It is all over the internets now.
Love and Westbrook will be announcing their decision to make themselves available for the NBA draft at a 1 pm press conference this afternoon per the LA Times.
Also from the Oregonian (as an example to show that this not some grand conspiracy by Brian Dohn):
Kevin Love, who in one year went from high school star at Lake Oswego to college All-American at UCLA, will make another big leap today when he announces that he will himself available for the NBA Draft.
A source close to the Love family told The Oregonian on Wednesday that Love will announce his intention to enter the draft. UCLA has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. today at the J.D. Morgan Center, the school's athletic administration building at which Love, his father, Stan, and Bruins coach Ben Howland will appear.
Love joins a large group of freshmen around the country who have declared for the draft after an outstanding season, including Memphis' Derrick Rose, USC's O.J. Mayo, Indiana's Eric Gordon, Kansas State's Michael Beasley and Arizona's Jerryd Bayless.
Love entered his freshman season with plenty of expectations after being named a high school all-American at Lake Oswego. He met them with an outstanding season for the Bruins, averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds and shooting 55.9 percent from the field, and was named a first-team All-American and Pacific-10 Conference player of the year.
Here is the blurb from the AP wire.A source close to the Love family told The Oregonian on Wednesday that Love will announce his intention to enter the draft. UCLA has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. today at the J.D. Morgan Center, the school's athletic administration building at which Love, his father, Stan, and Bruins coach Ben Howland will appear.
Love joins a large group of freshmen around the country who have declared for the draft after an outstanding season, including Memphis' Derrick Rose, USC's O.J. Mayo, Indiana's Eric Gordon, Kansas State's Michael Beasley and Arizona's Jerryd Bayless.
Love entered his freshman season with plenty of expectations after being named a high school all-American at Lake Oswego. He met them with an outstanding season for the Bruins, averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds and shooting 55.9 percent from the field, and was named a first-team All-American and Pacific-10 Conference player of the year.
As Dohn mentioned earlier this week the move became all but official when Coach Howland told Love that he has a very good chance to be a lottery pick. Unlike Love, Westbrook’s situation is a little more ‘precarious’:
Westbrook also is not expected to hire an agent, and his draft position appears more precarious. After talking with NBA personnel, Howland said last week Westbrook was targeted as being a No. 15 to No. 25 pick in the draft.
The athletic sophomore guard saw his stock sky-rocket this season as he emerged as the Pac-10's defensive player of the year, and his ability to drive to the basket impressed scouts. However, he shot 33.8 percent (26 of 77) from 3-point range and the consistency of his jump shot is in question.
Westbrook averaged 12.7 points per game, and led UCLA with 167 assists, and he played point guard when Collison was injured at the beginning of the season. Howland said if Westbrook returned and Collison did not, Westbrook would be UCLA's point guard next season.
RW is taking a chance by making himself for these NBA tryouts. Because keep in mind there are doubts about this outside shooting and his ability to play pg. So if he doesn’t perform well in the tryouts, it could affect his decision whether or not to keep his name in the draft. More from Dohn on factors going into RW’s decision:
The athletic sophomore guard saw his stock sky-rocket this season as he emerged as the Pac-10's defensive player of the year, and his ability to drive to the basket impressed scouts. However, he shot 33.8 percent (26 of 77) from 3-point range and the consistency of his jump shot is in question.
Westbrook averaged 12.7 points per game, and led UCLA with 167 assists, and he played point guard when Collison was injured at the beginning of the season. Howland said if Westbrook returned and Collison did not, Westbrook would be UCLA's point guard next season.
Westbrook, who could be a top 5 pick in the 2009 draft, could put his name in this year, go through workouts and have difficult shooting the ball. If he comes back to UCLA, the memory left with NBA player personnel folks is that Westbrook wasn't a pure shooter, and that could impact his status for 2009.
So this is somewhat of a gamble for RW. Hopefully it works out for him. I am not going to hold out hope for his return to Westwood. However, in terms of come back for one more year, we have already presented the argument how it could really help him position as one of the top players in next year’s draft.DC will probably make his decision later next week. We can pretty much count him as gone. Like I have said we should get mentally ready for a nuclear scenario no matter what and let the process work out on its own. At the end of the day with Howland in charge, things are going to work out all right.
GO BRUINS.