Ugly Start? Is Steve Alford About to Lose a Key UCLA Recruit to Steve Lavin?

Hmm. This is interesting:

A few weeks ago there were concerns about St. John's not having an open scholarship for Vaux senior guard Rysheed Jordan. The Red Storm were at capacity and something needed to break.

That something broke on Tuesday when Amir Garrett informed St. John's that he was leaving the program to pursue a baseball career. And now there may be room for Jordan, who will announce his decision on April 15.

Along with the Red Storm, Jordan is considering Temple and UCLA. Despite Ben Howland's departure, the Bruins remain in the mix. Kamal Yard, Jordan's AAU coach and adviser, said no other schools will enter the fold.

Currently, we don't have an elite true pg in our roster. Perhaps Kyle Anderson can handle the responsibility. Perhaps Allerik Freeman can play the 1 too, but no one knows.

So the point guard spot is basically wide open and here we have an elite pg recruit who withheld any commitment till spring because supposedly he wanted to take a look at UCLA's new head coach. Well, here we are.

Dan Guerrero has brought in Steve Alford who was not on anyone's wish list. UCLA is paying Alford a $18 million over 7 years with the hype of Alford being a great recruiter. Despite having a connection to former UCLA player Drew Gordon's family, Alford wasn't even able to get a cup off coffee with his younger brother Aaron Gordon - who committed to over rated Sean Miller, despite Arizona having a stacked frontcourt.

I guess we can let the fact that Alford didn't even get a whiff from Gordon go for now. But the Jordan situation is different. UCLA needs a pg badly and Bruins have been on Jordan's radar for a while. So despite having a wide open position, if Alford loses Jordan to a fraud coach like Steve Lavin ... that would be an epic fail. Let's hope Alford doesn't blow this.

GO BRUINS.