Well two big news coming out of UCLA basketball program. The first one is not a surprise. We have heard the chatter of J'Mison Morgan transferring out of UCLA for a while. We got few emails yesterday about Morgan's post on his Facebook which made this a done deal but wanted to wait until we saw something in print. Well here it is directly from UCLA in a released entitled, 'J'mison Morgan Dismissed From UCLA Basketball Team":
UCLA men's basketball head coach Ben Howland announced today that 6-foot-10-inch sophomore center J'mison Morgan will not be returning next season. Morgan, from Dallas and South Oak Cliff High School will transfer to play his final years at another school.
Morgan will leave UCLA immediately and hasn't made a decision as to where he will transfer.
"I feel that it is in the best interest of this program and for J'mison Morgan that he no longer be a part of this team," Howland said. "We are supportive of him and his future in whatever direction he decides to go."
Morgan averaged 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game while appearing in 40 contests without making a start during his career with the Bruins (2008-09 and 2009-10). He played in 280 minutes (7.0 minutes per game) while shooting 46.1 percent (35-for-76) from the field and 38.9 percent (14-for-36) from the free-throw line in his two seasons. He scored his personal-best of eight points in a home win over FIU on Nov. 29, 2008 and grabbed a career-high five rebounds this year in the home win over New Mexico State (Dec. 15, 2009).
Well we wish Bobo luck. I don't really feel like rehashing his stay at UCLA. It's too bad it didn't work out but writing was on the wall during that Oregon homestand when he barely got minutes (even though the pretty much the entire frontcourt was banged up). He subsequently was suspended for a game and never got much action rest of this season. Let's hope it works out for him wherever he ends up. Good luck Bobo. Morgan's dismissal is not the only news worthy nugget concerning UCLA basketball today.
Really interesting news concerning Coach Daniels from the LA Times:
Donny Daniels, a UCLA assistant coach for the last seven seasons, is being considered for a position at Gonzaga, a source familiar with the Bruins program said.
The source, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said that Daniels was "very close" to agreeing to join Gonzaga Coach Mark Few’s staff.
This is kind of a surprise since I always though Coach Daniels have been doing a good job at UCLA. He has been with Coach Howland from the very beginning. Among the current Howland assistants he was the only one with solid track record of developing big guys (such as RH, KL, PAA, and LMR). Perhaps Coach Daniels is looking for a fresh start and can't blame him for that. Hope it all works out for him.
As for UCLA Ben Howland now has an opportunity to go out and hire himself his number 1 assistant from outside the program who can come in with some fresh perspective and great recruiting ties. It will be interesting to see how Howland moves to fill this spot and whether there are more moves coming up concerning the UCLA coaching staff.
GO BRUINS.
UPDATE (N): Looks like it's all but official per Chris Foster in the LA Times. Daniels reportedly has "accepted" a position with Gonzaga. Good luck to Coach Daniels. We will mist him. As mentioned above, hope this allows Coach Howland to bring in a lead assistant with solid recruiting credentials. GO BRUINS.