Here is No. 8:
You once mentioned BB practice lasts about 2 hours…does that include film study and preparing for the opponent? If not, how much extra time is spent by the players reviewing tape?
The two hours is on-floor time. Howland spends other time watching film, and mornings of game day are usually spent doing walk-throughs. And how much tape is watched depends largely on the player, and his commitment to getting better and understanding the game.
Have you ever seen tape of Dragovic playing with the junior Serbian national team? Also, do you think his game fits in with what Howland wants out of players?
I have not seen tape of him with the national team. As far as how his game fits in, the idea is he can be a zone buster, but a big problem is he doesn’t show the footspeed and toughness to play defense up to Howland’s demands. However, he is getting more playing time this season because UCLA is so thin in the front court.
Does Howland care what quality of coaching a potential recruit gets in high school and AAU?
Nope. He wants talent. If a player is well-coached, that is a bonus.
Please rank your favorite VB Alias posters:
1. VB’s Office Plant
2. The UCLA Mini Helmet fka VB’s Office Plant
3. The Ghost of VB’s Cat
4. VB’s Junior College GPA
5. VB’s Cat who is still alive
6. The Video Camera in VB’s Bedroom
7. Not VB but an incredible re-creation
Why have BH and other UCLA B-ball coaches avoided using zone d? I don’t recall Duke using it often over the years, and IIRC, Wooden didn’t use it. Wouldn’t it help out during portions of games where teams don’t have the athletic advantage?
Some coaches just do not believe in zone defenses because there is always a hole in it. Howland doesn’t believe in zones, so he cannot really pour his heart into coaching it. He views it as a weakness, and he doesn’t want his team to have a perceived weakness on the defensive end.
What are the key messages in Neuheisel’s sales pitch to get recruits to pick UCLA?
Come be one of the players that turns UCLA into the next USC, and make a difference in a program rather than just be a forgotten member in a long line of great players. And, you get to play early. Really early. Also, get a great education and go to school at a beautiful campus.
can u give a list of some of the high profile players that would have come to UCLA if they had the grades like Marshawn Lynch, Reggie Dunn, Kemonte Bateman, etc
I did a story on it during Karl Dorrell’s last season. I pasted it below to give you a better idea.
PRIZED RECRUITS CAN’T MAKE GRADE AT UCLA
UCLA FOOTBALL: PLAYERS ENDING UP AT OTHER PROGRAMS.
Author: Brian Dohn
Staff Writer
Article Text:
Imagine Arizona State’s Rudy Carpenter, the 14th-rated quarterback in the nation, looking to his left and seeing California receiver DeSean Jackson to his right and seeing Washington State’s Michael Bumpus.
In the same backfield, imagine Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky or even USC’s Marc Tyler.
Now imagine them all wearing UCLA uniforms — a collection of talent that could transform the Bruins’ moribund offense into one of the elite.
All of them are Southern California kids and could have been at UCLA.
According to interviews with some of the players and with sources who asked for anonymity, UCLA was a prime choice for those players. But the coaching staff had to cease recruiting them because of academic issues that would keep them from getting into UCLA.
Such players are all over the Pacific-10 conference, and while Bruins coach Karl Dorrell is asked to compete with USC, Oregon, Arizona State and Cal on the field, the playing field when it comes to recruiting is heavily skewed.
“They are not going to win there, with any type of consistency, until they change the approach,” said one former UCLA assistant who asked not to be identified. “It doesn’t matter who the coach is, or how much they pay him. Until UCLA gets serious about winning, and they start easing it (the university’s admissions standard) so a few more kids can get in, you can’t win consistently there.”
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero declined an interview for this story after being informed of his topic. But Dorrell did speak.
“There’s tremendous challenges for recruiting that we have to be mindful of when we recruit,” said Dorrell, the embattled coach who could be on the UCLA sideline for the last time Saturday when the Bruins face No. 8 USC at the Coliseum.
This is not to say UCLA doesn’t miss on recruits, which Dorrell acknowledged happens.
USC defensive back Kevin Ellison, Cal quarterback Nate Longshore and Washington State running back Dwight Tardy — who ran for 214 yards against the Bruins last month — all had UCLA high on their lists during recruiting, but UCLA did not land them.
“I think every place has circumstances that they have to deal with,” Dorrell said. “The bottom line is you have to find players, and you have to find the quality young men that can help you get better as a program, and also succeed here at UCLA, and have the expectation of winning. I knew that was what was dealt for me when I came back here.”
However, according to several former assistant coaches at Pac-10 schools, UCLA’s recruiting pool is markedly smaller than anyone else’s in the league except Stanford’s.
“The biggest deal in recruiting at UCLA is overcoming the academic standards, no question,” said LSU receivers coach D.J. McCarthy, who was on the UCLA staff in 2006. “There is a kid that I’m coaching now that I would have loved to have at UCLA, but when I saw the transcript, there was no way I could get him in. I had no chance of admissions even waiting on him to see what his test score would even be.”
UCLA’s policy is not to sign a player to a letter of intent who is not preliminarily admitted into the school. According to sources, a high school athlete with less than a 2.0 grade-point average after his junior season is usually scratched off UCLA’s recruiting list because of the infinitesimal chance he will make it through UCLA’s admissions.
However, many of those players wind up playing in the Pac-10 — against the Bruins.
“You look at them when you play against them and you’re like, `Wow, we had an opportunity to get him here at UCLA, but did not,”’ Dorrell said.
USC coach Pete Carroll declined comment for this story.
After a game at Crenshaw High in 2005, Colton High defensive back Shareece Wright said UCLA was high on his list. According to sources, Wright’s transcripts made it impossible for UCLA to recruit him hard, but the school continued to show interest because it was also recruiting his teammate, Allen Bradford. Both Wright and Bradford wound up at USC.
Wright said he was told he had to take an online math class if he wanted to attend UCLA, and added, “I didn’t really like it on my unofficial visit. Their coaches weren’t my style.”
Wright did not have to take the math class to attend USC.
UCLA’s more stringent admittance standards, in part, can be traced back to former coach Bob Toledo’s 1998 recruiting class, which was ranked as the best in the nation by several outlets.
“That class was filled with risks and had trouble in school,” said one UCLA insider who requested anonymity. A source said about one-third of the class had academic problems at UCLA, although some of those individuals graduated.
If a player receives a poor grade in a class early in his high school career, some colleges allow the player to retake the class. “UCLA frowns on that,” McCarthy said.
One of the top prep receivers on the West Coast is Crenshaw High’s Kamonte Bateman. He gave UCLA a non-binding oral commitment in the spring but was told he would not receive a written offer from the Bruins until he improved his academics.
Last month he committed to play at Arizona State, and sources said he will not have to show the marked academic improvement to get into Arizona State that UCLA’s administration demanded.
Jeremy Childs spent a week trying to commit to UCLA. He called Don Johnson, the Bruins’ recruiting coordinator in December 2004, several times, and even left a phone message detailing his decision to commit.
However, academics were an issue, and Childs went to Boise State. He leads the Broncos with 82 catches, more than double the total of anyone else on the team.
Bumpus, who is from Culver City, said in 2005 he wanted to go to UCLA but could not be admitted. He caught six passes for 62 yards as Washington State defeated the Bruins earlier this season.
Carpenter, a former Westlake High star, tried to commit to UCLA in January 2004 but was told issues with his transcripts could keep him from being admitted. When told he would have to wait a few weeks to learn if he was admitted, he chose the Sun Devils.
And there is also Jackson, one of the top receivers in the Pac-10 and also one of the best punt returners in the nation. Members of Jackson’s family were constant visitors to UCLA’s practices, sources said, but the Bruins could not get him into school because his core grades were not up to UCLA’s standards.
Cal, which has different standards despite being in the same UC system, landed the talented playmaker.
“UCLA, no matter how big your class is, you get two to four exceptions, as far as low-end kids that they will allow into school,” said LSU’s McCarthy, who played at Washington. “Cal, they may get six to eight of those type of exceptions into school. USC is a private school, so they can make their bends where they want, to get (kids) into school.”
And then there are the high school players UCLA does not even get a chance to recruit heavily because of academic issues.
Lucky, a former North Hollywood High star who ran for 1,019 yards this season at Nebraska, and LSU cornerback Jai Eugene, expressed interest in UCLA but were not pursued, sources said. USC’s Marc Tyler, the son of former UCLA tailback Wendell Tyler, and Oregon defensive back Jarius Byrd also were checked off UCLA’s recruiting list early, according to sources, because of academic issues.
Malik Jackson and Marquis Jackson, twin defensive ends from Birmingham High of Lake Balboa, are in a similar situation. The Bruins’ coaching staff had to ease the recruitment of the pair because of academics. Malik gave an oral commitment to Fresno State, but said he is still recruited by other schools, including USC.
“(UCLA) told me my grades weren’t good enough and they’d have to wait until I got them up,” Malik said. “I guess they found someone else.”
Whereas Toledo’s 1998 class may have turned UCLA’s academic people in one direction, the Bruins are excelling in the classroom under Dorrell. Seventy-three of the 80 players in Dorrell’s first four recruiting classes are still in school. In the spring, 23 members of the football team were on the school’s Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, which requires a 3.0 grade point average or better.
But even that doesn’t appear to be enough to change the recruiting situation, because several of UCLA’s former assistants said the problem isn’t keeping players in school, but getting them into school.
“I think UCLA has great resources when it comes to academics,” McCarthy said. “Those people do a great job with the kids, and the tutoring, and the hours, and making sure they get it done. You’ve got the stuff lined up academically, but you’ve got to allow those kids to come in.”