In just four years, Ben Howland has reestablished UCLA as both an elite team on the court and an elite program in recruiting circles.
Last week, Howland received a verbal commitment from the class of 2008’s Jrue Holiday, a guard prospect from North Hollywood’s Campbell Hall who is ranked by Scout.com as the No. 5 overall prospect in the country. Some have said Holiday is the best guard prospect out of Southern California since Baron Davis.
Holiday will not be the only topflight recruit coming to Westwood in ’08.
The combo guard will be joined by Malcolm Lee, Jerime Anderson and Drew Gordon ““ all highly touted recruits. Lee is a dynamic guard who can play anywhere from point guard to small forward and is rated as the No. 17 overall prospect in the country. Anderson is a true point guard who rates as the No. 29 prospect, and Gordon is a slightly undersized center and the No. 30 prospect in the nation.
All in all, this class is the most highly rated of the Howland era, and the perimeter class of Lee, Anderson and Holiday could end up being even more talented and important to the resurgence of UCLA basketball than the Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo and Josh Shipp class of 2004.
In back-to-back years, Howland has snagged a nationally top-five player. Kevin Love, a skilled big man from Oregon, is the centerpiece of UCLA’s 2007 class, and has been heralded as the most important recruit for UCLA since at least Ed O’Bannon in the early 1990s.
Holiday might be just as crucial.
He will likely play point guard in both college and the pros, as, at 6’3″ and 180 lbs., he is slightly undersized for a professional shooting guard. Many liken him to a Dwyane Wade type player ““ ostensibly a shooting guard, but one who can also handle the ball.
So much has changed in the five years Howland has been at UCLA.
Steve Lavin’s last class consisted of exactly one player, Trevor Ariza. Ariza was talented, but was a poor team player and showed little work ethic in his one year at UCLA.
In Howland’s first class, he recruited four tough and talented prospects out of southern California in order to instill a new kind of philosophy for UCLA basketball. That class of Lorenzo Mata, Farmar, Afflalo and Shipp has combined with Howland to turn around the moribund ship of UCLA basketball, which has culminated in two consecutive Final Four runs as well as the recent return to the elite recruiting circles.
And the ’08 class is not done yet.
UCLA is still looking to get a commitment from one more big man, as it appears likely that there will not be many on scholarship in 2008. Prospects for that last spot include Ralph Sampson III and J’Mison Morgan, both recruits from outside of California.