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What’s Bruin: LaVar Ball Talks About Lonzo "Trading In" And "Getting Away From" UCLA Teammates

News and notes from around the UCLA-iverse.

By Robert Bastron
UCLA v USC Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Men’s Basketball

If you’re good at basketball in Los Angeles, you get the attention of Hollywood. And I guess if you’re the father of a freshman phenom at UCLA, with two highly touted high school basketball players also committed to UCLA, you get to do interviews with TMZ.

LaVar Ball has never been boring, and he’s certainly not in this interview where he said he believes things are going to get easier for Lonzo once he gets in the NBA. Among other things, LaVar spoke about Lonzo "trading in" and "getting away from" his Bruin teammates, as if they are holding Lonzo back.

In the NBA, LaVar says, he’ll be surrounded by more talented athletes than his teammates at UCLA. If that rubbed you the wrong way a little bit, you’re not alone.

Does he know that Dwyane Wade, Andre Iguodala, and Anthony Davis don’t all play on the same team?

Following the loss at the Galen Center on Wednesday night, per Ben Bolch, the Bruin seniors led a lengthy team meeting in the visiting locker room before the players emerged to talk to the media.

It’s safe to assume the Bruins will continue to talk things out over the next week.

"We’ve got to come together and I feel like we went apart and that’s what the team meeting was for," Ball said. "We’ll bounce back."

Gary Parrish at CBSSports.com writes that history is not on the side of these UCLA Bruins and their pretty bad defense.

No school in the KenPom era, which dates to the 2001-2002 season, has won a national title after entering the NCAA Tournament with an adjusted defensive efficiency rating above 93.3, and no school in that same time frame has reached the Final Four after entering the NCAA Tournament with an adjusted defensive efficiency rating above 98.3.

Again, UCLA's adjusted defensive efficiency rating is 102.3

So that's the bad news.

Football

Eddie Vanderdoes, after sitting out 2015 with a leg injury and playing through pain in 2016, is finally feeling healthy and getting some love in practices for the Senior Bowl.

After playing through a strained knee, a repeatedly aggravated ankle sprain and a bone bruise— not to mention frequent double teams—for 12 games, Vanderdoes had to invent a number to explain how much better he feels now. "A bajillion percent better," Vanderdoes said Wednesday. "I’m 20 pounds lighter. My cardio is better. I feel stronger. I feel quicker. I’m more athletic explosive. More explosive. And healthy, obviously."

Want to see?

In addition to that, the Dallas Cowboys seem to have an interest in Vanderdoes. He was seen having a very long conversation with Cowboys personnel.

It was a really long conversation.

GO BRUINS.

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