Answers, Part VIII

What is the under 18 olympic basketball team and if our future Bruins make it, when would they be playing in the tournament in Argentina?
It's a competition, basically, for high school-aged kids. I think the would play in Argentina in early July.

In last week's Q&A, you mentioned that the enrollment of a few players who would not have been accepted in prior years was not due to "increased flexibility on behalf of the admission folks, but rather better preparedness from the football offices in presenting cases." Do you know which person or persons within the football office deserve credit for the better preparation? Did Coach Neuheisel have significant influence on this effort?
Neuheisel deserves credit for it, as do a lot of others that work behind the scenes. Their names rarely appear in print, and usually for the wrong reasons, but there was a lot more detail involved in getting supposed borderline kids into school.

Do you think the biggest defensive question mark on this year's team is the defensive backfield where only Verner returns as a starter?
Without question. Not only is UCLA going to have three new starters, but they lost seven years of starting when Chris Horton, Dennis Keyes and Trey Brown each exhausted their eligibility.

Do you see any defensive player emerging as a potential star like Bruce Davis was on last year's team?
Right now I do not see it, but I think the guy most suited to do so is Reggie Carter. But Davis was an All-American, and they don't come around all the time.

Has Coach Walker indicated whether he thinks this year's defense can be as good or better than last year's team?
He doesn't like to compare one defense to another, but in my discussions with him, he does think UCLA has a chance to be very good defensively this season.

The article on the link below mentions that there is a stipulation in Rick Neuheisel's contract that he will not be eligible for contract bonuses if the program is put on NCAA probation. Is this something common among UCLA's current and recent coaches such as Howland and Dorrell and does Neu's history have anything to do with it?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3410625&campaign=rss&source=NCFHeadlines
It is standard in all contracts. That is my problem with the mass media, including some in this town. It is ordinary contract language, yet people either don't know or don't care to portray things accurately, so it makes it seem like it is a big story.
As a matter of fact, several members of the media received the contract info at the same time, and here is what I wrote.