For more info on Thompson, including a picture of him at graduation, see this story from the Suns' website. The article has plenty of quotes from Thompson, and points out an interesting tidbit: Jimmy Jackson, now with the Suns, worked with Thompson one summer at UCLA. Hopefully, Jackson will be able to mentor Thompson even more now that they're together in the NBA.

Also, see additional coverage of Dijon in this Arizona Republic article.

The full schedule of the Say No Pro City Summer League is now available at the league's website. The incoming UCLA Bruin freshmen are playing with Jordan Farmar and Josh Shipp on Sinclair's Bruins. Mike Fey is playing for Hank's Big Time, and Lorenzo Mata is playing with $C's Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young on Rico's Showtime (aka Salvatori's Showtime). Arron Afflalo and Ryan Hollins are expected to play in the league as well.

In addition to an earlier report about last weekend's action, you might want to check out this brief story from BruinReportOnline.com. Also see these two message board posts at BruinZone and this $C perspective on some of our players.

This piece from the Daily Bruin states that the project is still in need of funding. The article also notes that while Ken Weiner, UCLA associate athletic director of business operations, claims that the names "Pauley Pavillion" and "Nell & John Wooden Court" will remain, it is likely that some type of corporate sponsorship (and the naming rights that come with it) might be necessary for the project to get done.

The article is supposed to serve as a review of Coach Wooden's latest book, but it has plenty of other information about Wooden and his life. I especially like this anecdote:

As a young coach, Wooden recalls being blasted with a string of expletives by a rival coach he had just beaten.

"He called me every name you could think of right there in front of players, fans and officials," Wooden said.

"He even suggested that I had bribed the referees to get good calls. I immediately saw red and, without thinking, knocked him down to the court as players and fans rushed in to stop us."

Sorry, I know it's wrong, but the thought of Coach Wooden beating someone down makes me smile. :) I mean, I'm sure Coach was a lot more emotional when he was younger, but how much of a jerk do you have to be to make John Wooden kick your @ss?

A related item: for all of the readers of this blog who will be in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 22 (all 0 of you, most likely), Coach Wooden will be speaking at Western Michigan University (ignore the title of the article).

For those (like me) who didn't follow the draft too closely, you might not realize that Phoenix included their first round pick in the deal for Thompson. This means that Thompson is the Suns' highest draft pick (Phoenix also had another pick later in the second round). Also, at least according to this Arizona Republic article covering the Suns' draft day transactions, Thompson has an excellent chance of making the roster because Phoenix should have several spots open. Phoenix was impressed with Thompson at the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp, and oh yeah, they remember him dropping 39 against the local college team, Arizona State, last season. Here are some more comments on Thompson from the article:

Suns Senior Executive Vice President Dick Van Arsdale said he did not like him in his first two seasons but saw a change in him when Ben Howland became the Bruins coach for his last two seasons.

"It turned his game around," Van Arsdale said. "He has a technically sound stroke, shoots well off the dribble and can get up and down. He fits our style."

Gee, who was Thompson's coach his first two seasons at UCLA? Anyway, Phoenix appears to be a better situation for Thompson than New York (except for the nightlife, of course). Maybe Toby Bailey can let him know where all the hot spots are (or at least where they were five years ago).

I guess Thompson won't be playing with Ariza after all. Here are a few stories about Thompson and the draft:

Daily Breeze
LA Times
OC Register

For the second straight year, the New York Knicks have selected a UCLA Bruin with a second-round pick. This time it was Dijon Thompson. Good luck to him as he begins his career as a professional.

Sorry, hardly any time today. If you want to see the box scores from the Nike ProCity League (featuring several Bruins), go to this page from the Rico Cabrera Group. Links to the box scores are on the right side.

I'm anxious to see where Dijon Thompson ends up. The Daily News has an article on Thompson, which includes some positive commentary from Baron Davis.

For links to more information, see this earlier post on Thompson's draft prospects.

The Orange County Register has an article about the impact of the NBA age-limit, and it includes some comments from Roy Williams and Ben Howland. Amazingly (at least to me), the coaches, especially Williams, have some similar thoughts as to mine on the subject. For example:

Williams...called the NBA's new age policy "window dressing."

Like most DivisionI coaches, Williams would have liked to have seen the NBA adopt Major League Baseball's system in which drafted athletes either sign right out of high school or must go to college for three years before regaining their draft eligibility.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the college game changes with this new rule in place. Perhaps most interesting to me is whether the NBDL, Europe, prep schools, or even sitting out a year will become popular options for elite high school players. If so, the college game absolutely will have to make some changes.

Doyel now has the Bruins at #20, up from #24 in his rankings from shortly after the NCAA tourney final. As I mentioned when his rankings first came out, I believe his views on the Bruins are more accurate than those of Luke Winn (SI), Andy Katz (Espn), and Joe Lunardi (Espn Bracketology); Winn has us as the second-best Pac-10 squad, and Katz and Lunardi both pick us as the best team in the conference. Doyel's latest rankings now have Arizona way up at #6 in the country, with Washington at #13 and Stanford at #22 (I'm not exactly sure how we moved ahead of Stanford when essentially nothing changed for either school). In any event, although I foresee good things happening for UCLA next season and beyond, I think it's a little much to expect us to finish ahead of Arizona and Washington next year.

Our five incoming recruits are playing on the same squad with Jordan Farmar and Josh Shipp in the Say No Pro-City Summer League at West LA College. Here is a post from "Bruinstudent" over at BruinsNation.com with some comments about what he saw at yesterday's game. It's really good to hear how physical Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbaha Moute were playing. Hopefully, they will inspire our other big men to be less afraid of contact.

The other incoming freshman who played was Mike Roll. Darren Collison and Ryan Wright will be joining the team next week, according to the post.

Here's a novel idea: looking at the all-time best picks at each draft slot, i.e. the best #1 pick overall of all-time, the best #2 pick overall, the best #3 pick overall, etc. The best #11 pick ever? Indiana drafting Reggie Miller out of UCLA in 1987. But what's really interesting is that two other prolific UCLA shooters were drafted at #11, both of whom had very productive NBA careers: Keith (Jamaal) Wilkes in 1974 and Kiki Vandeweghe in 1980. This trio combined for 43 years of NBA service. Wow.

So what's the lesson here? Well, Orlando picks #11 this year. Dijon Thompson is a shooting guard out of UCLA, so perhaps the Magic should consider picking him...(just a joke).

The main story is about how a UCLA-USC basketball rivalry would be a boon to the entire conference. It's clear that UCLA's resurgence in hoops is becoming more than just a regional story. The page has plenty of additional commentary on all of the Pac-10 teams. Here's a comment from Andy Katz that caught my eye:

UCLA's season will be determined more by the production of Michael Fey and Ryan Hollins than of the stellar backcourt. Ben Howland is banking on the guards to carry the squad, but if the centers can produce the Bruins have a shot for the title.

I really can't agree with this more, except to add that Lorenzo Mata, Alfred Aboya, and Ryan Wright also are candidates to emerge as inside forces. Without a physical presence inside, we will have to rely too much on production from the perimeter to be a serious conference title contender.

With Duncan's even keel and solid fundamentals, Wooden's admiration of the Spurs superstar is no surprise. The article has several quotes from Coach Wooden about Duncan, David Robinson, and the NBA Finals.

In the interview, Thompson acknowledges that his work ethic was better this year than in past years, and that he did lose some confidence with the struggles UCLA experienced during his college career. We also find out that Thompson not only worked out twice for the Jazz, but also twice for the Clippers. Could Thompson end up in LA? That would be a nice bonus for us Bruin fans.

Also, there is a blurb in this blog entry (toward the bottom) stating that Thompson backed out of a workout for Milwaukee earlier this week. A sign of confidence that someone else will be picking him? Hopefully.

but no rosters on the website yet, so impossible to tell who is on which team. :(

I know that Sinclair's Bruins had the incoming freshman last year, so I could take a wild guess that the same thing will happen this year, but it would just be a guess. anyone have more info?

Games for the league will be at West LA College and Cal Poly Pomona.

At least that is my conclusion from what I've seen over the last few days. I know, I just posted an article about how the college game is better than the NBA, but that is from my (a fan's) perspective. The players (ok, not all of them) obviously feel differently. Let me explain. If somehow you haven't heard, the NBA's new labor deal sets a minimum age-limit of 19 years for incoming players (with some exceptions). This age-limit has been expected for quite some time. Also in the news, the deadline has passed for for players with college eligibility to remove their names from the NBA draft. A whopping 49 players have applied for early entry to the draft. Considering that there are other people in the draft and only 30 slots are in the first round, which is where you need to be picked to get a 3-year guaranteed contract, many if not most of these 49 will not be getting a guaranteed deal. Yet, if a player goes back to school for a year and enters the draft next year, when there will be no competition from high school seniors, he will have a much better chance at sneaking into the first round. So why stay in the draft this year unless you detest college ball? You're not convinced? What about a guy like Pittsburgh's Carl Krauser, who has withdrawn from the draft and would be a senior next year, and yet is seriously considering playing in Europe instead of going back to campus? The issue, if you haven't figured it out, is that players want to get PAID. They don't care if it's in the NBDL or in Europe (or perhaps even Asia or somewhere else), they'd rather get paid to play basketball than receive nothing more than an "education" from an American university (while the NCAA rakes in millions of dollars from the players' efforts).

So if the NCAA was hoping that the NBA age-limit would positively impact the college game by forcing quality high school players to spend some time in college, they need to think again. High schoolers can and will play in Europe or go to a prep school to avoid being stuck at a college, even for just a year. and then those that actually decide to go to school for a year will do nothing to help the college game. how much did Trevor Ariza's one year at UCLA help the Bruins or the NCAA? Not very much. And in a sense, the Bruins were somewhat lucky, because Ariza's intentions to stay in the draft were known from the start, so Ben Howland was able to begin planning for life without him early in the off-season. What about teams that are just finding out now in late June that they are going to be without key players? This whole "testing the waters" process is really disruptive to college programs trying to improve for the following year.

So is the answer to pay college basketball players? I'm not going that far, but it certainly would help if the NCAA was less draconian in its policies toward these athletes. And if the college game cannot make itself more appealing to talented basketball players, perhaps it needs to return to having its athletes be students first. For example, the NCAA could institute a rule where if you decide to go to college, you must commit for three years (like college baseball). Yes, that would mean losing out on most of the best ball players, and I know that college baseball is not the best model to be chasing, but i'm afraid we're already headed down the path of lost talent anyway. at least a three-year commitment would allow college teams to develop together, remain cohesive, and plan better for future recruiting needs, which hopefully would improve the overall quality of the game (if not the individual players).

including Bruin commit James Keefe in his latest column. You can see a slightly different version of the article in the LB Telegram here.

In a recent column, Doyel agrees with me that the NCAA game is superior to pro basketball.

The Stanford point guard has decided to head back to campus for his senior year. This certainly solidifies the Cardinal as a contender for the Pac-10 hoops title next season.

I'm guessing Farmar will be happy to get (at least) two more chances to match up against Hernandez, as pretty much every article I see about Hernandez mentions that he scored a career high 37 against UCLA last February 20.

Looks like the new owner of Anaheim's hockey team, Henry Samueli, is a former Bruin and big fan of the basketball team. More on this over at BruinsNation.com.

As the NBA draft nears, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the analyses on Dijon Thompson's draft prospects. I previously posted some final comments about his performance at the Chicago Pre-Draft camp, and here are a few more profiles on him from around the web:

DraftCity
NBAdraft.net
Espn

As far as rankings go, NBAdraft.net has him ranked as a top 10 shooting guard. Unfortunately, not a lot of mock drafts I've seen list out the second round (where Thompson is likely to be picked), but here are a few mocks with him as a selection:

NBAdraft.net: 45th, to the Philadelphia 76ers
CollegeHoopsNet.com: 59th, to the Atlanta Hawks
InsideHoops.com: in a group of players likely to go mid-second round (or possibly early second round)

Also, Thompson has worked out for the Utah Jazz twice, and they have two second round picks, so he might end up there.

Some of this might change, as we should find out by tomorrow's deadline if any more college players are pulling their names out of the draft.

Due to all of the health issues he has faced, McKinney will be taking medical retirement from the UCLA basketball and volleyball teams. He will remain enrolled in school and continue to receive his scholarship, although he no longer will count toward the 13 total scholarships available for the basketball team (this means we now have another ride to give out over the next two years). Here is his statement from the UCLA release:

"First of all, I'd like to thank both the UCLA basketball and volleyball coaching staffs, along with the UCLA medical staff, especially Dr. John Difiori, for all their support throughout the season and my career," said McKinney, who prepped at Santa Ynez HS. "It's been a very tough year for me going through so many different medical problems and having to fight through them. I've come to a decision, with my doctors and parents, to declare for medical retirement. That is the best decision for me, to seek additional medical advice and get healthier. It's been an honor and a privilege to be able to wear the UCLA jersey during my Bruin career. It's something I will never forget."

I can only imagine how frustrated McKinney has been, trying to perform while not being physically right. On top of that, I'm guessing he had to deal with a lot of anxiety this past b-ball season when the medical staff could not figure out why he was experiencing such unusual fatigue. I'm going to sound a little old saying this, but you have nothing without your health. If McKinney still is struggling with medical problems, then getting healthy indeed should be his number one priority. I certainly wish him the best.

The official Utah Jazz page has some comments from Thompson after he worked out for the team a second time today:

On his second workout for the Jazz:
It's a plus for me. It shows their eyes are open to me. Added pressure, but I think I performed well today. I knew what to expect. The altitude kind of drains you, but it's something I gotta get used to.

On his talent, and what he needs to work on:
I have versatility, just being able to play multiple positions, my height, being able to shoot the ball and knock down open shots. On the defensive end, my length. The things I need to work on is getting stronger, and my defense.

If you go to the HoopTV homepage and scroll down until you see a box labeled "VIDEO" on the right side, you will see links to several games. Two games, the Las Vegas Prospects vs. So-Cal All-Stars and 2005 Las Vegas Easter Classic Championship Game, feature the AAU team of 2006 Bruin commit James Keefe (#33 in white), as well as Bruin target prospects Chase Budinger (#23) and Taylor King (#31). The 2005 Pangos Classic Championship Game features incoming 2005 freshman Darren Collison (#2 in white). You will need QuickTime to view the games.

After working out for the Jazz last month, Thompson is scheduled for another workout with the Jazz this Friday morning, indicating that the team likely has some serious interest in him. The Jazz have picks at 6 and 27 in the first round and 34 and 51 in the second round, so they should have plenty of chances to grab him if he's still on the board.

The former Bruin is the "summer basketball correspondent" for the website, and he begins with some brief commentary on the country's top high school players, some of whom will be in this year's NBA draft.

From Day 4, regarding Dijon Thompson:

18 points, 8/15 shooting, 3 rebounds – Thompson really showed off his midrange game all throughout camp, knocking down collegiate three pointers as if they were layups. The smooth wing did not really stand out in any other area of the game, but definitely showed the ability to create his own shot and consistently put points on the board at the next level. It's a shame that he won't put the ball on the floor more and take the ball to the basket, or use his height and length to rebound or play defense, because otherwise he would be a lock to make the league next year.

Ouch, that's a little harsh. I'll agree that Thompson could be a much better defender than he is, but I think he proved throughout all of last year that he is willing to rebound. I also agree that he should take the ball to the rack more, but hey, if the shots are open and the jumper is falling, why bother? It's also interesting to me that one of the comments is that he can create his own shot, because it seemed to me that he often needed to receive passes after coming off of picks to get open looks. If he truly can create consistent offense for himself against NBA-caliber players, then he might be in good shape, as this is a very valuable skill. Perhaps someday he can develop into a quality NBA sixth man, providing "instant offense" for his team. But yes, he still has plenty of work to do before he gets to that point.

Based on these and other comments I've read about Thompson, it seems like his overall demeanor might be hurting him. I don't think I've ever read or heard anyone describe his play as "intense". Conversely, the one word I see most often describing his game is "smooth". It's quite possible that most observers can't tell if he really is lacking effort, or if he is giving 100% and it merely looks "effortless". I remember that JR Henderson had to deal with similar criticism.

Anyway, HoopsHype also gives a brief recap for each of the camps' participants, including Thompson:

Had a good camp but didn’t jump ahead of too many players. He can shoot it, run the floor and defend, but may not do anything all that well.

So it would seem that Thompson remains a likely second round pick. We'll see how things shake out over the next couple of weeks, especially with the deadline for NCAA players to withdraw being June 21.

Los Angeles Lakers rehire Phil Jackson.

Does he really think he can get ring #10 here in LA? I guess we'll find out.

The Daily Bruin has an article summing up the Bruins' athletic accomplishments this past school year. The story has brief commentary on the basketball and football programs, plus describes our three NCAA team titles (women and men's water polo, men's tennis), and also mentions our second place finishes (women's soccer, men's volleyball, softball, and women's golf). The writer also could have included women's gymnastics, where we finished fourth but had a decent chance to finish first.

We've seen examples of this before, but here is an article chronicling the efforts of Ben Howland and his staff in recruiting worldwide. The story documents how Howland recently has recruited in Australia, and we have incoming Bruins from Canada (Ryan Wright) and Cameroon (Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbaha Moute). Despite this, Howland specifically acknowledges that UCLA's "meal ticket" is the recruitment of the great basketball players here in California. Personally, I have to agree with Howland's strategy: keep local players here, and then take advantage of UCLA's name recognition abroad to get quality international players. And I especially like the idea of avoiding Europe where most kids play professionally and don't bother with American college ball - go to areas like Africa where basketball's popularity is beginning to take off. The recruiting services don't have Aboya and Mbaha Moute ranked all that high, but if these two can be relatively successful at UCLA, it could establish a tradition where future African players, including more talented ones, look to UCLA as their first choice for playing ball in the U.S.

Next Saturday, June 18, at 2 p.m., Coach Wooden will be signing 'Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success' and 'Wooden on Leadership' at a Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach (7881 Edinger Ave., 714-897-8781).

Bailey's team, AEK, has advanced to the Greek finals, but he will be missing the entire series due to what this article calls a "serious" back injury. I couldn't find any other details. Hopefully he will make a full recovery and return to the court soon.

According to this writeup, Thompson scored 18 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the field in his game Friday morning.

User "MothershipConnection" at the BruinZone message board pointed out this page at HoopsHype.com that provides commentary on the pre-draft camp. The comments for Day One and Day Two mention Dijon Thompson:

(Day One)
Was non-existent on one end of the floor, but on another showed a very nice handle and knocked down the NBA three.

(Day Two)
8 points 4/6 shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists – Thompson was somewhat of an enigma in college, and he didn’t exactly disprove that today. What he did continue to show is an impressive smooth style of offensive game. He has great body control, and looks nearly automatic from the college 3 point line. However, the soft tag remains. He still struggles when people get physical with him, though his teammates didn’t exactly make an effort to get him involved, the fact of the matter is that a player with Thompson’s type of talent should dominate a game like this a lot more than he did Wednesday.

I didn't see any remarks for him on Day Three.

Mike DeCourcy writes that Budinger is #1 among five high school prospects that are advancing up the rankings. His comments on Budinger:

Budinger led [the Southern Cal All-stars, his AAU team] to the tournament championship and elevated himself from a top 50 player to a strong McDonald's All-American candidate. "He was explosive to the hoop, shot the ball well and battled," [scout Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com] says. Also an elite volleyball player, Budinger is considering Arizona, UCLA and Southern California.

Speaking of Budinger, Tracy Pierson at BruinReportOnline.com says that U$C is more of a possibility for Budinger than people might realize because Budinger's father is an $C grad (the linked page also has some unrelated comments on Bruin incoming freshman Ryan Wright).

Thompson is playing on a team with other Pac-10 players like Will Conroy, Tre Simmons, and David Lucas. Thompson had 8 points on 4-6 shooting from the field, plus 6 boards, 4 assists, and 3 turnovers in 23 minutes (the link is to a pdf file).

You can see the rosters of all of the teams at the camp here. You'll also see a note that Salim Stoudamire missed his flight and thus was a no-show on Day 1.

The broadcast of the interview will be Friday night at 9 p.m. on HBO according to a blurb in this OC Register article.

*** Update/Correction: The show is actually called Costas NOW (not Bob Costas Live). And check your local listings if you're interested, because I'm not sure if the show time is 9 p.m. Eastern or Pacific.

Well, it's been widely reported that ESPN will be showing some Pac-10 football games starting in 2007. So, one might think, basketball will soon follow suit. Not exactly, at least according to this article in the Seattle Times. The relevant passage:

Unfortunately for Pac-10 basketball fans and coaches, who also have long wished to be regularly featured on ESPN, the deal is for football only.

The Pac-10 is also negotiating to renew its basketball TV deal, and it is expected that FSN will remain the primary carrier with ESPN likely not involved.

"There's just not a lot of opportunity nor interest from ESPN's standpoint for West Coast basketball," Turner said. "There's some interest, but it's limited."

Turner said ESPN might be interested in "eight to 10" Pac-10 basketball games a season whereas the FSN deal calls for 40 or more. FSN does farm out some basketball games to ABC and CBS, such as the Pac-10 Conference tournament title game, which gives the Pac-10 some national exposure. (emphasis mine)

Sports Business Journal says FSN's nine-year deal for basketball, which expires after next season, pays the Pac-10 $52.5 million.

On one hand, I definitely feel like our current TV agreement is severely limiting our national exposure. On the other hand, there is no way we should sell our soul (i.e. agree to less money or have 9 or 10 pm PT start times) just to get on ESPN. I have written about this before.

I suppose this is the ultimate question: how much is UCLA hurt by not being on ESPN? When it comes to recruiting, yes, we have our tradition, our geographic location, and our academic reputation. But on the flip side, recruits also are concerned with exposure (we have no ESPN), the brand of gear we wear (which happens to be adidas, not Nike), and the condition of our facilities (compared with most other arenas, Pauley is quite outdated). I'm fairly certain every other school in the conference wears Nike, which means we are the only major program in the nation with no affiliation with either ESPN or Nike. I know, a winning program is more important than these other factors, and I believe Ben Howland has us on the right track, but addressing some of these negatives would help the program continue to move forward, move forward quickly, and then remain at a high level. Why should we unnecessarily hold ourselves back?

Anyway, regardless of which network eventually agrees to show our games, i hope our new deal puts us in front of more eyes in more places more often.

Keating was named to the Rivals.com Top 25 Hoops Recruiters for 2005. I would say this is encouraging news for UCLA basketball fans. Here is the commentary on Keating:

The Bruins have taken significant steps toward regaining national prominence. Keating has led the charge, as the Bruins picked up Darren Collison and Michael Roll from southern California, and then three foreign players, Ryan Wright (Canada) and Alfred Aboya and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, both from Cameroon. In 2004, UCLA's talented recruiting class included McDonald's All-Americans Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, Parade Magazine All-American Josh Shipp and CalHi Sports All-State Lorenzo Mata.

Also note that former Bruin Cameron Dollar made the list.

Here's some more information on the NBA Pre-Draft Camp, including a list of attendees, if you're interested.

addresses the new format for the Pac-10 basketball tournament and the Chicago pre-draft camp. The conference tourney now will include all ten teams. It will be four days, with the 7-10 seeds playing on Wednesday and the other six teams getting byes. Regarding the pre-draft camp, it begins tonight, and Dijon Thompson has been invited (of course). Let's hope he does well, or at the very least solidifies his position as a projected second-round draft pick.

Cohen looks at what the draft would be if only 4-year collegiate players were allowed to enter. Obviously, this means no high school players like Martell Webster or college freshman like Marvin Williams. But the article also assumes that previous drafts would have had the same rules, so players like Eddie Curry, Tyson Chandler, and Kwame Brown would be available this year. The concept of the article isn't bad, but unfortunately, it is based completely on pure fantasy, almost to the point that the article is irrelevant. For what it's worth, though, Dijon Thompson is listed as a late 1st round pick of Miami.

Here is a thread at the BruinReportOnline message board with some details of Saturday's pickup games featuring Chase Budinger, James Keefe, the Bruins, and others (including JR Smith of the New Orleans Hornets and highly-touted class of 2007 prospect Chace Stanback of Fairfax High). Based on the messages, it appears the off-season weight program is working for the Bruins. Should be interesting to see what Budinger decides to do.

Last week, I mentioned that Henderson's team, which includes Kris Johnson, was playing in a tournament in Taiwan. Turns out that Henderson led his team to the tourney title. Henderson had games of 28, 28, and 34 points.

Henderson, of course, is not the only former Bruin playing in Japan. Charles O'Bannon plays for a team called the Toyota Alvark. Both JR and Charles have player profile pages at their team websites, but they are in Japanese. The page for Charles even has a link to send him fan mail.

As mentioned earlier, Budinger is taking an official visit to UCLA this weekend, and so is James Keefe, who has already committed to the Bruins and is on the same AAU team as Budinger. The Daily News has an article discussing the trip and Budinger's recruitment in general. The only comment from Budinger in the story:

I'm looking for a good basketball program, a good school with a strong education. UCLA's style (of play), I like it, but I like (to play) a little more up and down.

Hmmm, not exactly a ringing endorsement, but we'll see what happens. If playing "up and down" is what he wants, I believe UCLA will suit him just fine, as we pushed the ball much more last year than I expected, and next year should be more of the same. With our best half-court option (Dijon Thompson) gone, our best offensive players being on the perimeter, and key members of our rotation being freshman or sophomores, it would make sense that we try to get out and run to get easy baskets instead of walking the ball up the floor and trying to execute against a set defense on a regular basis.

Another item mentioned in the article is that Budinger has narrowed his college choice to UCLA, USC, and Arizona. Also, because Budinger is an accomplished high school volleyball player, he plans to meet with Al Scates this weekend.

I'm not exactly sure how meaningful this is, but hey, it's another honor for Dijon Thompson. The Daily Breeze has chosen Thompson as a "Player of the Spring" for men's basketball, for whatever that's worth. It basically means that Thompson has been recognized as the best basketball player from the South Bay (of Southern California, that is). The paper's comments on Thompson:

Others scored more, some played on better teams, but none meant more as a leader than Thompson did to a young, up-and-coming Bruins squad. Thompson averaged 18.4 points and 7.9 rebounds in leading UCLA back to the NCAA Tournament.

As low-profile as this recognition is, it still is nice to see Thompson appreciated. Without his points, rebounding, and leadership, last season's Bruin squad would have been in deep trouble. The improvement he displayed from the previous year was nothing short of remarkable. Hopefully he will get a chance to show what he can do in the NBA.

Well, since it is (still) the ten-year anniversary of the Bruins' last b-ball title, and since we're in the doldrums of the off-season, I've been looking for some rundowns of the 1995 season. Here's a recap of UCLA's 11th championship from The Sporting News.