There's lots of news in the run up to the NBA draft on June 26. Our early entries, Kyle Anderson, Zach LaVine and Jordan Adams, are expected to go #20, 27 and 45 respectively according to CBS. Meanwhile, Draft Express has them at #17, 29 and 26. The news here is that Kyle seems to have overtaken Zach in the mock drafts.
There's plenty of non-draft related news. Let's get to it.
- Oregon State fired its coach, Craig Robinson, yesterday. The timing was odd. Why wait until May, after the NCAA Basketball Recruiting Spring Evaluation Period? Sounds like the boosters took their time stepping up.
- Oh, and by the way, there are two UCLA-connected candidates, Ben Howland and current assistant David Grace. We can't do anything about Bryce Alford for now, but an assistant upgrade would be nice. Go Beavers!
- Poor Ben. Rejected by Marquette, Missouri and Tennessee. Also rumored to be on the lists at California, Wake Forest and Boston College. Gary Parrish is shilling for him now. This is from the Oregon newspaper--Ben might be a serious candidate there.
- Things have gone awry at Oregon. Not only is Dominic Artis transferring, three players were suspended, including Damyean Dotson, after a forcible rape investigation.
- How is 2015 recruiting going for the Bruins? You already know Aaron Holiday is lined up to play point guard (or not). Here's Scout's list of prospects. We have 14 offers out. Who do we any kind of shot at? My realistic list would be Diamond Stone (frrom Milwaukee and friends with Kevon Looney), Stephen Zimmerman (step mom a Bruin, and made his list of eight), Chance Comanche (from LA) and Bennie Boatwright (also from LA). BTW, Arizona just signed up another Socal point guard for 2015, Justin Simon. The Sean Miller train keeps rolling. In 2015 they will have Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Kadeem Allen and Tyler Dorsey. The last two are wings who want to play point - their "NBA position." UCLA needs point guards? So what! I'll stack 'em like Calipari. Will Dorsey, teammate of the Hamilton brothers at Bosco, flip?
- The transfer market has exploded in recent years. This year's list is huge. We've been reporting here that there have been several point guards who are immediately available, but all we get is crickets emanating from Pauley. Kansas grabbed a nice one, albeit actually a decommit. Interestingly, after Jordan Adams changed his mind, and entered the draft, the Pauley machine actually started to make noise about the need for a shooting guard (we've been told we are SET at point guard). Namon Wright is one of the names floated. We recruited him early on, but we went cold on him. He decommitted from Missouri, so he's in play again. Good thing about him is that he plays defense, however, there are red flags here. You might already know I'm not a big fan of Findlay Prep.