Once again we will start with notes from the football team. Brian Dohn posted the following impressions of returning players on incoming freshmen who are have been participating in the off-season 7-on-7 drills:
Returning players are talking about the performances of cornerback Aaron Hester, safety Rahim Moore and receiver Antwan Moutra during the first week of 7-on-7 passing drills, but I also had a few players speak about tight end Cory Harkey.
According to one of the players, Harkey has the ability to be UCLA's next great tight end once he gets acclimated to college. However, with Ryan Moya (who looks markedly bigger and stronger) and Logan Paulsen on the roster, not to mention Nate Chandler, I'm hearing Harkey will red-shirt.
Again as exciting and positive these notes are we should curb our enthusiasm a bit given the kind of glowing reports we have gotten from off season workouts in previous seasons. Right now we can only hope that kids like Hester and Moore can make immediate impact in the defensive backfield, given the experience we lost through the graduation of Keyes, Horton, and Brown.
Speaking of impressions from returning players, Tobi Umodu checks in again with this note on the upcoming season in the Canyon News:
The Bruins date with Tennessee looms closer and closer, and the football team is doing everything it can to prepare for the big game. On the June 24, the Bruins began six weeks of voluntary training to get themselves ready for training camp and clash with the volunteers. The Bruins are now entering their fourth week of training and are looking forward to putting their training to good use on the field.
"We've been pushing ourselves to our limits," said linebacker Frank Guzman, "We are all working hard to reach our goals and try to prove everybody wrong. There are a lot of expectations this year and we feel like we are a team to be reckoned with."
The Bruins begin training camp on August 5, and their path to what looks to be an exciting season.
Hmm ... anyone have any idea where Frank Guzman came from? Haven't heard his name before. Anyway, keep it coming Tobi.
One player we will definitely track closely this year is RB -Raymond Carter - who is making a comeback from ACL injury. TSN has singled Carter out as a possible "comeback player" for this coming season:
RB Raymond Carter, UCLA: The young back might not be the best on his roster, but his breakaway speed gives offensive coordinator Norm Chow another scoring weapon. He tore his right ACL during last year's training camp but recovered to practice in the spring.
If Raymond can come back and provide an option for Chow, it would be a huge development for our offense. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Moving over to hoops - Mike Miller - a columnist (?) on MSNBC.com is doing a countdown post on the 25 greatest hoops program of all time. He is up to number 14 with Illinois. So far of teams of interesting he has Notre Dame checking in at 22 and Michigan State at number 15 (I think I would have ranked Spartans higher than the Illinis given their recent success under Izzo and their history with Magic ... but may be I am partial because of being a Laker fan).
Also concerning the hoops Dohn has been obsessed with Luc and the Olympics. From the latest it looks like the Bucks want him to concentrate on Summer Leagues, which IMHO is understandable given the investment they are making on their second round pick. For those who are interesting Luc made his debut on Saturday night in Milwaukee's 88-79 loss to Memphis. Luc logged in about 29 minutes. Hopefully he will experience some of the success of RW, who as noted by norcald503 is tearing up Orlando Summer League. Looks like rest of the country are starting to find out little by little what we experienced for last 2+ years:
Will we ever get tired of watching those highlights?
GO BRUINS.