Lavin Sees the Silver Lining

Problems?

What problems?

UCLA basketball Coach Steve Lavin, facing the loss of three of his best players this spring and the very real possibility that his once-promising roster will be reduced to nothing a year from now, offered sunshine and a happy tune Monday.

“All the guys leaving has helped recruiting,” he said. “The last couple weeks, we’ve gotten more calls, people recruiting us.”

And:

There is “new-found excitement. . . . All of a sudden, there’s [players] all around the country” wanting to come.

Every school should be so fortunate as to have a Sweet 16 team disintegrate. The Bruins are trying to replace at least two key players who made themselves available for the draft, Jerome Moiso and JaRon Rush, and another who is strongly considering the jump, Jason Kapono.

Compounding that, all three are forwards, and the only center, Dan Gadzuric, said he is leaving after next season, turning the frontline from a strength to a major concern. And not the only major concern: if Gadzuric does go after his junior year, it will be at the same time as the eligibility expires for guards Earl Watson, Rico Hines and Ryan Bailey.

Lavin said he is delaying his usual June vacation until August, because so many prospects have called to set up unofficial campus visits. Then he heads out in July for the summer look-see period, getting another in-person look at what is being hailed as the top recruiting class in years, locally and around the country.

The timing couldn’t be better in that regard. The Bruins, who have been holding scholarships back in recent years to load up for a big push with the high school senior class of 2001, will have the greatest need just as the riches are seemingly becoming available.

They have signed two high school seniors, forwards T.J. Cummings and Josiah Johnson, who will not only add much-needed depth but could battle for starting spots.

Additional possibilities for incoming freshmen remain, but not many. The Bruins hope to know in a couple of weeks whether 6-10 Jair Veldhuis, who is from Holland and is attending high school in Northern California, has qualified academically.

They will probably wait until fall to learn whether talented guard Tony Parker, an American attending school in France, will choose playing in college or turning professional, playing in Europe for a season and then trying the NBA.

Deadlines are not an issue. The NCAA’s letter-of-intent period ended Monday, but players can sign grants-in-aid any time, which essentially has the same effect. Kapono did it a year ago.

Depending on whether Kapono leaves, the Bruins will have as many as eight scholarships to use for the mega-jackpot of 2001, though some of those could go to the likes of Veldhuis and Parker. That eight assumes Gadzuric and Kapono will be gone after next season.

Each signing for this fall reduces that number, but even having five or six available will afford great opportunities.

Just in time, because the projected seniors and juniors for the 2001-02 season are Matt Barnes, Billy Knight, Todd Ramasar and Brandon Brooks.

In some much-needed good news, Lavin said that Barnes, targeted as Moiso’s replacement at power forward, has changed his mind and will not play football this fall.

If Barnes had gone through with his plan to play wide receiver, he would have been unavailable for the start of the basketball season.