No. 1 pick in June. Ball still plays the way he has all along, contributing in ways that show up in the box score — 14.9 ppg, 7.8 apg, 6.2 rpg — and those that don’t. He knows exactly what he needs to do, and at what speed, to try to take UCLA to a level it hasn’t reached in nearly a decade: A Final Four. And he just might be able to do it.

“He’s as smart of a player I’ve played with,” Bryce Alford said.

USA TODAY SPORTS ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS