Monday, March 31, 1997
RECRUITING:
Team looks to next season, hopes to find newcomers strong enough
to fill seniors’ shoesBy Hye Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
The season that displayed almost everything imaginable and then
some has come to an end for the UCLA men’s basketball team, and the
task at hand now is to build upon the success of the Elite Eight
team for next season.
The Bruins will lose three seniors, Charles O’Bannon, Cameron
Dollar and Bob Myers, which will impact the team greatly. It was
O’Bannon who started dominating Pac-10 foes midway through the
season, enabling the Bruins to get a winning streak going into the
tournament. Dollar, on the other hand, kept bringing UCLA back from
the dead, as evidenced first in the Washington State win and later
in the Iowa State thriller.
Emotional leadership is another quality that UCLA head coach
Steve Lavin will miss greatly. During the season, Lavin made it
clear to all that the three seniors set the table for the younger
players, making his job as a rookie head coach much easier.
"They’re such a special group and obviously I’ll be indebted and
grateful to them forever, because they’ve been like an extension of
our coaching staff," UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said. "Basically
everything college athletics is about is Cameron Dollar, Bob Myers
and Charles O’Bannon."
Of the three UCLA underclassmen  Toby Bailey, J.R.
Henderson and Jelani McCoy  who are projected as NBA
first or second-round draft picks if they choose to leave
school early, Bailey and McCoy are the definite returnees.
Henderson, who told the media that he was leaning toward coming
back when asked on the day of Lavin’s hiring, is reportedly not
quite ready to make his final decision yet.
UCLA’s surprising late-season run should be a boost to
recruiting, which after Harrick’s firing looked like a lost cause.
This bodes well for Lavin, who can court recruits with not only
sound coaching philosophy, but on-court success backing up his
rhetoric.
"I can tell recruits that this is a pretty special place to come
to school, not only in education but also in a basketball family
that you’re going to be part of," Lavin said. "That’s what this
season was all about, developing a basketball family. Regardless of
whether (we) won or lost, we’re going to be a family."
So far, five recruits have either signed the letter of intent to
play at UCLA or have given an oral commitment to do so. All are
guards or small forwards, which may transform the ’97-’98 Bruins
into a quick, perimeter-oriented team not unlike NCAA Championship
finalists Arizona and Kentucky.
Earl Watson, a 6-foot, 2-inch guard from Kansas City, is the
sole recruit who signed the letter of intent in the early signing
period in November. Watson, who can play either the point or the
two guard, averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds as a junior, and is
projected as the replacement for Dollar if McDonald’s All-American
Baron Davis chooses not to fulfill his oral commitment.
Davis, who remarked in November that he’d sign with UCLA if
Lavin was named the permanent head coach, has not confirmed that
commitment yet. However, good news for the Bruins is that UCLA is
said to be still in the running with the likes of Kansas and
Duke.
Adding to the list of freshman recruits are two local players,
Billy Knight of Westchester High and Travis Reed of Fontana Miller
High, who have reportedly given Lavin oral commitments. Knight is a
6’4" three-point specialist, who has made it onto the Long Beach
Press-Telegram’s "Best of the West" list. Although Reed has not
garnered such prep-level accolades, at 6’6", he will be an asset at
the small forward position.
A forgotten player in all this is Rico Hines, who was supposed
to play for UCLA this year had it not been for a Christology class
at St. John’s at Prospect Hall in Frederick, Maryland that did not
count toward his grade point average. Hines, who is known for his
jumping ability, is currently a fifth-year senior in a prep school
on the East Coast and will have four years of eligibility left over
starting next season.
Another new addition to next year’s team is Nevada transfer
Kevin Daley, who has been sitting out this entire season. A
teammate of O’Bannon’s at Artesia High who averaged 17 points and
eight rebounds in his senior year, Daley, with his 6’6" frame and
great jumping ability, will add depth at the small forward
position.
So far, five recruits have either signed the letter of intent to
play at UCLA or have given an oral commitment to do so. All are
guards or small forwards …JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Senior Charles O’Bannon leaves the court for the last time as a
Bruin on Saturday.JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Coach Steve Lavin was unable to hold back tears at the postgame
press conference after the loss to Minnesota.