Hoops Notes (Updated - AA Coming Back)

UPDATE II 5:41 pm EST: It's official. Here is the UCLA release. AA to come back for his junior season. Bummer of a soccer game. It looked like Pac-10 refs. working the US game. Horrible and atrocious calls. -N

UPDATE I 11:38 am EST: LA Times is reporting that Arron Afflalo is coming back. From AA's Dad:

Happy early Father's Day to Mr. Afflalo! Now we need to wait on Jordan. Perhaps we will know before the day is over? In any event we should more than rest easy considering we are getting AA back (still waiting for official annoucement though). With AA we will have a pre-season top-10 team. Jordan makes us top-5. Either way it's all good. -N

As posted already in the diary section UCLA released it's official 06-07 schedule yesterday.  Here it is:

Thurs., Nov. 2    Exhibition
Thurs., Nov. 9    Exhibition
Wed., Nov. 15    Brigham Young
Mon.-Wed., Nov. 20-22    @ Maui Invitational (Lahaina Civic Center) (Chaminade, DePaul, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Memphis, Oklahoma, Purdue and UCLA)
Tues., Nov. 28    Long Beach State
Sun., Dec. 3    UC Riverside
Tues., Dec. 5    Cal State Fullerton
Sat., Dec. 9    @ Wooden Classic (Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim)
Game One - UCLA vs. Texas A & M (11:30 a.m. PST/tentative)
Dec. 11-15    Final Exams
Sat., Dec. 16    Oakland University (MI)
Tue., Dec. 19    Sam Houston State
Sat., Dec. 23    Michigan
Thurs., Dec. 28    Washington State
Sat., Dec. 30    Washington
Thurs., Jan. 4    @ Oregon State
Sat., Jan. 6    @ Oregon
Sat., Jan. 13    @ USC
Thurs., Jan. 18    Arizona State
Sat., Jan. 20    Arizona
Thurs., Jan. 25    @ California
Sat., Jan. 27    @ Stanford
Thu., Feb. 1    Oregon
Sat., Feb. 3    Oregon State
Wed., Feb. 7    USC
Sat., Feb. 10    @ West Virginia
Thurs., Feb. 15    @ Arizona
Sat., Feb. 17    @ Arizona State
Thurs., Feb. 22    Stanford
Sat., Feb. 24    California
Thurs., Mar. 1    @ Washington
Sat., Mar. 3    @ Washington State
Mar. 7 - Mar. 10    Pac-10 Tournament @ Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Mar. 15 - Mar. 18    NCAA First and Second Round
Mar. 22 - Mar. 25    NCAA Regional
Mar. 31 - Apr. 2    NCAA Final Four

Some really quick thoughts. I am not going to form expectations at least till 2 pm tomorrow because that's the deadline for Jordan and Arron to make their final decision re. the NBA draft. AA should be coming back (will be shocked if he doesn't) and as for Jordan I have no clue. If both come back we should be the no. 2 team in the nation. If we just get AA back we will still be a top-10 caliber team, and if we for some ungodly reason we lose both, we still will be a top-20/tourney/Pac-10 championship contending team. We will find out either by the end of the day today or by tomorrow what will go down. If I am not online and you already see the story up on the wires, please post them in the diary section.

The schedule is all right. I am not really going to lose sleep over who we are not scheduling for OOC games. Coach Howland likes scheduling the season in a way that gets the team ready for the tourney and allows it develop through the season. We have marquee games against Michigan and West Virginia (I will try to attend that one) during the season. We are playing in one of the premier pre-season tourney games, and also in the Wooden Classic against one of the better teams in Big-12. That second to last game at Washington could be a doozy. But then again if both JF/AA come back it may not be all that because we will probably be running away with the Pac-10 regular season championship.

Daily News also has basketball report today which includes a note on Mata having arthroscopic surgery on this right knee. This is a tough kid. He should be fine.

I can't wait till this November. Good times.

GO BRUINS.