SoCalHoops Recruiting News

UCLA Loses Half It's Offense:  
Coaching Staff Says "No Problem"--(May 15, 2000)

No, Lavin is not on drugs. . . maybe a little Prozac here and there, but nothing serious, just enough over-the-counter stuff to make himself believe that losing 41 average points on offense is a good thing.  Either it's the medication, or he's been watching Martha Stewart too long and only knows one phrase: "It's a good thing.  It's a good thing. . . "   Maybe if we repeat it enough we'll really believe it too.

We subscribe to this great service called InfoBeat. . . it used to be run by (maybe it still is) the Mercury News. . . every night we get our daily dose of NBA and NCAA hoops news delivered via e-mail.  Usually it's just AP stories, but occasionally, one of those stories is just too good, or too unbelievable to avoid passing along to all of you.  Here's one that was written by AP sports writer Beth Harris.  Like us, we think you'll have difficulty swallowing this stuff. . . . But then what the heck else is he going to say?

Departures Help UCLA Recruiting

By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Write

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Some basketball coaches might be panicking at the imminent early departure of three key players. Not UCLA's Steve Lavin.

He even found a positive spin to put on sophomores JaRon Rush and Jerome Moiso and possibly freshman Jason Kapono leaving for the NBA draft.

``The irony is all the guys leaving has helped our recruiting,'' Lavin said Monday. ``Definitely in the last couple weeks, we've gotten more calls and more people kind of recruiting us because they want to have the opportunity to impact at a high level.'' Earlier this month, Rush and Moiso declared themselves eligible for the June 28 draft. On Saturday, Kapono, the co-Pac-10 Conference freshman of the year, joined them by entering his name in the draft.

If all three go, the Bruins would lose 41.1 points and 17.7 rebounds a game _ well over 50 percent of their scoring and nearly half of their rebounding. Rush, Moiso and Kapono's departures would likely leave a
starting lineup of Earl Watson, Dan Gadzuric, Matt Barnes, Billy Knight and a fifth spot up for grabs.

Lavin has already signed T.J. Cummings and Josiah Johnson _ the sons of NBA player Terry Cummings and former NBA and UCLA star Marques Johnson.

``We feel pretty confident we're about to put together a really good (recruiting) class,'' Lavin said. ``The way it's shaping up is I think there'll be enough high-level, impact players to give us a chance to compete with the top programs, but also some players you hope are going to be here four years.''

Lavin compared the current situation to losing Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson and Jelani McCoy a couple years ago. ``We lost a lot,'' he said, pointing out that only Baron Davis and Watson returned that season. ``Every year we've lost someone at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year to injuries and the NBA.''

However, Kapono doesn't plan to sign with an agent, which allows him to retain his college eligibility. He has until June 21 to
withdraw from the draft without penalty. ``I wouldn't have predicted he'd leave after one year,'' said Lavin, who was approached by Kapono a week after the Bruins lost to Iowa State in the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament. ``He feels very confident that he's going to be a first-rounder, but he wants to leave the door open as a safety net,'' Lavin said. ``If he weren't to be a first-rounder, then, obviously, coming back makes sense because he could play himself into maybe a lottery pick.''

Kapono, a 6-foot-7 forward, led the Bruins in scoring with 16 points a game and he shot 47 percent from 3-point range. He could become the first UCLA freshman ever taken in the NBA draft. ``Short of a Final Four, he had about as close to a storybook one year as I can remember,'' Lavin said. ``Even when we were struggling, he was playing so well and he was in the spotlight.''

See, we told you you wouldn't believe it. . . .

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