gloger to UCLA?

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Spencer Gloger To Transfer
To UCLA--(Sept. 16, 2000)

In one of the more bizzare bits of news to come out this fall, something that makes us feel like Faye Dunawaye in "Chinatown" ("She's my mother [slap], my sister [slap], my mother [slap], my sister [slap] ) we were surprised to read in Frank Burlison's column at Fox Sports.com the following:

COMING HOME TO CALIFORNIA
Spencer Gloger, who averaged 12.1 points last season as a freshman at Princeton, is expected to withdraw from the Ivy League school and enroll at UCLA in time for the Sept. 28 beginning of its fall quarter.

The 6-foot-6 Gloger, who made 10 of 12 three-point attempts and scored 34 points in the Tigers' win over Alabama Birmingham on Dec. 18, is a 1999 graduate of Santa Margarita High in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

He gave an oral commitment to Princeton early in 1999 — Ivy League schools aren't part of the national letter of intent program — then signed a scholarship agreement with UCLA in the late spring before deciding to enroll at Princeton late last summer.

Assuming Gloger transfers, he would be on scholarship while spending the coming season as a redshirt for coach Steve Lavin's program.

It would also be another big blow to the Tigers' program and its new coach, John Thompson III. Princeton's best player, 6-10 center Chris Young, did not return for his junior year after signing a professional baseball contract.

For those of you who are movie buffs at all, you'll appreciate the internal confusion which Gloger's recruiting engendered in those who followed it. One minute he's going to the Ivy. .. no wait, it's UCLA. . .no, back to the Ivy league. . . oops, UCLA. . . It was confusing to say the least, and it's a bit surprising that Gloger and Lavin have once again found each other. His transfer raises all sorts of questions including whether the scholarship will count against the limit of 5/3 (there are those who say it won't because the rule only applies to high school signings, and others who claim that it was instead specifically intended to apply to this type of situation and will therefore limit UCLA's recruitng next year. . . Frankly we don't have any idea, and think that the rule will be repealed anyway because it's just silly and won't really do what it is intended to do, which is stop kids from transferring and programs from cutting players).

Whether this transfer turns out to be a good thing, or will just cause Lavin's critics to howl even louder, remains to be seen. Gloger was one of the leading players in the Ivy League last year, a great shooter and a player with wonderful skills. And he's smart, too, which is something that, with the notable exception of a couple of players last season, UCLA was really lacking on the floor last season.