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UCLA Basketball Recruiting: Alford Loses Elite Southern California Recruit to Arizona

UCLA basketball suffers a devastating and humiliating setback on the recruiting trail as Steve Alford loses a top guard from Southern California to Arizona.

By Nestor
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Alford just suffered a devastating and humiliating blow on the recruiting trail - again. Tyler Dorsey, a 6-4 combo guard, junior from local school St. Johns Bosco, who is one of the best juniors in the country just committed to Arizona (HT gersss_Bruin13):

From ESPN:

Sean Miller has managed to land the top-rated player in the state of California in each of the past four classes. It began with Grant Jerrett and Brandon Ashley in the Class of 2012, continued withAaron Gordon and also includes Mater Dei's Stanley Johnson, the ninth-rated prospect in the country.

Dorsey is one of the most versatile guards in the country. He's a big-time scoring guard who is also able to run the point. Dorsey was recruited by most of the elite programs in the country, including Duke, UCLA, Kansas and Kentucky.

What is significant here is that Dorsey is a blue-chip local recruit, who happens to be one UCLA's top targets.  This sends a pretty clear signal that local blue-chip recruits are not all that impressed with Dan Guerrero/Steve Alford's charade in Westwood. Sure Alford got a commitment from sophomore guard earlier in the week. But so what. There is no guarantee that a commitment from sophomore will stick. The Dorsey commitment to Arizona is much more significant.

It also provides a not so subtle message about the discomfort from the recruiting trail about the playing time for Bryce Alford. It seems pretty clear that elite local guards from this year and next year's class are staying away from Westwood due to concerns of nepotism in Guerrero's shady basketball program.

It's not pretty when a player like Alford, who shouldn't be getting more than 10-15 minutes a game is almost averaging as much playing time as talented guars such as Normal Powell and Zach LaVine. Things are only going to get uglier as long as TIARA is in charge of Coach Wooden's program.

GO BRUINS.

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