Wow. It's been an action-packed four days since we last checked in. First, Howland got a commitment from Dominic Artis, the future PG for UCLA. Meanwhile, we were discussing Dan Guerrero and the upcoming 2011 football season. We also had a flurry of football notes and breakdowns, beginning with Nestor breaking down some initial pointers from the fall depth chart, followed up by the Spaulding Roundup of news and information coming from the football program, and ultimately followed by the disappointing news that Brett Hundley will miss parts of fall camp due to a tore meniscus. On the flip side, we got a run down of how John Savage has been keeping the baseball program flying high on the recruiting trail. Turning back to football, BN began the first part of a three part break down and preview of this 2011 football squad, starting with a preview/overview of the special teams unit. Finally, the Pac-12 made some of the biggest waves, beginning with the annual conference media day on Tuesday, and following up with the massive news that the Pac-12 network has officially come to fruition through agreements with Time Warner, Comcast, and Cox. Sadly, our run-down ends on a couple of somber notes, as it appears that not only has Josh Smith gained some (unneeded) weight, the Bruins have lost Jerime Anderson for at least the season opener, if not substantially longer, for his role in a laptop theft on campus. So for now, JA is no longer JA, but Jerime Anderson.
With that, let's turn to the bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:
- Beginning with baseball, Trevor Bauer officially signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks this past Monday, putting pen to paper on a four-year contract that guarantees the former UCLA stand-out $4.45 million. Bauer will begin his professional career in Class A, having reported to the Visalia Rawhide on Tuesday. Let's tip our cap to him and don't be too surprised if Trevor finds himself being called up to the show sooner rather than later.
- Sticking with baseball, current Bruin left fielder Cody Keefer has been on fire during the summer Cape Cod season, being named to the Cape Cod League all-star team.
- Taking a page from the Patrick Cantlay book of off-season performances, UCLA tennis player Daniel Kosakowski defeated Denis Kudla at the Farmers Classic to qualify for his first ATP main draw.
- Moving on the basketball news, Ben Howland is getting an early jump on recruiting in the Class of 2015, showing serious interest in 14 year old Stephen Zimmerman, a kid about to start his freshman year of high school. That tends to happen when you're 6'10" at 14 years old and have some serious basketball skills. Zimmerman has already received an offer from UNLV and is attracting interest from other top programs, including UNC, Duke, and Kansas, as well as Pac-12 rival Arizona.
And that's your bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse for the tail end of this work week. Fire away with your thoughts in the thread.
GO BRUINS