Bailey Among Trio Rewarded

All three players who had been on year-to-year scholarships, allowing the Bruins flexibility in recruiting, have full rides this season.

Ryan Bailey, Sean Farnham and Todd Ramasar have scholarships partly because UCLA’s freshman class includes only one player, Jason Kapono. The change avoids what would have been noteworthy oversights for Bailey and Farnham, since they are likely to play prominent roles.

“It’s worked out nice,” Coach Steve Lavin said of the trio. “Each of them has earned scholarships with the type of student-athletes they have been. It’s nice when you’re able to reward them with scholarships.”

It’s especially nice for Bailey, since he left one behind when he transferred from Penn State in the summer of 1997. The Bruins said they wanted him, but also said there would be no financial assistance unless recruiting allowed, and that even that limited commitment would be for only a year at a time.

But things worked out. Bailey got a scholarship last season, his first with UCLA after redshirting. And now he has one for the junior year.

“I was recruited here without a promise,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve played my way to a scholarship. Now I’m going to keep playing hard to show I deserved it.”