Hoops Roundup: Terrence Jones, Wear Twins & Other UCLA Recruiting Notes
by Nestor on May 1, 2010 10:49 AM PDT
in Basketball
Email
Print
So Terrence Jones not too surprisingly "committed" to Washington yesterday. I had to LOL at the reports in the traditional media about UCLA somehow "losing out" on this power forward from Northwest. Only the delusional and ignorant thought there was some kind of realistic shot of Jones ending up at UCLA.
UCLA was never a factor in his recruiting. He was never a fit academically (something well plugged in Washington fans also alluded to wrt to UCLA on Bruin message boards). I wish the UCLA coaches had stopped chasing him this spring and didn't allow the name of the program associated with his recruiting. They showed the same display of tone-deafness in this situation like they did with the recruiting of Ray McCallum and Jrue Holiday's one year "stay" in Westwood.
Anyway, the bizarre recruiting saga of Jones is not over yet per Percy Allen from the Seattle Times. Jones hasn't signed his LOI yet and John Calipari is putting on a last minute full-court guilt-trip press to get Jones to Lexington:
Kentucky coach John Calipari called Jones after his announcement and Jones was on the phone for a very long time. About 15 minutes. Reading body language, Jones seemed pained.
He told me, "You hurt thousands of people just as much as you make people happy."
Jones' mother said if he hadn't chosen Washington, he was going to pick Kentucky.
LOL. Okay then. Whatever. Not our headache and he never was at least on BN.
Now going back to our roster wanted to share some info about transfer(s) into our program. More after the jump.
There is no reason not to talk about this anymore. We heard about this possibility early in the week through some friends and now the message board for UCLA is lit up with the discussion of the Wear twins transferring to UCLA. If you are a follower of Southern California/college hoops recruiting scene you should know about them. If not here is a little intro before they went on to commit to Carolina:
You can also check out more high school highlights here. Luke Wynn from SI.com also had a pretty good write up on them. I know. I am sure all of you here are going to get instantly excited about two more McDonald All Americans from the OC in the mold of James Keefe transferring into our program.
We are trying to make sense of exactly what Ben Howland might be thinking but still are unsure. I guess here are some of the positives I can think of from the Wear twins:
- They are both high character and coachable kids. They have always been grounded in fundamentals (sons of a coach) through their days at Mater Dei (if they come in we will have 3 kids of Mater Dei on scholarship next season). I think given how burnt Howland felt with the class of 2008, I can see him putting a premium on high character kids and Wear twins fit that mold.
- Both of them had injury plagued freshman season. When they played though the Tar Heels fans were generally impressed with the effort they gave on the court. If they come in and red-shirt for a season in Howland's program, they could be in decent position to contribute for couple of years in our programs.
Now here are the drawbacks:
- We need athletics guards and point-forwards in roster. The only two guys with potential NBA quality athleticism in our roster right now are Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt. That is it. Perhaps Josh Smith could be one of those guys but he has to get in shape. May be Tyler Lamb can fit that role but we certainly shouldn't be counting so much on a freshman.
- If we take the Wear Twins we will just have one more scholarship available this season which could be potentially spent on Remi Barry. Next season then at best we will have to make three scholarships available for the talent coming in for the class of 2011. That means we basically have to expect that either Lee or Honeycutt or both of them will be going on to the NBA or look at more transfers out of the program to make room for a class of 4 or 5 talented kids into the program.
- The track record of elite basketball "talent" from the OC area has not been very good in Westwood. James Keefe gave it his all but he was just undercut by injuries and bad management decisions. Michael Roll was great but was never meant to be a program defining player. Cedric Bozeman salvaged his legacy in Westwood with a great senior season but in a supporting role. I am not giving up on Jerime Anderson but so far well he has been a disaster.
So honestly I am not sure what to think about this development. Part of me sees what Howland might be thinking in terms of rebuilding this program with good kids. I like that part a lot. However, the other part of me is wondering how they will actually make us competitive and get us back to where we were just two years ago: perennial top 5/10 program year and year out.
If they do come in, I will get behind them and be supportive of them. Yet as we have said all along the pressure will be on Howland to get the program back on track within next two seasons. Sure hope these kids will be able to step up in a meaningful way when they are eligible to contribute in Westwood.
GO BRUINS.
30 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
If they have an outside game,
and are even slightly better than Drago at shot selection, they could be very helpful in filling in for the void left by Michael Roll. I’m not saying that they should be playing outside-in, but it would be nice for teams to have to play UCLA honestly and not stack the key knowing that Lee can only hit a shot from 15 feet and in.
I don't think Lee will stick around
by the time they get on the court (if they go through the transfer).
That's true
Well I just like them because they offer versatility. They’ll probably come off the bench so having the ability for either of them to step in anywhere from the 3 to the 5 spot is a plus
Yeah, I think they can be helpful if they come in
As I said I like the idea of having two solid coachable kids on the roster. They have the size and frame for being decent bigs. The question for me is athleticism and durability.
It’s definitely an interesting move on the part of Howland.
developments
Wow, if we could get them to transfer, I wouldn’t even hesitate for a second. I don’t care if it limits the number of scholarships for the next recruiting class – one in the hand is worth…well anyway. I would be absolutely stoked to see these guys in Westwood.
As for the Terrence Jones situation, the thing that kills me is the Calipari role. What an absolute scumbag. I’ve always hated this guy (I recall some pretty unflattering comments he made about UCLA a couple years ago) and this just cements his reputation. It amazes me how the media just LOVES this guy and never seems to recall how his last 2 college programs got sanctioned and had to forfeit games (including 2 final four appearances). Kentucky has made a deal with the devil and they will be paying the price for it sooner rather than later. But that call he made to Jones right after he committed to Washington is classless and sums him up perfectly.
Traditional media
is overwhelmingly made up of shallow MIMBOs/BIMBOs. Perspective has never been important to them.
Hate Calipari all you want.
But please, educate yourself before spewing bilious invective. Calipari did not call Jones, Jones called him to tell him about his decision – just as you would expect he would.
When we dislike someone, it’s easy to reflexively assume the worst. Unfortunately, that assumption is usually wrong. I don’t begrudge anyone their opinion of Calipari – my experience is that it is the result of the constant barrage of sportswriters around the USA who have decided that waxing Pharisaical about easy targets increases their readership. The conclusion is that there must have been “… some kinda cheatin’ goin on thar.” It just is what it is.
Believe it or not, I used to have a similar opinion of Calipari – until I took the time to do the research. I don’t expect you to do that, though. He’s not your coach, right?
The Devil probably wouldn’t bother to raise millions of dollars for devastated Haiti in the middle of the basketball season, something which arguably cost us one of our three losses. But even the most rabid of UK fans are fine with that trade-off.
Just so you know, I’m not and never have been a UCLA hater, and I wish you guys all the best next year. I just have this Quixotic mission of trying to correct misinformation about Calipari wherever I see it. He surely isn’t a saint, and there are plenty of good, fair reasons to criticize Calipari. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Misdirected frustration
You should be lodging your complaint with Percy Allen of the Seattle Times who reported that Calipari called Jones. Not us. I simply blockquoted what Allen reported. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter who called whom. What matters here is that at least from the perspective it looks like a coach who lost out on a recruiting battle is trying to guilt trip a kid into changing his mind. That is classless and par for an “individual” who was classless and ungracious following his team’s choke job against UCLA in the Elite Eight few years ago.
Yes, we don’t really care much for an individual whose Final-4 runs were vacated because of shadiness. His humanitarian gestures are great to hear about. Good for him. May be he can open up a “Humanitarian” website just like Peter Carroll to let the whole world know about it too.
Look. I don’t have anything against Kentucky. I certainly have nothing but respect for the community you run. However, I have been around long enough to know that I would never want someone like Calipari leading our basketball program. You guys have your fun and go crazy with him but keep your frustration focused at those who are reporting the information on him. Good luck.
I couldn’t imagine why Kentucky fans would be at all sensitive about people calling their coach a dirtbag……
"Don't wear socks in the rain."
by cybermaldonado on May 2, 2010 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions
media
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s the same media that spends countless hours with their noses firmly up Petey’s arse.
Calipari makes me just as sick.
Why the hate on Terrence Jones? WE SHOULD CARE, And recruiting NEVER ends
Regardless of whatever issues Terrence Jones may have had with UCLA, the FACT IS, he is a major stud 5-star recruit, took a campus visit here, could have been a MAJOR impact player this year, AND IS NOT CUMMING TO UCLA.
I APPLAUD the research into the enemies chatboards (Wash). But to say and have the mentality we should have never recruited Jones / or be “associated,” with his recruiting is IGNORANT. At least being mentioned in recruiting circles builds a “name,” with future and current recruits and what schools they consider. Being that Jones was a west coast kid, if our name wasn’t involved, only Washington and Oregon would have been seen as contenders for him. THAT IS BS. We should NEVER get out-recruited by THOSE schools.
BEN HOWLAND IS ONE OF THE BEST COACHES IN THE GAME TODAY. X AND O’S. BUT, 50% of coaching now is RECRUITING. This is where we are getting KILLED.
Instead of being sore fans saying “I don’t care,” “we never had a chance,” we need to change our attitude as fans, because as much as I don’t like it, stud recruits and freshman are impacting the game more than ever. Yes, I’ve always said, EXPERIENCE BEATS TALENT, BUT… THE GAME IS CHANGING. If you don’t think that we’re going to need Fat Albert Smith and Tyler Lamb to be MAJOR contributors this year, than you’re still living in the 90’s.
Say what you want about “one and dones,” not winning championships (YET), blah blah, I would have taken a 35-3 season and Elite 8 appearance UK made over NOT making the tourney and sub .500 record (which is something I NEVER want to experience again). Georgia Tech doesn’t make the tourney without one and done Derrick Favors. Not being in an NCAA tournament every year is unacceptable to me. I am rational, and while we may not field a final 4 team every year, we should field a team that is worthy enough of the tournament.
FYI – I’m not defending Coach Cal, but reports are that JONES MAY HAVE CALLED HIM.
Straight from the enemies (Wash) reporters:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2011750911_maybe_not_cold.html
What I’m saying, is that this is NOT ILLEGAL. NO LOI was signed. Apparently, Jones hadn’t made up his mind when he reached the table. That is crazy.
Say what you want about Cal and his recruiting methods (illegal, gives good head, etc.), but that kind of tenacity, and the desire to get the best to cum, is the difference between US and the traditional basketball powerhouses (KU, UNC, DUKE, UK), getting the best recruits. And for all those old-school thinkers that still believe these schools get recruits because of what the school name is, WAKE UP: UK NEVER had this consistent level of recruits with Tubby or Billy Gillispie. It’s about the COACH. People want to play for the COACH.
We should be right up there getting 5-star, AA’s, superstuds, once we fix our recruiting methods. We’re too GREAT of a program NOT TO CARE ABOUT THE BEST RECRUITS.
Simple suggestion for you
Go root for Calipari. If you want a UCLA head coach to be like John Calipari, this is not the community for you.
This is why UK got Calipari
Say what you want about "one and dones," not winning championships (YET), blah blah, I would have taken a 35-3 season and Elite 8 appearance UK made over NOT making the tourney and sub .500 record (which is something I NEVER want to experience again).
They’d rather have a winning season than a .500 season regardless of all other considerations. I don’t think that’s true of UCLA fans. Personally, I’d take the sub .500 season over cheating and inevitably having all those wins thrown out. Obviously those aren’t the only options, and Howland should be doing a better job. But that doesn’t mean he should be Calipari.
by SuperBruinMan on May 1, 2010 10:27 PM PDT up reply actions
it's been
at least 6 months since I last posted on BN, yet I cannot consider myself a part of the BN community without calling this piece of garbage out. Seriously, learn to properly capitalize your posts and then come back to us. I cannot with words explain how thankful I am for the work Achilles and Nestor do in terms of cleaning up the board; without you we wouldn’t just be lost, we’d cease to exist.
B.F.
Jerime Anderson isn't the answer; Matt Carlino is a very nice signing.
UCLA needs bodies; talented ones. They’ve become enamored with ratings and athletes and they need basketball players.
They have no point guard. Lee is an undersized off guard playing point, and Jerime Anderson is just awful. Can’t shoot, can’t pass, but he plays hard; made great dunks in high school. Not exactly what they need.
Any transfer is just speculation. These players change their minds like the wind. They have to get more talent though.
LOVE the Wear Twins comparison to KEEFE
Good one Nestor about the Wear Twins: “two more McDonald All Americans from the OC in the mold of James Keefe transferring into our program.”
I’m excited because that adds 10 more fouls per game!
Dude. Seriously.
There is not claim there. I knew and spent quite a bit of time with JK. You may know him strictly through the TV broadcasts and therefore fail to recognize the positive influence he had on the program outside the bright lights. This is a point of contention that I am more than happy to lose my posting privileges over. Having been there, I feel compelled to dispel any such rumors as they arise. Keefe is not a Wear twin and should never be compared to one. Period.
B.F.
FWIW
Being compared to JK is not a bad thing. Notice I used initials for JK. It’s because I respected what he gave to UCLA. He was a warrior. I do think JK had limited athleticism but he was one of the smarter players in Howland’s roster. His career was marred by some unfortunate injuries and frankly Howland made some bad decisions concerning his spot in the roster. Through it all he remained loyal to UCLA. So compared to JK is not necessarily a bad thing.
Nestor be responsible; this is why blogs can't be taken serious; friends said they might transfer? omg
I scoured the internet and there aren’t even rumors of the Wear twins transferring. I just read 2 pieces on the Wear twins and how excited they are about the upcoming season with NC. You not only talk about this “RUMOR” of them transferring, you talk about the pro’s and cons if they did? how irresponsible to print the pro’s and con’s when these are wishful rumors.
This is why the internet is such a joke sometimes. These are rumors and cant’ be taken seriously. The Wear twins are not transferring so I’m LOL at this. come on. Deal with what is not what might be.
I saw the ESPN special on basketball and football recruiting. Out of the top 100 players in football and basketball, 50% of the players in the top 100 never pan out. Many teams are more into the rankings than in the players. Keefe was supposed to be a monster scorer in high school, and he was never an offensive threat. Anderson was supposed to be one of the top PG’s in the nation and that is comical. He tries hard but he can’t pass or shoot. In fact his pass against Cal that was so bad, came to Roll and he made the winning shot.
UCLA has to get back to choosing solid basketball players like in their final 4 teams.
The achiles heel of UCLA also is they dont’ get it offensively. You have to have a lot of guys that can hit 3’s like Duke and Kansas. Kentucky flat out could not shoot the ball and if you kept them out of the paint, they eventually will lose.
Track record
Few things
If you read what I wrote nowhere did I conclude that the Wear twins are transferring to UCLA. I wrote that there have been discussions of it in the UCLA circles (which we are fairly plugged into as noted by our track record). There has been chatter going on about it for two days now on BRO. So it’s not a secret. If you don’t believe that Wear twins transferring to UCLA is not a real possibility, then no one is forcing you. However, do not lecture us on what we should be writing or not writing on BN.
Second, we do have a track record here on BN. If you look back at our immediate history we said a while ago even before the season was offer that Morgan and Moser were most likely going to transfer out of the program. Both of those events took place. Before the local traditional media even found out who he was, we mentioned that Phil Mathews was one of the candidates to become an assistant at UCLA. Well that happened as well. Plus we have our extended track record from our last five year in both football and basketball, which included tracking the firing and hiring of a football coach, tracking the tenure of one and dones like Holiday and Love (while many were in delusion thinking they would come back for another year), and the recruiting scene this past season when we held firm about the futures of McCallum and Jones wrt to UCLA. So you look foolish questioning our credibility.
Lastly, if you don’t want to read or believe what we write on BN, then don’t hang around here. We are not going to miss you much. Don’t come back with a defensive/snarky response. If you take a single shot against this community or the moderators you will be gone. As I said, you are not going to be missed.
Don't forget.
Brought up the possibility of Norm Chow coming in as a OC under Rick Neuheisel when the media at large were laughing down their sleeves that we had been turned down by NC for the Head Coaching position.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Stop With the Star Rating
Butler beat UCLA by 2 points…lost the National Championship by 2 points with this team:
Hahn-JR G 2* 4.9 pts 0.415(3pt) 0.9 RB 14 Asst
Vanzant-JR G NR 2.9 pts 0.361(3pt) 1.7 RB 45 Asst
Jukes-SR F 3* 2.8 pts 0.340(3pt) 1.2RB 21 Asst
Hayward-SO G/F 2* 15.5 pts 0.294(3pt) 8.2 RB 62 Asst
Mack-SO G 2* 14.1 pts 0.391(3pt) 3.7RB 115 Asst
Nored-SO G 2* 6.0 pts 0.196(3pt) 3.0RB 136 Asst
Howard-JR F 3* 11.6 pts 0.237(3pt) 5.2RB 30 Asst
Veasley-SR G/F 2* 9.8 pts 0.346(3pt) 4.3 RB 36 Asst
33-5 Overall ‘09-’10 (26-6 in ‘08-’09, 28-4 in ‘07-’08)
18-0 Conference
5-1 Post Season
Brad Stevens 3rd year -
Steven’s coaching wants to ensure team’s play reflects his demeabnor; a calm coach remaining poised in difficult game situations, “I don’t want to lose a game because of my approach,” he told himself. Accordingly, he developed a strategy of always remaining calm and focused during games.
Stevens’ teams are built around solid basketball fundamentals and good team work, rather than individual basketball skill. His teams are known for their defense, forcing opponents into uncharacteristic mistakes.
SOUND FAMILIAR??? -
Coach Howland - stop going after the NBA-aspiring prima donnas and go after college BB players and UCLA will be in the huint year after year!!!
I don't think
It has to be one or the other. I think it is always about putting together best combination of NBA talents and good players who will be around for 3-4 years. There are NBA talents around who are great kids. We have had our share of those in recent years. So we have to keep going after them.
What I don’t like though is the Calipari method of going all out after every single 5 star athletes. I think the coaches need to be strategic about it and figure out what combination would given them the best chance to create a good team based on solid chemistry that will also play along its vision.
We can’t blame Howland and his staff for putting together that star studded (recruiting ranking wise) class of 2008. What we hope though was that lesson from that class would make Howland more strategic about pursuing future kids. I thought bringing in kids like Honeycutt, Lane, Nelson, Stover and Moser was pretty good.
What I don’t get though is recruiting of guys like Rinardo Sidney, CJ Leslie and Terrence Jones. These are Calipari type of recruits. I think UCLA’s true identity under Howland reflects what have been built under coaches like Izzo and now Stevens in Butler. So we need to go after kids who would fit in a program like Michigan State.
I don’t really care much for Howland trying to play Izzo ball by going after Calipari type of recruits. There has been a disconnect there in last two years and it will be interesting to see if Howland and his staff can get their strategy right.
Our best teams had 4 and 5-Star guys
Love, Affalo, Farmar. Shipp. Collison, etc.
I’m leaving out Holiday for personal reasons, but he was 5 star.
Our Best teams were built on Talent. But I’m a fan of getting the Best to play here.
’08 was a bad class. It happens.
respectfully, sir, i disagree
LRMAM was 3 star. but i’d take 5 mbah a moute’s 8 days a week. RN was a 3 star. maybe he has a twin? oh wait, he’s not from the OC. but i’ll let you have your 4 star stanback, and your 4 star drew gordon. but now to the point.
you are correct (partially) in terms of when you say our best teams were built on talent. they were. without a doubt. KL had more talent in his left big toe than a certain bricklayer from belgrade had in his whole body.
where you are incorrect is that AA JF DC KL and RW had the character to go along with their talent. terrence jones does not. and therefore we should NEVER go after guys like that. (damn supposedly my dog is done for…)
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." --John Wooden
Only one team in the last 31 years
has won an NCAA championship without a McDonald’s All American on its roster. Just throwing that out there.
If we are going to talk about UNC stars transferring to UCLA
I’m going to lament not getting Alex Stephenson, who very much wanted to come to UCLA, was very good friends of Lorenzo Mata Real and somehow got overlooked in the recent trend of poor scouting/recruiting.
As we all know, he is now tearing it up at hated South Central.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bruins Nation
Related FanShots on Bruins Nation
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
