Lamoureux Decides to Attend Cypress

Dre Lamoureux of Los Alamitos High School, who made a verbal commitment to UCLA in March, instead will play basketball at Cypress College next season.

Lamoureux, a 6-foot 9-inch center, committed to UCLA when Walt Hazzard was the Bruins’ coach. However, when Hazzard was fired two weeks later and eventually replaced by Pepperdine’s Jim Harrick, there were questions as to whether UCLA would uphold the offer.

Harrick met with Lamoureux in Los Alamitos on April 14, the first day a national letter of intent could be signed. According to Lamoureux, Harrick said he would honor UCLA’s commitment.

However, Lamoureux, who has been termed a “project player” by many scouts and coaches, did not sign a letter of intent. He said at the time he wanted to “take a couple of weeks to think things over.”

“After that conversation (with Harrick), I started thinking about playing at Cypress,” Lamoureux said. “The drift of the conversation was he would like me to play two years at a junior college and then come back to UCLA.”

According to Cypress Coach Don Johnson, Lamoureux decided a month ago to play at Cypress.

Lamoureux participated in the Cypress spring league at the college. He is also playing for the Chargers’ summer-league team.

Johnson has had success working with so-called project players in the past. At Cypress, he has coached Swen Nater and Mark Eaton, neither of whom were considered Division I players when they graduated from high school. Both later played at UCLA and in the National Basketball Assn.

Lamoureux said that was one of the main reasons he selected Cypress.