UCLA Hoops Quickshots: LMR’s Big Win, Artis a Duck & Other Notes
by Nestor on Oct 31, 2011 6:44 AM PDT
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PrintGot some good news and sort of bad news (although I am not really all that shook up about it). Let's go with the good news and it has to do with Ben Ball great LMR. SBN blog the Ridiculous Upside posted about Team USA losing to Mexico in Pan Am games with this fun blurb:
Former UCLA fan-favorite Lorenzo Mata-Real scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds and swatted away four shots to lead Mexico while former D-League player Jovan Harris scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished four assists.
Now I can't recognize most of the players who were in "Team USA," but I don't really care. Just reading that blurb made me smile. Now on to some bad news. Well it's not really bad "news" since we knew this was coming: Dominic Artis is headed to Oregon. Now I understand some of you will not be very thrilled at this but I don't think Oregon did anything bad to land Artis. The more I read up on this situation, the more I can't really blame the Duck coaches for recruiting Artis tenaciously and letting him know that at UCLA he would have to share the ball with Kyle. You know all the hype about Anderson being the next Magic Johnson didn't help either.
Oregon coaches took advantage of the hype and leveraged it for the Ducks. Kudos to them. Hope the Bruin coaches up their game even more on the recruiting trail. We have been on the other end when Howland convinced Michael Roll to decommit from UCSB and commit to us. It is up to UCLA coaches to ensure we finish out our class - which still should be a great one - strong. Preferably the class should include a guard to address the back-court depth concerns in our program.
Speaking of our coaches, ICYMI here is the video of Coach Howland and LJ from last Friday's media day:
Coach Howland started his session by talking about going "big" this season. Most of the comments here are not a surprise because we have blogged the highlights in last few days but still fun to think about hoops. But there were couple of items to mark down that I don't think has been mentioned on BN yet:
- Howland is considering a basketball trip to China (OH BOY)
- Brendan Lane is graduating in 3 years in economics, which is awesome (econ. is actually a tough major from North Campus). This probably means that Lane will likely get a graduate degree just like former Bruin greats such as PAA and Donnie Edwards.
Let's bring back the Pac-12 championship in Westwood.
GO BRUINS.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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I know it's not a shock about Artis...
and I agree that Orgeon did nothing wrong (underhanded maybe, but not technically out of bounds). Still, I’m still very disappointed about the news. We desperately need a point guard of the future and the more I watched his videos, the more excited I got about him. His mom was recently quoted as saying UCLA was still his favorite and I figured he just wanted to enjoy the recruiting process like some of his peers. Maybe my passion bucket was unrealistically full about his re-committing. I definitely think Artis and Anderson could’ve played in the same backcourt.
That being said, if I had to choose one over the other, Anderson is a no-brainer.
Any other point guard prospects for this class we’re still going after?
by DoubleTroubleBruin on Oct 31, 2011 8:22 AM PDT reply actions
Unclear if there is any guard in this year's class Howland is still going after
I thought he’d go after Tyrone Wallace but I guess it hasn’t really happened. Howland may be zeroing on Zach Levine (class of ‘12) but kind of wish we had plan B in this year’s class.
We are still looking good with our other targets including the Big Cheese (Shabbaz), Parker and may be Goodwin (who is coming in for a visit I think this weekend).
Hypothetically an unfair front line...
If Parker and Shaq come to town, and Smith/Reeves stick around another year (a long shot, I realize, but bear with me here…) our front line would be just plain unfair. We could hypotheticlally trot out a starting 5 of all McD caliber giants. I’m just sayin’.
Also, as a side note, I don’t remember where I read it, but wasn’t Wallace strongly considering Oregon? If so, Artis commitment was of interest to him as well, I’d imagine…
by DoubleTroubleBruin on Oct 31, 2011 9:21 AM PDT up reply actions
Anderson
I wrote this in another comment thread but there could be a real silver lining here. If Anderson’s decision to come to UCLA is enough to drive a top 10 point guard to withdraw his commitment, maybe Anderson is THAT good with the ball in his hands… Remember, these guys all know each other’s strengths and weakneses well. Also, it potentially speaks volumes about Atris’ competitive spirit.
by DoubleTroubleBruin on Oct 31, 2011 10:19 AM PDT up reply actions
Ugh we should have stuck with LJ Rose
high character kid and now he’s off to Baylor. We really don’t have anything in the way of a backup PG unless Norman Powell breaks out into RW 2.0.
I guess the first bad sign for me was when I heard about Artis transferring to Findlay Prep, a somewhat suspicious organization.
Did he sign a LOI?
Is there a possibility the UCLA coaching staff can keep recruiting the kid? If he hasn’t signed that LOI then UCLA should keep on him and make really pound the fact that at UCLA he’s going to get as NBA ready as possible. He’s going to get the PT and the opportunity to play for National Championships. There has got to be a way to lure him back.
2012 is going to be a wild year
Tarczewski just commited to Arizona. Their class is epic. If we catch up by landing a good combination of (Shabazz/Tony/Shaq) it’s going to be fun to watch these two classes battle.
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