Korey McCray hired by UCLA

UCLA head coach Ben Howland today announced the hire of Korey McCray as his third assistant coach, replacing Scott Duncan, who left to join Larry Shyatt's program at Wyoming.

McCray, 32, comes directly from the AAU ranks, where he served as CEO of the Atlanta Celtics, a program that has produced some of the top talent on current NBA rosters, including Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Amare Stoudemire and Derrick Favors.

"I'm very excited to be announcing that Korey McCray has joined our staff," Howland said in a release. "I'm looking forward to him developing in every area. He will be a great asset in the development and mentoring of our players, in on the floor coaching and in recruiting."

While McCray has collegiate coaching experience at his alma mater, Mercer College, and at Florida State as a graduate assistant, that Howland would dip into the AAU circuit is quite telling. The Bruins have missed out on some key recruits in recent years, and the thought is that Howland needed to find someone in the McCray mold to round out his staff.

With the Celtics, McCray most recently coached two players whom the Bruins are heavily scouting, class of 2011-12 forwards Jordan Adams and Shaq Goodwin.

"I'm extremely excited to be at UCLA," McCray said in the school release. "It is an amazing University and has a great history in basketball, academics and throughout the entire athletic program. I couldn't be at a better place. I believe in education and developing student-athletes into a well-rounded person, including basketball, education, values, morals, personal relationships. There is no place better that represents that than UCLA."