I know it’s not prime recruiting season, but it is coming up soon. It’s all a jumble now because we have no idea who stays, who transfers, who goes pro, how much hs kids need in NIL, and for our team, who is disgruntled by lack of PT.
But it seems like we should have 2-3 quality freshmen every year that understand the whole landscape and value what UCLA offers.
In a perfect world, we could get an elite prospect plus a couple of really good prospects each year. If one is good enough, they stay 2 years and go pro. One transfers, and the other plays by year 2 and stays 4 years. That provides a base of 8-9 homegrown players on the team at any given time. Add in a couple of transfer portal guys and a couple of transfers who still have eligibility and you have everything you need.
It seems the schools and coaches who need to remake their roster with 5+ transfers a year can’t develop talent or have such deep pockets that they can buy whatever they want. I hope this year is an aberration and we don’t have 8 new players every year.
5 new guys is a healthy way to grow a team but 8 every year is chaos and feels more like fantasy football than college basketball.
But it seems like we should have 2-3 quality freshmen every year that understand the whole landscape and value what UCLA offers.
In a perfect world, we could get an elite prospect plus a couple of really good prospects each year. If one is good enough, they stay 2 years and go pro. One transfers, and the other plays by year 2 and stays 4 years. That provides a base of 8-9 homegrown players on the team at any given time. Add in a couple of transfer portal guys and a couple of transfers who still have eligibility and you have everything you need.
It seems the schools and coaches who need to remake their roster with 5+ transfers a year can’t develop talent or have such deep pockets that they can buy whatever they want. I hope this year is an aberration and we don’t have 8 new players every year.
5 new guys is a healthy way to grow a team but 8 every year is chaos and feels more like fantasy football than college basketball.
