Bruins at Nike Hoop Summit

by Telemachus on Apr 13, 2008 1:58 AM PDT in Basketball

Here's your #1 recruiting class:

Bruin Basketball 2008-2009 incoming freshman

dokein posted a good writeup, and blinkshot posted a short boxscore, so I won't repeat any of that info. Following are video highlights of the incoming Bruins.

Malcom Lee got two early fouls, which impacted his playing time.

Malcom Lee at Nike Hoop Summit

Jerime Anderson had a couple steals and assists, dunked and drained a short jumper.

Jerime Anderson at Nike Hoops Summit

Drew Gordon demonstrated great board work, short-range scoring and shot blocking.

Drew Gordon at Nike Hoop Summit

Meanwhile, Jrue Holiday did a little bit of everything.

Jrue Holiday at Nike Hoop Summit

Just like the commercial, "You're in good hands..." with Coach Ben Howland.

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Everything

is gonna be alright.

Thanks for the highlights Son of Odysseus, they brought me peace.

by Bruins100NCAA on Apr 13, 2008 3:58 AM PDT reply actions

Anderson looks EXPLOSIVE!

Its too bad we didnt see more of Mal Lee, but these guys looked great. And they drained 19-footers like they were layups!!! Lord, please grant us Kevin's presence for one more year!

by charnaw on Apr 13, 2008 9:54 AM PDT reply actions

WOW! Quick hands. Super Athletic.

And THINKING players who obviously know the game.

Ben is going to have to RAISE HIS GAME to coach these guys.

GREAT coaches formulate strategies that play to the STRENGHTS of his players. Michal Thompson (ex-Laker, and local Sports Radio host here in LA) lamented all year that our own JAMES KEEFE was an ABSOLUTE MONSTER in High School. Thompson felt Howland didn't have the flexiblity/ability to "turn guys loose" and create strategies that exploited a kids strength. This is why Thompson (a former High School POY himself) sent his son, to WSU.

Ben is on record as having recruited KLove since the 8th Grade! Heck-of-a-long-time to build a personal relationship, wouldn't you say? Holiday's brother already plays for Lorenzo Romar.

My point?

Ben MUST adjust if he's now going to get entire classes of recruits who would otherwise be in the NBA Draft if that was available.
The parents of Love and Keefe may have gone along with Ben... I don't count on this crowd of parents who will sit back and allow their kids to be STIFFLED in any way. That ain't gonna happen.
I saw Holiday play this year, as an opponent to my own son's high school team. That young man already has an entourage of ADULTS that follow him to every game. They leave after the third quarter, when Jrue was normally done with games. Think that kid will just "wait his turn"?

WOW! We have the horses to get back to the Final Four, no matter WHO comes back or who doesn't next year. Next year will be, no doubt, BEN'S most challenging year, on a professional level.

Hopefully, Ben makes friends with PHIL JACKSON (if he's not friends already). PHIL is the Champion of coaching prima donnas. Hey, it's one thing to turn role players into very, very good players. It's another thing to manage SUPERSTARS.

I'm excited!

Go Bruins!

by class1984 on Apr 13, 2008 9:59 AM PDT reply actions

last think Howland needs is ...

To listen to 'pundit' like Mychal Thompson. He is doing just fine and he will make sure these recruits learn to play hoops w/in the system that's already been proven successful under him at UCLA.

1984 - I like your passion but that doesn't give you license to make absurd, ignorant comments such as Howland 'stiffling' our players' talents. You can post that kind of nonsense at some message board or just keep listening to talk radio catering to the lowest common denominator. But keep that trash out of BN.

by Nestor on Apr 13, 2008 10:41 AM PDT up reply actions

I don't listen

to anything Mychel Thompson says. He may have been a good player, but he is a terrible commentator and radio talk show personality. The guy simply doesn't know his college basketball (and not alot about anything else for that matter).

by bruin8uclap on Apr 13, 2008 7:45 PM PDT up reply actions

class1984...Are you kidding me???

"Thompson felt Howland didn't have the flexiblity/ability to "turn guys loose" and create strategies that exploited a kids strength. This is why Thompson (a former High School POY himself) sent his son, to WSU."

Do you REALLY believe this? For the record, I don't EVER recall this kid being mentioned as a top recruit. He's not at UCLA because he's simply not good enough. If your argument was true, he'd be at another traditional basketball school like Arizona, Memphis, Texas, Duke, UNC, etc...NOT Washington St. By the way, I just checked Rivals.com and he's a 3 star recruited by WSU, Pepperdine, Michigan, and Notre Dame. Last time I checked, UCLA doesn't compete with Pepperdine for recruits.

GO BRUINS!

by rgalloucla on Apr 13, 2008 8:07 PM PDT up reply actions

The goal of the program that Ben has established..

is not to "exploit" a kid's strength. It is to get the best out of the players within the concept of the team so that the TEAM will have the most success... which we have certainly had a lot of going to three straight FF's. If kid's don't want to play UCLA Basketball, then there is a natural weeding out process. Ben selects kids from winning programs... there is a culture of winning here now at UCLA where the collective success of the team is the most important thing. And if the players that come here don't like it, as Coach Wooden says, "The bench is the coach's bestfriend."

by bruindodger on Apr 14, 2008 4:36 AM PDT up reply actions

Mychal Thompson

Is going to be in for a surprise if he thinks Clay will run free in Tony Bennett's system like it's Memphis.

Ben doesn't need to work on "managing" superstars.

by Raisin on Apr 13, 2008 11:45 AM PDT reply actions

Oh, and thanks

Tele. Well done, as always!

by Raisin on Apr 13, 2008 11:45 AM PDT reply actions

Great Athletes - Great Students

During the game the FSN crew mentioned that ML was on the honor roll all 4 years of high school and that JA took several Honor level courses. These kids fit the UCLA mold.

When you add that Luc and AA2 are set to graduate in 3 years and DC will be done by summer - that's amazing. These kids are not "Leisure Management" type majors either.

What I've mentioned above really make me proud to be a Bruin - the 3 straight FF don't hurt either.

by shaq on Apr 13, 2008 12:09 PM PDT reply actions

So true

During the Memphis game, when I saw that "Major: Leisure Management" graphic again, I couldn't help but think our FF runs should have culminated in championships if not for fake majors like Leisure Management. Is that one notch above "Basket Weaving"? I'd estimate it'd take most Bruins about a year and a half to graduate with a degree in "Leisure Management".

by Tydides on Apr 13, 2008 12:58 PM PDT up reply actions

Question

What in the heck is "leisure management"?

by Raisin on Apr 13, 2008 2:28 PM PDT up reply actions

My apologies

about my earlier ignorant statements.

I went ahead and looked up the require curriculum to graduate with a degree in Leisure Management from Memphis. It truly sounds like a rigorous schedule. The following are "class" descriptions:

Foundations of Sport & Leisure studies
Sport & Leisure as Popular Culture
Area and Facility Management
Sport & Leisure Marketing
Intro to Public Relations
Leadership in Leisure Services
Event Management
Cultural Formation of Sport in America
Elementary New Writing

Those are only about a third of the classes required, but the remaining classes are some mix and match of the words "sport", "leisure", "management", "culture", "services", suggesting a great deal of redundancy.

What the hell was I doing studying Lasers and Quantum electronics, semiconductor devices and physics, and other assorted BS when I could learn about Elementary New Writing?

by Tydides on Apr 13, 2008 2:56 PM PDT up reply actions

Nice research

Reading this makes me laugh. Sounds more like a vocational school program rather than a real college major. Memphis "state" is a joke.

I'm proud that our guys appreciate their education and opportunity (outside of Bball) and actually attend class.

by shaq on Apr 13, 2008 3:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Elementray New Writing !

Does it mean you don't write outside the two bold lines when doing cursive style, and start at the dotted lines in the middle, except for capital letters, when doing printing style ?

Always begin a sentence ( maybe chicken scratch ) with a capital letter and end it with a period.....

by Htse005 on Apr 13, 2008 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions

Whoops ! It's Elementary, not Elementray.

by Htse005 on Apr 13, 2008 5:27 PM PDT up reply actions

Although I don't have a degree in it,

I'm proficient in Leisure Management, myself. Whether to sit in the recliner or lie down on the sofa while watching the Masters? Whether to go for the chilled Sauvignon Blanc or the reliable Cabernet? Or, maybe even a tangerine martini?

These are profound Leisure Management issues. I had to learn them the hard way, but there's no denying the rigor involved.

by Bruinut on Apr 13, 2008 8:39 PM PDT up reply actions

Actually

NCAA football and basketball games are so inherently interwined with those high profile sportswears' marketing concerns that we easily forget these are students, first and foremost, before they are athletes.

All the money dangling around by Nike, Addidas etc now made NCAA athletes, coaching personnels unofficial salespersons of these sportswear giants. So when you commended our Bruin players' scholastic achievements, they should have been, in a perfect, noncommercial setting, the norms rather than the exceptions. Of course they deserve our praises even more so within the context of many others majoring in the likes of " leisure management ", " sewing & embroidering ",
" microwave cooking " or " desktop cleaning & maintenance ".

Such ludicrously bizarre list of academic majors aimed solely to shelter the eligibility of many NBA wannabes just made a mockery of the institutions offering them in the first place.

by Htse005 on Apr 13, 2008 5:20 PM PDT up reply actions

DeRoazan

That kid looked like an athletic monster and seemed to play really well with our talented guards. Too bad he made the wrong choice.

by shaq on Apr 13, 2008 12:11 PM PDT reply actions

And just for some perspective

This is the same guy who has admitted to this:

Admittedly, most of MY comments are over-the-top.
Why? I'm a fan. I'm having FUN. It's FUN voicing my fanatical, (sometimes assinine to others) positions.

by Tydides on Apr 13, 2008 1:47 PM PDT reply actions

Yeap

He just wants to have "fun" posting "fanatical" and "asinine" comments. Well he can now do it somewhere else.

by Nestor on Apr 13, 2008 1:49 PM PDT up reply actions

Sounds like a ME first type of guy

should fit in perfectly across town, a la OJ2

by shaq on Apr 13, 2008 3:46 PM PDT up reply actions

No Tattoos?

I don't think any of the 4 recruits have tattoos on them. I'm not implying that having tattoos means 'bad character', but I'm saying that CBH recruits quality kids. It is important to him that the players come from a stable families

I've had a chance to chat with several of the players and they are good upright student-athletes.

BTW, I'm going to the basketball banquet Monday night and I'm crossing my fingers that one or even two...hey why not three of them (Love, DC, Westbrook)will announce that they have unfinished business at UCLA. I'll fill you guys on details on Tuesday.

I've attended a couple of the banquets and it is a joy to see and hear how CBH is so close to his players and their families.

Go Bruins!

by UCLA Champions Made Here on Apr 13, 2008 9:22 PM PDT reply actions

Lorenzo Mata Real

I think he has some pretty serious tattoos and I don't think anyone would consider him to have any character flaws. In this day and age I think more people have tattoos than those who don't so let's leave the personal judgement's out of this stellar class.

by dijonplease on Apr 13, 2008 11:09 PM PDT reply actions