Like many Los Angeles natives, Hassan Adams dreamed of playing
basketball in Westwood. UCLA was close to his home and the decades
of tradition intrigued him.
After finishing an illustrious career at Los Angeles Westchester
High School, he visited UCLA, but apparently it was nothing
special.
“I went to watch the practice but the players
weren’t going at it hard enough,” he said. “The
coach was kind of pushing them, but they were too
relaxed.”
Once he felt that UCLA did not fit his ultimate goal of playing
with an intense work ethic, Adams signed his National Letter of
Intent and sent it to Tucson.
Each year UCLA vigorously recruits some of the nation’s
best but lately they have failed to bring many of them home.
Perhaps no loss hurts more than Adams, Arizona’s true
freshman shooting guard.
“(Hassan) has long-term goals and he thought he could
accomplish those at Arizona,” Wildcats head coach Lute Olson
said. “Looking at our situation, he saw a good opportunity
right away.”
Being unable to sign elite local players such as Adams is not a
new concept for the Bruins; UCLA has lost other Southern California
blue-chippers to NCAA contenders.
Two years ago, Errick Craven (currently with USC) was going to
sign with UCLA under the condition that his twin brother Derrick be
taken in a package deal. UCLA balked, and the brothers have
dominated the Bruins from across town, including a recent win at
Pauley Pavilion last Wednesday.
UCLA also lost star Josh Childress to Stanford two years ago,
and Jamal Sampson chose Cal over UCLA before he was drafted by the
Milwaukee Bucks following his freshman year.
Even Omar Wilkes, son of Bruin great Jamaal, decided this past
October that he would sign with Kansas.
Adams felt the Bruins pushed hard for him but didn’t make
a convincing argument.
“They’re a team that just comes around for the
playoffs and that’s it,” he said. “I want to have
a good (regular) season too.”
This year, Adams is having an amazing season as the
second-leading scorer for the No. 2 Wildcats. UCLA, on the other
hand, is unranked and struggling at 4-7.
With a poor record and controversy surrounding the job security
of head coach Steve Lavin, Adams’ criticism of the team seems
justified, but some current players beg to differ.
“I think it’s just his opinion and he’s
entitled to his opinion,” sophomore guard Cedric Bozeman
said. “I’m very happy with (Lavin’s)
system.”
“It’s not a bad system,” agreed sophomore
forward Andre Patterson. “I love it.”
But the Bruin system wasn’t good enough for Adams. Now 4-0
in Pac-10 play, Adams credits UCLA’s inability to reel in top
recruits last year for the Bruins’ early-season
struggles.
“They didn’t get the players they wanted (in
recruiting), and they went with their back-ups,” he said.
Last year Bozeman, Patterson and guard Dijon Thompson arrived as
a top-five national recruiting class, and UCLA has not had as deep
a class since the years of John Wooden.
The 2002-2003 class ““ Adams’ “back-ups”
““ originally included Michael Fey, Ryan Hollins, Marcedes
Lewis and Evan Burns.
Fey has averaged less than two points and two rebounds in 10
games, while Hollins’ averages are the same in seven.
Lewis came to UCLA as a football player and has had no impact on
the team since joining, and Burns signed with San Diego State after
he did not meet NCAA academic requirements.
The lack of contribution makes this class appear less talented
than previous ones.
Adams took this all into consideration when planning his
future.
“We practice (at Arizona),” he said bluntly.
“I bring a lot of heart and they lack it. I put 100 percent
on the floor.”
Despite the fact that the Bruins see Adams as a talented player,
they have no regrets about what they missed out on.
Lavin also claimed that recruiting was not down and out.
“We’re still getting Trevor Ariza,” he
said.
Ariza is a former teammate of Adams and, according to Lavin, the
best high school player in the state of California this year. But
after losing out on so many recruits like Adams, Ariza’s the
cornerstone of the Bruins’ future.
According to Lavin, UCLA fans never expect to rebuild a team,
but rather reload talent annually; this season it is becoming more
evident that the team did not reload well enough.
When Arizona plays UCLA on Saturday, Adams says he will show the
Bruins what they lost.
“Coach (Olson) respects me as a person and knows more than
Lavin,” he said. “I had to weigh my options, and
Arizona was the best fit for me.”