Pepperdine's freshman PF/C Malcolm Thomas is transferring. He visited UCLA the other day and his high school coach said that we may be offering him scholarship soon. He's honorable mention for All WCC team and All-Freshman Team. Thomas is posting 12.6 ppg, 8.8 rpg, and 1.83 blocks per game.
If he transfers to UCLA he would have to sit out 2009 and then resume his college career as a redshirt Sophomore in 2010. The Bruins will no longer have the services of Mbah a Mute, Aboya due to graduation and then the possibility of Keefe,Roll or Stanbeck leaving for the NBA. Mr. Thomas would be a nice additon to the Bruins roster.
good point G, i wasnt even thinking straight. he could be a very nice addition for 2010. but its pretty obvious that for next year, and years to come we are going to need some more bigs in order to bring home that 12th.
We still get our hope up with J'mison Morgan. He's meeting with Trent Johnson this week and we'll know more whether he's staying at LSU or not. If he decided to leave, there is a slight chance that he will go to us.
Kevin Love is already announced while both Collison and Westbrook are still contemplating. There is a chance that Westbrook will come back for his Junior year after most of the report about his inconsistency in perimeter shooting. Another year under his belt will improve his draft status next year instead of being at the low end of 1st round or early 2nd round this year.
If both of them decided to stay, Coach Howland will have a dilemma what to do with 5 Guards since the anticipation of Collison will leave after this season.
Kevin Love's news conference will be Thursday, April 17th.
dont know if you guys heard or not buy Luc is also being reported to enter his name in the NBA draft. this from Brian Dohn. i have a feeling Luc is just testing the draft process, because I see no chance of him actually being drafted. while i love Luc and he is a key part of the team it appears to me that in 3 years at UCLA he has actually gotten WORSE. he has absoultely NO jumper, and aside from layups cant put the ball in the bucket. he is a great defender though and that would definitely be his niche in the NBA. if all 4 guys end up leaving we will be extremely thin next year.
I just got the news about Luc but I am pretty sure he's just testing the water. Everyone can see that he needs much to improve offensively. He has no perimeter jump shot and most of his points came from the glass. To play Small Forward in the NBA, you have to have mid-range to beyond the arc which he's horrendous this season. The only positive attribute is that he can defend with the best of them. He'll withdraw before the deadline and be with us next season.
I agree. He'll withdraw. In addition to his lack of a mid-range/outside shot, his footwork left much to be desired this year. Too many turnovers off the first step. That improvement plus his experience could be very valuable to our team next year.
With Love gone, Luc might be the starting center unless Drew Gordon can handle it. His rebounding will probably go up. They kept saying how he was working on his jumpshot all of last summer but we didn't see much progress.
I really like the guy, I hope he comes back and has his best year and goes in the first round in the 2009 draft.
I'm pretty confident that Luc is just declaring to see if he will be drafted in second round. He should stay, because next year he will get more scoring oppurtunities with Love, and probably Westbrook and Collison leaving. He will again be the leading post presence and possibly the leader of the team as far as defense and experience. I think that he might also see what will happen with J'Mison Morgan, because if he comes to UCLA, Luc probably won't be the main post presence, but instead second fiddle like this past season. I just hope we can be a good team next year with whoever we have playing for us.
There maybe a little issue in regard to his transcript. Then there is the development of the chance landing J'mison Morgan for 2008 season or if LSU won't release him. There are other thing that decide whether we'll offer him or not. If he had to sit out for a year, we're looking to offer many talented big men out there for 2009.
I've seen some of the guy's UCLA has coming in and to be quite honest as good a player as Thomas is, I'M not sure how much playing time he'll see if he goes to UCLA
