UCLA Comes Up With O’Bannon on the Rebound

Ed O’Bannon, one of the country’s most coveted basketball recruits last season at Artesia High School in Lakewood, announced Monday that he will enroll next month at UCLA.

A 6-foot-8 forward, O’Bannon is the second recruit in the last week to spurn Nevada Las Vegas in favor of the Bruins, joining Shon Tarver, a 6-5 guard from Santa Clara High in Oxnard.

UNLV, the defending national champion, was banned by the NCAA from postseason competition next year because of alleged recruiting violations of 13 years ago, prompting O’Bannon and Tarver to change their minds about enrolling at the school.

Neither O’Bannon nor Tarver signed letters of intent with UNLV at the suggestion of Coach Jerry Tarkanian, giving them the option of changing their minds if UNLV was penalized by the NCAA before the start of the fall semester.

UNLV is still awaiting word on possible sanctions stemming from alleged improprieties in its recruitment of former New York City prep star Lloyd Daniels.

O’Bannon is expected to have the greater immediate impact on the UCLA program, possibly moving into the starting lineup as a freshman in place of Trevor Wilson, who was drafted last June by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.

Coach Bill Frieder of Arizona State, who wanted both players, said last winter that the left-handed O’Bannon was the best player he has ever tried to recruit.

Among Frieder’s former recruits are Roy Tarpley of the Dallas Mavericks, Glen Rice of the Miami Heat and Gary Grant of the Clippers. Three of Frieder’s former recruits at Michigan--Rumeal Robinson, Loy Vaught and Terry Mills--were first-round NBA draft picks this year.

“O’Bannon will be a three-time All-American no matter where he goes,” Tarkanian said last week, when O’Bannon was still considering USC, Syracuse and Arizona State. “If UCLA gets both (O’Bannon and Tarver), they could have the best team in the country. They’ll be so talented, it will be unbelievable.”

Said Coach George Raveling of USC, which was said to be O’Bannon’s second choice last spring and again this summer: “My feelings are the same as when he announced he was going to attend UNLV, except now it gives the Pac-10 two teams this year with Final Four potential.”

With the additions of Tarver and O’Bannon, UCLA is expected to challenge Arizona next season for the Pac-10 championship.

Last season, the Bruins were 22-11 and reached the East Regional semifinals in the NCAA tournament before losing to Duke.

“I hope that I can contribute in some small way to the great UCLA basketball tradition,” O’Bannon said in a statement read over the phone to reporters by his high school coach, Wayne Merino.

O’Bannon and his family were unavailable for comment, referring all inquiries to UCLA.

O’Bannon averaged 24.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists a game last season, leading Artesia to a 29-2 record, the Southern Section 4-A championship and the state Division II championship.

He was named national high school player of the year by Basketball Times and state player of the year by Cal-Hi Sports.

In postseason all-star games, he was named most valuable player of the West team in the Dapper Dan Classic and scored 19 points in the McDonald’s All-Star game.

Last month, he helped the U.S. junior national team win the Championship of the Americas tournament at Montevideo, Uruguay, averaging 11.5 points a game.

His roommate in Uruguay was Darrick Martin, UCLA’s junior point guard and one of fourreturning starters for the Bruins.

“Darrick is a great spokesman for UCLA basketball and UCLA in general,” said Bruin Coach Jim Harrick, giving credit to Martin for influencing O’Bannon’s decision.

“We feel fortunate,” Harrick said. “We got (Tarver and O’Bannon) after some bizarre things happened. Yeah, we feel very fortunate.

“(But) obviously, they weren’t completely satisfied with their (original) selections because they didn’t sign letters of intent.”