On Stepheson
North Carolina transfer Alex Stepheson has a very good chance of winding up at UCLA, and there is more than the natural fit of the Bruins being one of the hometown teams and Stepheson having UCLA among his final schools when he decided to go to North Carolina.
UCLA assistant coach Scott Garson is a Harvard-Westlake product, and like Stepheson, played for Harvard-Westlake coach Greg Hilliard.
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About Inside UCLA
This is Brian Dohn's fifth season covering UCLA after spending 4 1/2 years covering the Dodgers for the Daily News and other Los Angeles Newspaper Group papers. He graduated from Rutgers, where the first college football game was played in 1869. Sure, the Scarlet Knights suffered for a long time, but now RU is doing what Jerseyans always thought was possible. Winning at Rutgers also proves winning is possible everywhere else in the nation, so underachieving coaches better be careful. Now, if only men's hoops can turn it around.
Hey Brian. Welcome back ... I hope you had a nice time off. I have a question regarding transfers since it's a hot topic these days for both UCLA football and hoops. Let's assume Stepheson transfers to UCLA and by rule he has to sit out a year. Would he be allowed to enroll at UCLA and take classes this fall, or would he have to enroll at a junior college or somewhere else for the year? If he enrolls at UCLA, would he be on scholarship for the year, even though he's not eligible to play basketball? If so, it doesn't seem like we have enough scholarships at this point for the 2008-09 year. Please let me know how it would all work out. Thanks.
Brian,
welcome back. It seems to me if Jmison Morgan commits to UCLA the front court will already be fairly crowded with Gooden also in the mix, and with MRM, Keefe, and Aboya possibly sticking around. I am sure Gooden, Morgan, and Stepheson would all rather pick a place whether they can start and put in reasonable amount of minutes but I dont see that happening if they all end up at ucla. why would stepheson consider ucla under the circumstances?
First, Stepheson would enroll at UCLA and be on scholarship for three years but only play two seasons.
Second, all these kids are high-caliber talents, and in my dealings with such players, each one believes he will outperform the other during practice and in competition, so the depth issue isn't as dramatic.