Don’t tell Russell this, but I always wanted to go to UCLA. I don’t know why. I always wanted to go to UCLA. That was a dream of mine. And once I started to get recruited, I was like, I hope UCLA calls. That’s where I wanted to go. But it didn’t turn out that way because they didn’t think I’d go all the way to the West Coast. But that’s the school I always liked. I liked watching them. I liked their colors. That kind of drew me to them as well. I was a big UCLA fan – the O’Bannons, Baron Davis, Earl Watson; I was a big Earl Watson fan, believe it or not.
about 2 years ago
bruinponcho
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SHOT TO THE HEART!!!!!!!
I wonder if anyone seriously believes that one year of Kevin Durant wouldn’t have changed our fortunes? Imagine that line up: Darren Collison, Arron Afflalo, Kevin Durant, LRMAM, and LMR with Westbrook and Shipp leading the charge off the bench! We wouldn’t have trouble keeping up with Florida, that’s for sure.
Maybe it's just me..
but if you’re a highly desired recruit and you’re so called “dream” school isn’t making any advances toward you, wouldn’t you at least shoot the coach an email to gage interest? Something along the lines of “Hey Coach, I’ve always been a fan of UCLA Basketball and it’s history, do you see me possibly fitting in with your program?”
Now admittedly I’m not to familiar with the whole recruiting process, but don’t you let schools know if you’re interested or not. You don’t just sit back and wait for them do you?
So you are calling Durant a liar
The “story” is straight from Durant on his personal blog. Not sure how that could possibly be BS.
Yes, I am calling Durant a liar.
“But it didn’t turn out that way because they didn’t think I’d go all the way to the West Coast” – if he didn’t have any contact with the school, exactly how does he know this??
He was allegedly struggling academically at Oak Hill and switched high schools between his junior and senior year. Has academic red flag written all over him.
That’s also apparently why Roy Williams at UNC wouldn’t commit to him.
by britishbruin on Dec 14, 2009 4:49 PM PST up reply actions
Well
He is probably partially right. He probably did want to come to UCLA really badly. However, for reasons we can only speculate (and I don’t have anything substantive to argue it was academics) it didn’t work out.
I don’t believe it is something to get angry over and attack Durant as a liar. If anything it shows the brand of UCLA basketball and how attractive it is among high school recruits.
That sucks, but...
…let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Durant was eligible to come to UCLA, he wanted to come, and CBH offered him a scholarship.
Look at the 2006 recruits: JK, ND, and RW. In an ideal situation, CBH would have offered KD instead of JK and we’d still get RW. Or we’d get JK and KD and never brought in the Bricklayer. But, there’s also the possibility that had KD come, and CBH went after both JK and ND (with ND getting the scholarship left by JF), then there would have been no room for RW.
It’s great to think what could have been. DC, AA, KD, LRMAM, LMR would have been something to see. It would have given us some great backcourt depth, letting JS come off the bench for AA and KD. Would have been an impressive team, but dreams are just that: dreams.
maybe I'm being overly defensive
but the idea that one of the two star players in the country – now the hottest talent in his NBA class – desperately wanted to come to our school, and that the reason he didn’t come was because we didn’t think to ask / we didn’t think we could recruit him to the West Coast, makes our coach sound like an idiot.
The story as described by KD is BS. He may have wanted to come to UCLA, and it may not have worked out for some reason, but the idea that the reason was that we never called, or didn’t think he would come out to the West, strikes me as nonsense.
[proud CBH apologist]
by britishbruin on Dec 14, 2009 7:41 PM PST up reply actions
I'm not saying CBH dropped this ball...
…it appears from what N and others are saying is that KD wouldn’t academically qualify. If he was eligible, I hope CBH would have been all over him. All I’m trying to say is we still would have had either JK and ND and one of them would have turned out to be, well, ND or JK. And if we did get KD, there’s always the chance that we would have ran out of scholarships and had KD, ND, and JK, and thus, no room for RW.
yup
sorry, my response wasn’t directed at you. I assume we wouldn’t have had RW, given he was a late commit after JF left. Possibly one more championship and probably one less final four without RW.
by britishbruin on Dec 14, 2009 8:18 PM PST up reply actions
I agree
That not getting RW would be a definitely possibility if we landed KD. Although, it’s also possible, that had we been able to get KD, that would have burned one of two scholarships CBH was planning on using, so he may have then opted not to pursue either JK or ND. It could have played out where KD and JK/ND committed, then JF opted to leave for the NBA, allowing us to still get RW.
That would have been the perfect set-up, getting both KD and RW, but alas, we can only dream.
I agree...
I’d love to think about Durant being a Bruin…but even if I’m the best HS recruit for a particular year…if I don’t get a call from a school that I really like, I’d at least shoot them a quick email or phone call (at least once) to throw it out there. Oh well…its water under the bridge.
Maybe it's a moot point
maye he would have ha a hard time qualifying academically, which is why UCLA didn’t take a look at him…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
That was the reason
UCLA had to back off Avery Bradley (the current Texas freshmen pg). It could be a possibility.
academic or not...
… he’s played with Earl Watson. Great Bruin. And now Russell Westbrook. Also an awesome Bruin. When you’ve got those two guys feeding you the ball, doesn’t it kinda make you wish you were playing with them in college too? (Though Earl wouldn’t have been a possibility). Perhaps this is more of a hindsight “wish” than it was an “I always wanted to go to UCLA.”
Either way – one of the top young players in the country is talking about wanting to be a Bruin. I’d call that “good press.” I’d think Texas is unhappier about this than we are about this statement.
Go Bruins!
Glass half full
Couldn’t agree more with you Harsha. For whatever reason that he didn’t end up here, the fact that he is plugging UCLA is positive press.
UCLA had 2% of incoming freshmen seats set ascide...
and labeled Special Admit.
I was a student govt type and sat on a number of Boards and Committees back in the day, and that was the policy in the late 1970’s – mid 1980’s. I served a stint on the Admissions Committee, among numerous others.
Special Admittance meant that the student was lacking academically, but brought other unique talents, gifts, skills, experiences to the University. The athletic department had an allotment. Don’t know if this is the case these days.
This story also reminds me of Bruin Ballers Kenny Fields and Darren Daye begging Coach Farmer to walk a short distance from his office to the floor in Pauley, because a kid playing pickup games with them wanted desperately to be a Bruin. Coach Farmer says: “I already have my center, Stuart Gray”. The turn-down kid told to go home: Patrick Ewing.
I heard the Stuart Gray/Patrick Ewing story as well...
Gray wasn’t bad but never lived up to his Mcdonalds all american hype coming in. I remember one big game he had against Louisville at Pauley. His one shining moment.
Pretty sure Michael Jordan also wanted to go to UCLA. Made a statement similar to Durants that he wasn’t recruited. Think I read it in his book a few years back. Made my skin crawl.
by 84 on Dec 14, 2009 8:59 PM PST up reply actions
How would Howland have used him?
No, I’m really serious. Think of Durant in his year at Texas. INCREDIBLE offense, no defense whatsoever. The heart and soul of our final four team that year was our defense (no surprise). Would Howland have given Durant the opportunities to flash his insane brilliance? Or would he have gotten 15 min per game until he could become ok on defense?
Why not?
If Howland is willing to give Durant the Dragovic treatment
Haha
Good point.
But Durant is taller, cares about the game, and can shoot consistently (not 0-9 or 1-10 all the time).
This is my point
I’ve brought it up in other posts and been rebuked for it. A talent of Durant’s level, you find a way to use him.
If that means you have to “open up the offense” you do it. All of sports is based on adjustments.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
not so fast there
I hate to nitpick, but am I the only one who thinks we could have gotten more out of the Kevin Love era? I’m not trying to diminish his 1st-Team All-American season, his Pac-10 POY award, or our run to the Final Four. I cherish those memories with all the rest…
BUT…
I found myself in Lakers-Shaq mode countless times yelling at our guards to throw the ball to the big guy in the paint. We didn’t run our offense through KL enough and it baffled me because he’s easily the best passing college big man of his generation. Even if he didn’t score, he demanded attention and opened up the offense.
I’m sorry I don’t have any empirical evidence to support my claim. Does college basketball have a FanGraphs or Baseball-Reference equivalent? All I have is my foggy memory.
by ishXdavid on Dec 14, 2009 10:04 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
A few
www.kenpom.com
www.basketballprospectus.com
KL was one of the elites that year using both conventional and advanced statistics
by nickramz on Dec 15, 2009 12:33 AM PST via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
problem with love was a little deeper than that
He was awesome for us, but could have been better if he got the ball more in the paint. You are right on that.
However, one of the reasons he didn’t get the ball in the paint was because it didn’t come out as often as it should have.
Unfortunately, with only one year together, it is hard to build the trust needed to get the ball movement right to acheive at the highest level.
"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"
by silverlakebruin on Dec 16, 2009 11:24 AM PST up reply actions
sorry, i forgot to include my initial point
I’m not too sure about how much of an adjustment CBH would make to accommodate a special talent like Durant especially considering he made Ryan Hollins look like B.A. Baracus.
We didn’t start running the offense through the post when we had KL even though he posed a match-up problem for other teams the moment he stepped off the bus.
We didn’t make any adjustments with JH even though it was painfully clear that he’s at his best with ball in hands. There were several posts here on BN that suggested that JH either come off the bench to only play the 1, or even have our dead-eye shooter DC play the 2.
I feel that there were many possibilities we could have played with last year to make it work, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out.
You're right
There’s the story that Kevin Durant couldn’t even do ONE rep of the standard 135 bar they use in the pre-draft workout. Kevin Durant didn’t fit our “BenBall Warrior” mold and there’s no way we’d change the offense to utilize his unique talents.
Rivals says the schools that offered were: Texas, UConn. Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, and North Carolina.
This is the underlying issue when people grumble about recruiting. Some people would say we shouldn’t waste our time recruiting one-and-done divas. Others believe that you take opportunity to have transcendent talent if it affords itself. CBH said as much when he was asked about the KL commitment before he even finished HS. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something along the lines of: “You take whatever you can get with Kevin Love.” I couldn’t agree with him more.
I’m digging through old Rivals.com top 150 lists checking to see which one-and-done players UCLA was in the final cut with… so far only KL in 2007, JH in 2008, and Demar DeRozan in 2008. Of possible 2009 freshmen who could be one and dones: Avery Bradley(Texas), Michael Snaer (Florida St.), Abdul Gaddy (UDub), and Renardo Sidney if you want to count him.
Judging by this, CBH doesn’t recruit “AAU Hype Machine Primadonnas” unless they’re once-in-generation big men like KL or they’re actually playing in your backyard like JH and DeRozan. With DC and JH’s departure, CBH was forced to go hard after Bradley and especially Gaddy. When Gaddy decommitted to Arizona, his final decision came down to the wire between us and UDub, his local school. I think CBH had it in his mind that JA wasn’t going to be the PG that can run his program like DC, JF, and Brandin Knight, Carl Krauser at Pitt.
I think some people have misjudged CBH’s recruiting strategy. I think he’s building the program with California kids and only venturing out when the specific need arises. Big men are a commodity which is why he went to Oregon to get KL, and he plucked Josh Smith from Washington. When it comes to swingmen and the backcourt, we get what California produces. Unfortunately, California has been producing underwhelming talent recently. The best prospect California has produced recently is Brandon Jennings. The biggest bust is Jrue Holiday.
by ishXdavid on Dec 14, 2009 9:53 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
sweet
i bench more than durant
Back in business
by ucla13_usc9 on Dec 14, 2009 10:01 PM PST up reply actions
That
Is what his strategy seems to be. He has in the past two years gone out of state more for guards and swingmen but hasn’t closed the deal it appears.
Though keep in mind we got Luc and Aboya from out of state academies
That said, for a talent like Durant, I’d absolutely say you have to be willing to adapt to him. Consider that Corey Brewer was a mismatch for us… Durant would have been that level of a mismatch for just about everyone else he’s pitted against.
Of course I see no way any defensive shortcomings from him could make up for the fact that, unlike Drago, he was a consistent scorer from all parts of the court and an actual rebounder as well. But that point is moot since it’s a coulda-woulda-shoulda
by nickramz on Dec 15, 2009 12:39 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
you're right
if he wasn’t willing to play defense, which of AA, JS and LRMAM do you drop to make way for KD?
by britishbruin on Dec 15, 2009 9:13 AM PST up reply actions
KD omg...wow that could have been amazing...but my question is...
who and where are the potential KD’s now?…and how to we make sure that they get a shot to be seen and considered for futureUCLA teams?…and will any young man dreaming of blue and gold still want to come to UCLA after this year is gone and done?…we can only hope…
by bruincheerleader on Dec 15, 2009 3:43 AM PST reply actions
UCLA is still UCLA
and CBH can honestly tell recruits (at the moment) that there is significant PT to be had if you can earn it. I don’t think we’re ready to earn any one-and-dones right now, unless UCLA has always been their dream school, and one hopes in future years we’ll be playing back at a level where most newcomers may not get 35+ minutes, but we can be back in contention for one-and-done players in a few years, I believe. Whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen, of course.
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