UCLA Basketball: Steve Alford's Clueless Evaluation of Bruins' Incoming Recruiting Class

To the unknowing outsider, the personnel moves for UCLA basketball would strike one as ironic - Steve Alford, the former All-American point guard at Indiana, is seemingly unable to either keep guards in Westwood (see Zach LaVine) or effectively recruit one, losing recruits to not just Arizona, but also to a joke program like Southern Cal.  But while the Bruins continue to strike out with recruit after recruit who can run the point, ol' Steve doesn't seemed too worried - putting in his time at the links instead of the recruiting trail.

The pattern has become pretty clear: rather than bring in an elite PG, someone who cause Daddy's Favorite Guard to come off the bench (where he belongs), Alford is setting up the roster to force UCLA fans to have to endure Bryce Alford as UCLA's starting point guard.  Where we once had Jordan Farmar, Darren Collison, and Russell Westbrook, we now have . . . Bryce Alford.

UCLA's recruiting class features three elite, five-star, blue-chip recruits (two of which are McDonald's All-Americans) in PF Jonah Bolden, PF Kevon Looney, and C Thomas Welsh.  Oh, and there's some project guy, three-star C Gyorgy Goloman, taking up a scholarship spot.  Typically, landing three five-star guys would be a pretty solid foundation, except they're all big men, without a single guard or wing player in the bunch. On paper (and pretty much based on the average star ratings), Scout has the class ranking #3 in the nation. Considering Zach LaVine, Jordan Adams, and Kyle Anderson have decided to exit Westwood, that's a bit of a problem since our perimeter play is left to Bryce Alford, Norman Powell, Isaac Hamiltion.  Yikes.  Talk about a glaring hole in the depth chart.

But Alford sounds completely tone dead and/or clueless:

Alford on UCLA's recruiting foothold: "Our 1st recruiting class is a top 5 class, 3 McDonald’s All-Americans, yeah, I’d think I’m pleased."

— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) June 9, 2014

Wow.  He's been busy striking out on every perimeter player he's gone after (if he's even making a sincere effort to recruit anyone since he's already shown his desire to start his own kid at PG, whether or not he's up to the task or not), but he's "pleased" with the recruiting class coming in to Westwood this fall.

Hey, maybe some more #trickshots will make everyone see all the rainbows and sunshine that Alford's seeing in Westwood. Dig in folks - we're in for a long painful couple of seasons with this guy in charge, where nepotism will reign supreme.  Prepare the #DaddyBall hashtags on the Twitter machine - this will be ugly.

Just ugh.

GO BRUINS