Roundup from BN Walk: News & Notes

by Nestor on May 8, 2008 4:08 AM PDT in News Comment 5 comments

We will start our BN walk today from Baton Rouge. Per Chris Dufresne in the LA Times there has been no movement yet wrt to Morgan’s paperwork at LSU:

The Baton Rouge Advocate reported Morgan's mother, Bianca, has submitted paperwork to the LSU athletic department seeking her son's release.

"Nothing's happened yet," LSU spokesman Kent Lowe said Wednesday in an e-mail response to The Times. UCLA is prohibited by NCAA rules from commenting on recruits.

Notice how the LSU officials are no longer saying they haven’t received his paperwork. I think it is reasonable to interpret from Lowes statement that the LSU officials will try to take their time and try to convince Morgan to stay. They are not going to let him out of his NLI without making an effort to persuade him to stay.

As for the reference to the comments of Morgan’s mother here is the article from the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Regardless of how things turn out, Bianca Morgan said her son’s decision is final, an about-face from late April when Morgan and South Oak Cliff High School coach James Mays said the player was LSU-bound after an in-person meeting with new Tigers coach Trent Johnson on April 22.

Johnson replaced John Brady, who was fired Feb. 7.

Bianca Morgan said the final impetus for the change of heart was not hearing from Johnson since the meeting in Dallas two weeks ago.

"I was already not sure I wanted him to go there because of the coaching change and then when I didn’t get any calls back from Coach Johnson, that sealed it," she said. "I just felt like if you want a kid, you should at least try so show him some type of interest. Coach Brady and (LSU associate head coach Butch Pierre) really recruited BoBo well and made him feel like they wanted him at LSU and were always trying to get in touch with him.

"I don’t want my kid going somewhere he’s not wanted. If Trent would have shown some kind of interest, this might not have happened."

Reached Tuesday night, Johnson declined comment on Bianca Morgan’s comments.

The article is full of drama. Now wrt to the NLI please note that if (and right now it’s a big "if") LSU does relent and let Morgan out of his NLI, he will not be able to sign another NLI with UCLA. From the FAQs at national-letter.org:

NLI policy states a prospective student-athlete is only permitted to sign one valid NLI in an academic year. Therefore, if you sign a NLI during the early period and get a complete release by the institution or one of the NLI committees before the spring signing period ends, you are not permitted to sign a second NLI in the spring. You must wait until the next academic year to sign another valid National Letter of Intent.

You can read rest of the FAQ here. So what would UCLA do if Morgan does get a release and commits to UCLA? He could come in with a non-binding grant-in-aid scholarship (which he could easily get out of). We experienced this previously during the Lavin era with a recruit named Spencer Gloger. Needless to say in terms of basketball talent Morgan is a different level recruit than Gloger (and our program right now is at a different level than what it was back in those dark days). So we will see how it all plays out.

Moving over the baseball, the team is heading up to Corvallis for a huge series to keep their playoff hopes alive. CSTV.com has the preview which includes the following encouraging notes re UCLA on the road:

Earlier this spring, UCLA became just the second team in the past two seasons to win a three-game series at Arizona, which currently boasts an 18-3 home mark. The Bruins took the first two of three games at Arizona (March 28-30) to open Pac-10 play. Last season, the Wildcats posted a 28-4 home record, losing one home series to USC. The weekend of April 25-27, UCLA won two of three games at Washington, where the Huskies had previously recorded an 18-5 home record with just one home series loss to Cal Poly.

Let’s hope the guys can refocus and get a much needed series weekend in Corvallis. Speaking of being in focus the women’s water polo team will be gunning for their 4th consecutive NC. Good luck to our ladies.

GO BRUINS.

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Yikes

Nice post Nestor. I tended (last year) to give Trent the benefit of the doubt as the "nice guy" as he rarely did anything utterly classless like some other Pac-10 coaches. This is getting ugly and it's starting to look highly unlikely that LSU release him from his LOI.

by bruinhopeful on May 8, 2008 8:52 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It might not be entirely up to him

It sounds as if the LSU administration is ultimately responsible, and though you can bet that Johnson will have a considerable say in the matter, I don't believe it is entirely his decision to make. I'm still willing to give Trent the benefit of the doubt at this point as I feel he has built up some good will from his stay in the Pac 10.

by Tydides on May 8, 2008 10:35 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nothing Wrong With Johnson Talking to Morgan 1st

I can't fault Johnson for wanting to sit down with Morgan to talk things out. And, that is one reported reason why LSU has not honored Morgan's requested release.

I would expect CBH to do the same thing were one of our recruits to have a potential change of heart.

Johnson has said, publicly, in Lousianna papers, that he wants to build his program with players who want to be at LSU. I doubt he will force anyone to stay. And, so long as Morgan is not going to an SEC school, there is no harm to LSU in letting him come to Westwood.

I also think the NCAA LOI rule makes sense. It is not unfair to put us at some risk if we recruit someone who has withdrawn a LOI. In reality, the letters do not seem to be that binding anyway.

sjh

by Class of 66 on May 8, 2008 1:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Has anyone else noticed...

how much talking Morgan's mom and brother have done in the papers? It seems like the comments we hear are all from them and rarely from Morgan himself. If we do end up landing this player, I hope these two quiet down and let Coach Howland do his job and Morgan do his talking with his play on the court. However, I can't help but worry about the potential distractions that his family may be capable of bringing to UCLA.

GO BRUINS!

by rgalloucla on May 8, 2008 2:04 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm a little confused

on the NLI matter, does this mean he would be here first year not on an athletic scholarship?

Also just to comment back on Morgan's family, I'm thinking this more a situation that Morgan doesn't want to get to open about publicly. I'm sure part of the reason his family is doing the talking, is that if he does have to stay, he probably doesn't want to have many negative comments linked to him.

Regardless of where he goes, I don't think we'll hear much from his family after its all over with. Plus I feel like media is approaching them trying to get answers, once the season starts, stuff like this shouldn't come up..

O.A.

by Ollie on May 8, 2008 2:18 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs