The article gives a great rundown of the 2005-06 basketball season, including a summary of each player. Typical school-issued facts and figures, but informative nonetheless.

Iavaroni, the Phoenix Suns assistant who is coaching their summer league team, touches on a host of topics in this interview, including his perception of Thompson:

He’s good in the open court. He makes very smart basketball plays, he’s unselfish and he just wants to find a way to get the ball to the basket or to the open man. We’ve been very pleased with that. He can shoot it, (but) he’s a little streaky from beyond the three-point arc. We’re still working on that. We, as a team, have not shot well (from beyond the arc), so we’re in a little bit of a three-point slump and I’m sure he’s not happy with his performance there. His range can be extended and made more consistent, because it is further than the college three-point line.

Defensively, he’s made strides. He’s playing harder and he’s playing lower. He’s a long, lean guy who’s got very long legs, so that makes it tougher to defend, but he’s learning. You’ve got to play with your body, beef up your body. You’ve got to dish it out and know where you’re going to end up taking it. So, it’s usually your choice.

Personally, he’s a sweet kid. I like him a lot as a guy. But, you can be that way off the court. Leandro [Barbosa]’s a sweet guy too and he’s one of my favorites. But, Leandro’s a killer on the court and he wants to beat people, and compete, do whatever it takes. I think that’s something Dijon is going to have to find out, as well. He’s more like Jamal Wilkes, if I can bring up an old-time name. Everybody has to be themselves, but you just want to make sure that in the process of being yourself, you’re not creating a weakness, that you’re always trying to improve yourself.

Jamal Wilkes is good company, but it sounds like Iavaroni believes what everyone else does: that Thompson needs to improve defensively and become more intense on the court. If Thompson can get better in those areas, he could end up being a productive NBA player.

As I briefly mentioned earlier, John Wooden will be speaking at Western Michigan University on August 22. Not exactly groundbreaking news, but what is somewhat interesting is that Coach Wooden gave a pep talk to the WMU players before they took on the Trojans last year at the Sports Arena. WMU still lost, but we appreciate the effort Coach! In fact, why not have Coach Wooden speak to every one of $C's opponents before games at the Sports Arena?

Also check out this very brief article on Coach Wooden - there is some controversy as to where Coach was actually born, and well, he really can't settle it.

First, the big one. Dan Gadzuric plans to re-sign with the Milwaukee Bucks for $36 million over six years, according to his agent, Bob Myers (B-O-B Bob!). 36 mil?!? Nice!!! The article also lists some of the other recent signings Milwaukee has made. Looks like Gads is on a team expecting to go deep into the playoffs next year.

On a much lesser scale, Dijon Thompson has agreed to a one-year deal with the Phoenix Suns, and the club has an option for a second year. No monetary amounts were disclosed, but last year, the rookie minimum was $385,277, so he'll be making more than that. Also, part of the one-year salary is guaranteed, so Phoenix definitely has an incentive to keep him on the roster. In fact, some believe Thompson is a virtual lock to make the team.

The procedure was deemed a success. Rehab is slated to take 4-6 weeks, so Aboya should be ready for preseason practice. I hope there are no lingering effects from this, as I think he is strong enough to be a contributor on our frontline this upcoming season. More comments on him in my recap of summer league action a couple weekends ago.

First, there is an article recapping the weekend's Summer League action. Darren Collison had a tremendous game (26 points on 12 of 15 shooting). Interestingly, he and Jordan Farmar spent considerable time on the court together. Also of note is that Lorenzo Mata recorded a double-double despite bruising his right knee, which he is going to have checked out today.

A second article features Ryan Hollins and how his knee is now 100 percent healthy. The story also notes that he's up to about 230 pounds and much stronger. The goal is for him to be in the 235-240 range by the time preseason practice starts. It would be great if he gets there - if he can avoid getting pushed around on the inside, he will be an effective player for us next year.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) is trying to pass a rule moving up the deadlines for college players to declare for the draft and then make a decision whether to withdraw. Players with college eligibility would have to declare for the draft within a week after the national championship game, and then would have only 72 hours to make a decision on whether to remain. Clearly, the NABC is on the right track - there is no reason why it should take six weeks for a player to decide whether to put his name in the draft and then another five or six weeks to decide if he's going to stay. The way things are currently, college teams are really left hung out to dry as they try to prepare for the upcoming season. Specifically, if a player decides to stay in the draft, his college head coach has to figure out (1) how to make up for the lost production, and (2) decide what to do with the extra scholarship. Learning a player's intentions as early as possible makes it a little easier for the college coach to react.

Of course, NBA GMs will hate this rule change, and while i suspect some type of modification ultimately will take place, it probably won't be as drastic as proposed by the NABC. However, supporting the NABC's perspective is the college football system which only gives players until mid-January to make a decision about the draft. So hopefully something will get done that will make life easier for college programs and improve the college game overall. And as far as UCLA is concerned, a rule change like this definitely will help Ben Howland and the program, as in the coming years I suspect we will have a number of players "testing the waters", with Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo possibilities for as early as next year (especially with no competition from high school players in the draft).

Don't want to make too much of this, but Tyus Edney had an excellent first summer league game for the Nuggets. He had a team-high 25 minutes, shot 6-6 from the field, and ended up with 13 points. Jelani McCoy had 13 points in the same game. A recap is here. McCoy had a 4-pt effort in his first game on Wednesday.

Dijon Thompson struggled in his first game, shooting only 1-5 from the field and getting only one rebound despite playing 43 minutes. He clearly has an opportunity to prove himself; let's hope he makes the most of it.

Beginning at 7pm, Coach Wooden will be available at the Borders in Westwood. The address:

1360 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
Phone: 310.475.3444

In addition to Tyus Edney and Jelani McCoy, another Bruin from the recent past is on an NBA summer league roster: Ray Young will be playing with the Golden State Warriors in Vegas. I'm not sure how likely it is that any of these guys will get picked up, but who knows what can happen. Again, a few of these games will be on NBA TV if you are interested in watching.

(Photo credit: Daily Bruin)

First, Page 3 at ESPN.com has an extensive interview. Then, the Daily Bruin has a feature detailing his experience on draft night. Finally, this article from the East Valley Tribune in Arizona explains why Thompson is a virtual lock to make the Suns' roster.

There is an article about how the sophomores are now playing the leadership role, especially Farmar and Shipp who are on the same summer league teams as the five incoming freshmen. There also is this second article giving us some more info on the freshmen themselves.

available at the Cabrera Group homepage.

Just got back from West LA College where I was able to watch the second half of Hank's Lil Hoopers vs. Hank's Big Time (featuring Arron Afflalo and Mike Fey), as well as Entertainment Tonite vs. Sinclair's Bruins (featuring Josh Shipp, Jordan Farmar, and our five incoming freshmen). The games themselves weren't really the main attraction, of course, as i was mainly there to see how our Bruins look.

First, the game featuring the incoming freshmen: to start, Sinclair's Bruins won 83-43. That's not a typo. And under the rules of the league, there is no stop time if the spread is more than 25. This means that almost the entire second half was running clock, so there wasn't much playing time for everyone. That makes it hard for me to really evaluate each player. Anyway, Farmar and Shipp looked solid, but didn't do anything spectacular. Shipp looks like he's been working on his shot, and his leaping ability seems to be better. Farmar doesn't look a whole lot bigger despite reports that he's put on 15 pounds or so. Perhaps it's all in his legs and base. He had a rough shooting day, missing I believe all but one of his outside shots. In fact nobody on the team shot the ball particularly well - how did they win by 40 then? Because they destroyed the opposition on the boards. Entertainment Tonite was severly outsized, and especially when Luc Moute and Alfred Aboya were in the game (1st and 3rd quarters), the Bruins got every defensive board and several offensive boards. In fact, the domination on the boards, while obviously encouraging, made it tough to guage how good each player is individually. here are some comments on each freshman:

Aboya: He is as advertised - big body, attacks the boards, provides interior presence. Doesn't appear to be gifted offensively, but again, impossible to tell because he didn't need to do anything to create offense. he just let someone else shoot it, and then he went and got it, and then made the layup.

Moute: he did a good job on the defensive boards, as he always seemed to be around the ball once it came off the rim. He is very long and fairly quick for his size. He was perhaps the most intriguing to me - he is still unpolished, but he has the physical tools to cause some major mismatches in years to come. Probably not this year, but he looks like the type that will be too big for the typical 3 to defend, and way to quick to be guarded by a four. Defensively, he appeared quick enough to guard a wing, but could get overpowered by a true power forward.

Ryan Wright: unfortunately, he had very few opportunities today, so I really don't have much to say. He seemed very athletic, but no doubt will have to get stronger to be effective - much like Mata last year, he could get dominated inside by most big men. However, he seems much more explosive and certainly more polished than Mata last year.

Mike Roll: as advertised, a very good shooter (judging by his form), though I think he only made one outside jumper today. this style of league, where offense basically comes from guys creating for themselves, does not suit him. he will be better in a structured offense. he also did not spend a whole lot of time on the floor with Farmar, who probably could have gotten him more open looks.

Darren Collison: very, very quick. Unorthodox shot, but the rotation and arc looked good. again, limited opportunities to draw any real conclusions, but he seems like a better defensive matchup on small point guards than Farmar. Having them on the floor together would be very interesting (they did so today for a couple of minutes) - it was somewhat reminiscent of when Tyus Edney and Cameron Dollar used to be on the floor together (obviously the Edney-Dollar tandem was worlds better defensively), but there were would be plenty of opportunities for fast breaks and hopefully easy baskets.

As far as the other game, Afflalo looked to be in great shape. He looks so much more physically developed than everyone else on the court. His strength, however, still does not appear to be creating shots for himself. I could see him excelling in the post or coming off of picks. Mike Fey looked trimmer, and he was about a head taller than everyone else on the floor, so he had some easy looks inside. I think he will definitely benefit from having to bang with Aboya in practice.

A couple of other players caught my eye: in the earlier game, point guard Kevin Bell from Fresno St and Fairfax High looked absolutely dominating. He drove to the basket at will and finished virtually every time. In the Bruins' game, Mike Gerrity from Pepperdine and Mater Dei High had a great game. He must have scored over half of his team's points. Hopefully it's no reflection on Farmar and Collison's defense, as Gerrity was making extremely difficult shots. Still, they were mostly close to the rim, so our guards, especially Farmar, will have to focus on stopping penetration.

Overall, it seems unlikely that any of our freshmen are going to be dominant players this year. Luckily, they don't have to, not like last year when Farmar needed to do so much for the team to do well. Instead, most of the time when a freshman is in the game, he will be the fourth or fifth option on offense. The one thing the team needs is a dominating presence inside, and at this point, i think Aboya is the only freshman that can provide it. He is raw, but he has the attitude and physical strength, so hopefully he will be effective. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how all of the players develop, as we still have quite awhile until October. and while i still foresee some growing pains this year, if we don't have any early exits among our nine main freshman and sophomores, I am confident we will return among the national elite in 2006-07.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to get back out to the games tomorrow, but hopefully i will be back at some point in the future. anyone else who was there or who has comments, please feel free to post them.

As one would expect, Dijon Thompson will be playing for the Suns and Trevor Ariza for the Knicks, but Tyus Edney is on the Nuggets' roster and Jelani McCoy is playing for the Nets.

The summer league spans from 7/6 - 7/15 at Cox Pavillion at UNLV. Luckily, some games will be broadcast on NBA TV, so you have a chance to watch some of these former UCLA players in action (without going to Vegas). See the league schedule and broadcast dates here.

Also, I haven't seen all of the rosters yet, so it's possible that more Bruins could be participating.

Thanks to CraiginMD over at BruinZone for the heads up. You can access stories via the BRO front page. There are plenty of features about recruiting, including the camp that Howland put on for recruits this week. There also is some commentary on some of the incoming freshmen in this article. For info on the current players, an absolute MUST-READ is this interview with Ben Howland. Howland comments on pretty much each player: what parts of their games they are working on, what shape they are in, and what their overall outlook is, etc. Of course he mentions Cedric Bozeman's progress - he's still a month or so away from being completely cleared to play. He also touches on the Pauley renovation, saying that the locker room is the number one thing that needs to updated. Other topics are recruiting overseas and the players' academics.