Bruin Bites: Date Set For UCLA Football Spring Showcase

Today, we also have UCLA Football recruiting news, plus Swimming and Diving, Men’s Volleyball, UCLA Gymnastics, a Bruin award winner and several award candidates.

By Joe Piechowski@JPiechowski Jan 13, 2017, 2:47pm PST

Kenneth Walker — Now that football season is over, can Spring Practice be far behind?

UCLA Football

Football season just ended this past Monday when Clemson was crowned as National Champions. And, with National Signing Day just around the corner on February 1st, it’s not too early to start thinking about Spring Practice.

This year’s UCLA Football Spring Showcase will be held on Saturday, April 29, 2017. According to the Pac-12 Conference website, it will begin at 1pm PT. Expect it to be held at Drake Stadium again this year.

No other details regarding Spring Practice are known as of yet.

UCLA Football Recruiting

Football recruiting will continue to pick up as we get closer to National Signing Day. Today’s recruiting news comes from 247sports.com. They are reporting that three-star wide receiver Josh Palmer from St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Fort Lauderdale, FL has de-committed from Syracuse. While Palmer is visiting Tennessee this weekend, UCLA is the new favorite to land him. Palmer will visit Westwood next weekend. His de-commitment from Syracuse comes just a day after Bruin WR coach Eric Yarber visited St. Thomas Aquinas. Yarber also extended a verbal offer to 2019 safety Josh Sanguinetti.

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura writes about UCLA’s biggest area of need. Bonagura says it’s up for debate due to the offensive line play, but he goes on to say it’s the defensive line due to the loss of Takkarist McKinley, Eddie Vanderdoes and Eli Ankou. While we have respect for Bonagura, we here at Bruins Nation disagree. We believe the biggest position of need continues to be the coaching staff. Why is Adrian Klemm still employed?

UCLA Swimming and Diving

The Bruin Swimming and Diving team is hosting Utah today in a dual meet while also hosting the UCLA Diving Invitational this weekend. These events are the final home action of the season for the team and the team’s 10 seniors Katy Campbell, Emily Hammond, Nina Hayes, Annika Lenz, Linnea Mack, Michaela Merlihan, Savannah Steffen, Hayden Walker, Madison White and Brigitte Winkler were honored prior to the start of the Utah meet this afternoon.

UCLA Men’s Volleyball

The UCLA Men’s Volleyball team swept UC Irvine last night in three sets. Here’s the scoring breakdown:

And, here are the highlights of the match, courtesy of UCLA Athletics.

UCLA Gymnastics

UCLA Athletics has posted an episode of Bruin Banter featuring an interview with Bruin freshman Madison Kocian.

UCLA Women’s Basketball

Jordin Canada has been named to the John R. Wooden Award® Midseason Top 25 by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Bruins In The Pros

Meanwhile, former Bruin and current Dodger manager Dave Roberts has been named Coach of the Year by the Los Angeles Sports Council.

UCLA Men’s Basketball Recruiting

Two future Bruins have been named Naismith Award candidates. Jaylen Hands and Kris Wilkes are two of the twenty-five high school basketball seniors under consideration for the award.

Uni-Watch

And, finally, for those of you who just absolutely, positively need to have more UCLA apparel from adidas, the Bruin Team Shop is currently offering 20% off all UCLA adidas apparel. While the sale does end on Sunday, something tells me it won’t be the last time UCLA adidas apparel is discounted over the next six months.

Go Bruins!!!