Best wishes to Kyle, who has done a phenomenal job encouraging recruits to come to UCLA. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Last time that UCLA had a high school player that was voted Mr. Basketball USA was over 40 years ago: Lew Alcindor, better known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He would also lead us to an NCAA championship after joining UCLA, maybe Shabazz can do that for us too?

One of my favorite bits from the article:
"Muhammad's basketball journey began well before he reached high school. He was a not-so-athletic sixth-grader battling Tourette syndrome. It was at AAU Nationals that year when he first laid eyes on a tough guard from New Jersey who inspired him to step up his game."

"I just wasn't that good in sixth grade," Muhammad said. "When I saw Kyle Anderson play for the first time, I wished I was that good. He is so skilled and can do a lot of things with the ball in his hands. If he would have won [Mr. Basketball USA honors], I would have been happy for him. That's one of my best friends."

Cynics (realists?) will say Shabazz committed to Adidas, others could say Kyle Anderson may have been the best recruiting factor for UCLA yet.

In all the recruiting excitement, barely anyone mentioned this (I think I saw one comment about it).

Here's hoping a speedy recovery for Stover, and that he's as pumped up about next season as his new teammates are.

You're the best Reggie. Wish we had another player like you in this generation.

Reggie is joined by Olympian Don Barksdale and four-time NBA champion, Jamaal Wilkes, as 3 former UCLA players to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Much of the public world only sees UCLA as the birthplace of the internet, but one can argue that some of the foundations of artificial intelligence were also started here.

Professor Judea Pearl was awarded the ACM Turing Award (like a Nobel Prize for Computer Science) this year for his achievements in the field of AI.

I know we're not getting a lot of good news these days so it's great to see any academic accomplishments like this from time to time.

It took a torn ACL to Ricky Rubio to shorten the depth at the guard position for the Timberwolves, but for better or for worse, Malcolm Lee is now in the game.

"[Anderson] says he talks to 6-6 small forward Shabazz Muhammad, the No. 1 player int the Class of 2012, and 6-9 forward Tony Parker nearly on a daily basis."

I hope he's making it through to them..

While most believe Malcolm Lee should have stayed for his senior year, we have to let such events pass. He's gone whether we like it or not, so we can only hope for his success in the NBA because it will only further reinforce that Howland is an elite coach who prepares his student-athletes to play at the next level.

One major quote from assistant coach Terry Porter:
"There's a lot of guards from that generation that (UCLA coach) Ben Howland, he's turned into great players. … The one quality they all have, they're tough as nails. They compete, and they get after it defensively."

Hopes go out to Norman, please be okay!

Kyle Anderson verbally committed to us and he is definitely communicating with other 2012 hoops prospects. In this case, via twitter. I like his enthusiasm and how he wants to reach out to other guys!

Some UNLV fan put together a (fake) video of Shabazz wearing a UNLV jersey, in an attempt to convince the 2012 recruit to sign with UNLV. What can we do, as fans, to make a similar appeal to him?

I once remember reading about an Arizona recruit that attended one of their football games and was impressed with the support of the crowd (if I can find the link I'll add it to the post), so I really wonder if we are doing all we can as fans to make an impact.

UCLA has made the offer, Artis has expressed his pleasure in receiving, and he expects to pick his school before the next academic high school year begins. I know I've been posting a few bits about LJ Rose, but he's local to Texas so I feel our chances are slimmer with him. Artis may be the better option. His size and height (5"11, 165 lbs) reminds me of the once unheralded Darren Collison, though I doubt he's as fast as our beloved DC.

He has some nice things to say about UCLA and Coach Howland at the end too.

This article also mentions some Kansas player who was eligible to play this last season.

Per Josh Gershon via Twittter, LJ Rose is getting another visit to UCLA tomorrow (memorial day), I wonder if we can get an early commit? Granted, it's all meaningless until the LOI is signed, but I'll take any remotely good news I can get right now.

Another twitter states that UCLA is leading the recruiting trail:
https://twitter.com/#!/KUTheShiver/status/74570241983774720

I know there's a lot of excitement for Shabazz Muhammad right now, but I believe this Rose could be essential for the long term success for our program.

No surprise I suppose, as we've all noted, in 2012, both Jerime Anderson and Lazeric Jones will have graduated, leaving us with absolutely no scholarship point guards. UCLA needs a PG, though not necessarily a 5-star one. Should Howland still be concentrating efforts on Rose? Recall all the time spent on Ray McCallum for the 2010 recruiting class...

Of course, this current season isn't over so we should be focusing on winning games and making the tournament, but the long term success of this program is important as well.

I stumbled upon this article about one of the few PG recruits we're making offers to (at least publicly). The article is pretty old but I saw a few key points that might be a small glimmer of hope for us. LJ Rose's dad wants his son to know that academics and a career outside of basketball are important too. What better place than UCLA to meet these requirements?

The only other problem is this article mentions Rose's strong family ties, which may sway him away from going all the way to California to play.

Credible or no? I don't know if we had any more interest in this player.