Bruin Bites: Kobe Praises AA, Bruins Graduate, Wooden Camps Teach Life Lessons, and Matt Ware Interview

Congratulations, you made it to the weekend. Since we last checked in, Ryan went over our baseball team's season of lost opportunities, ESPN agreed with BN on the "UCLA Factor" in the NBA, Todd "Dog Fighter" McNair made the foolhardy decision to sue the NCAA, Patroclus broke down U$C's history of NCAA violations, and ATV came home to Westwood to finish his degree.

With that said, let's get straight into your bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

• It's that time of the year again.  The sun is out, shorts and sandals are back, and another class of Bruins wrap up their final days as students in Westwood. Yesterday kicked off graduation weekend with the commencement ceremonies for the College of Letters and Science, with Aaron Williams, the director of the Peace Corps, the featured keynote speaker.  The balance of the weekend will be filled with other graduate ceremonies for individual departments or other schools.  Graduating seniors, welcome to life as an alum.
• Speaking of young people learning valuable lessons, the Wooden basketball camp is in full swing, offering lessons in not just the fundamentals of basketball but the fundamentals of living the "Wooden way" both on and off the court.  This year marks the first time in the 30 years of the program that it has come to Hawaii.  Any life lessons from Coach is a good way to set these kids up for future success.
• Moving on to the football front, new UCLA defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield is employing a recruiting strategy that (hopefully) will pay off major recruiting dividends.  According to recruit Jared Afalava, Breckterfield is seeking to bring all the best Polynesian players to Westwood.  UCLA has traditionally fallen behind schools like Utah and BYU in tracking down regular, top-tier Polynesian players.  Inoke aims to change that and open a "Poly pipeline" to Westwood.  Unfortunately, as to Afalava, it doesn't appear to be a significant factor (although with recruits, that can always change in a blink of an eye).
• Sticking with football, Larry Brown Sports had a short interview with former UCLA cornerback/safety Matt Ware regarding the new rules going into effect this upcoming fall for the NFL, how some defensive rules are inherently unfair, and how the NFL's chief concern is high-octane offense to sell more tickets.
• Switching to basketball now, Ben Howland's recent hiring of former AAU coach Korey McCray, as reported by CBS Sports, has not materialized into McCray bringing star prospect Jordan Adams with him to Westwood.  At this point, Adams, a 6'5" small forward (a position of need for the Bruins following the departures of Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee to the NBA) is still keeping his recruitment open, although those in his inner circle speculate that Miami and UCLA are the two major contenders.
• Finally, BN's favorite Ben Ball Warrior, AA is currently a NBA free agent in the hunt for a team.  Rumor is that Arron is inclined to stay with the Nuggets, but the Los Angeles Times is running a profile of the Bruin Ben Ball Warrior and how he would fit into the Lakers' current squad. Best of all, the Black Mamba himself had some praise for our favorite cornerstone of Ben's UCLA basketball program.  Kobe also opined that Afflalo would be much more of an offensive threat if not saddled with Denver's more anemic offense.
  

And there are your Bruin Bites to kick off this sunny California weekend.  Run through them, fire away your thoughts, then put on the sunglasses and soak up some sun.

GO BRUINS