J'mison Morgan

I will not only volunteer to pick him up at the airport (of course, I'd be flying in myself) but I will also volunteer to call his mother every hour on the hour telling her how much we love her son...

I just won't buy him a cell phone, flat screen tv, clothes, etc. because that story's already getting old.

Kinda anti-climactic, what with all the build-up, then the delay, then the "rescheduled" press conference, etc. 

Based on that (and his mother's first comments that they thought that LSU wasn't paying enough attention to him), I just hope that he isn't some kind of Prima Donna who's going to try to demand the ball too much and get upset if he's not the top scorer each game.

But you're right.  No matter what, this is the best recruiting class in the country.  Is it also the best class in UCLA history based on recruiting expectations and not actual college performance?

So I'm walking out of a bar tonight, wearing my typical UCLA t-shirt, and a guy sitting at a table near the door shouts out "Go Bruins!"  I returned the favor.  This may not seem unusual to most of you, but I'm in Cincinnati for crying out loud.

Then I get home to watch the Lakers obliterate the Celtics and see the confirmation on Morgan and His Airness's note on Jasper.  And it strikes me--is this the Twilight Zone or what?! 

How is it that UCLA is suddenly THE place to be?  I mean four and five star recruits are bailing on their commitments to other big name programs just so that they can join very deep recruiting classes where they'll have to compete for playing time.  Is that bizarre or what?

I have to give 110% of the credit to Coach Howland.  Even though his focus is clearly on defense and not on a run-and-gun, everybody's a star on offense but wouldn't know how to defend if their lives depended on it type of system (a la Memphis, UNC, etc.), Howland has elevated the Bruins to being THE premier program in the country again.

Sure we've come up a bit short over the past three years but can you imagine how many other programs would give up their left testicle to finish in the top two or four every year?  It's only a matter of when, not if, UCLA will when it all.  And, with this amazing success on the recruiting front, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the championships eventually end up being two out of three years or three out of five.

It's an amazing time to be a Bruin.  As good as it has been, I'm getting more and more confident that it's only going to get better!