More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury on the Deuce right now.

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Well even though no on really called out for an open thread around the Bulldogs game tonight. The game just tipped off minutes ago on ESPN2. You can track it on WWL here. I think we might as well use the occasion to check out Jarvis Varnado and his Bulldogs team-mates take on DePaul Blue Demons before they make their way to Anaheim on Sat.

As of right now you can find our current notes on Bulldogs to date over here. If you are watching the game tonight, please use this thread to share your observations and quick commentary. Fire away.

GO BRUINS.

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Mississippi State forward Kodi Augustus had complained about PT earlier in the season.

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Let's continue to add to our notes in the Bulldogs game file we have been putting together this week. For those who are interested you can check out Mississippi State tonight on ESPN 2 (6:30 pm EST) when they take on DePaul Blue Demons (who we beat in last year's Wooden Classic) in 2009 Big-East/SEC invitational. The more I read about these Bulldogs, the more I get the sense that we might have a fairly even matchup on Saturday.

As noted in the information below, it sounds like the Bulldogs have also been dealing with off court distractions and injuries at early point of this season. They are trying to battle through it just like us under the leadership of a pretty solid coach in Rick Stansbury. If can pull out a win, could potentially set us up for a decent finish in what has been a brutal out of conference season. Not going to be an easy task, as these Bulldogs themselves are feeling solid after their recent blowout win and looking to use that to jump start their road trip starting tonight against Blue Demons in a neutral court game in Tampa, and then flying across the country to Anahem.

So speaking of the Bulldogs, I was looking through the Blue Demons official website this am to get their scouting report on our next opponent. Here is the capsule on MSU which not surprisingly is toplined by Jarvis Varnado:

Opponent No. 8 - Mississippi State Bulldogs: Mississippi State enters Thursday's action at 5-2 following a 105-53 win over St. Bonaventure on Saturday... the Bulldogs have also posted wins over Southeast Louisiana, Bethune-Cookman, Texas-Pan American and Old Dominion... the two defeats have come at the hands of Rider and Richmond... Jarvis Varnado leads five players averaging in double-figures with 14.4 points per game... he also leads the club with 9.7 rebounds per outing and 37 blocked shots... Dee Bost adds 13.4 points per game while Ravern Johnson holds a scoring average of 12.4... the duo combines for 39 three-pointers this season as Mississippi State averages 10.1 three's per game... head coach Rick Stansbury is in his 12th season at Mississippi State and holds a 236-130 record with the Bulldogs.

Watching tonight's game could be interesting because DePaul's strategery heading into this game might not be too far off from what Coach Howland has in mind for Saturday:

DePaul (5-2) would like to keep any running Thursday to a minimum with its low-possession, low-turnover style of play.  A more deliberate pace combined with solid team defense has the Blue Demons holding opponents to 56.6 points per game---No. 13 in the nation through the first week of December.

"A low-possession game magnifies the importance of free throws," Wainwright said. "It nauseates me to keep talking about it, but missed free throws are the same thing as turnovers. In seven games, we've missed 68 free throws (Mississippi State has missed 38)."

For more on the Bulldogs lets jump over the flip.

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So just two more days to go till the Finals weeks come to and end. Bruins will get back to practices tonight to prepare for Saturday's game against Mississippi State Bulldogs. I believe they are heading out to Anaheim on Friday. Hopefully the focus on finals and taking couple of days off from practices will allow freshmen such as RN more time to heal up and TH to get stronger as he works his way back to the rotation. Coach Howland gave updates on the status of his two key freshmen and his impressions on the Bulldogs yesterday.

Howland is optimistic that Nelson will be able to play on Saturday:

Nelson hasn’t missed any practice time because it’s finals week at UCLA and the Bruins didn’t practice on Monday or Tuesday. The Bruins are optimistic that he’ll be able to play Saturday against Mississippi State at the Wooden Classic in Anaheim.

"The main thing is there’s no significant damage to the eye," Howland said. "It could have been a lot of potential for bad things in a situation like that but everything seems pretty good."

Given how tough this kid has proven to be in early going, I will be surprised if he is not available on Saturday. Speaking of being available, Howland is hoping to get more mins for TH on Saturday. TH had a rough start on offense (shooting 1 for 6) in his first regular season game as a Bruin, however, he showed glimpses of his athleticism grabbing 6 boards in just 19 mins. From the LA Times:

Howland chalked up some of the rough play to jitters and said that he would have to use Honeycutt judiciously until the underclassman worked himself back into top shape.

But the Bruins need another body in the rotation, someone to take the load off Michael Roll, Malcolm Lee and Jerime Anderson, so Honeycutt may have to push himself in Anaheim this weekend.

"We're hoping he will be able to get more playing time," Howland said.

TH himself is focusing on getting back into the flow of the game:

"I felt like I did pretty good," he said. "I've just got to get back into the flow of the game."

It's not just TH. The entire team still has a lot of work to do in terms of having a flow and rhythm in offense. More on that and other notes after the jump.

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Looks like the spotlight is on Lane Kiffin's program again for not exactly football related reasons on the field:

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.

N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.

Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton confirmed that an investigation was under way but declined to elaborate.

"Typically, we do not comment on inquires that are in progress," he said Tuesday night in New York.

Since Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin took over in December 2008 after being fired as the Oakland Raiders’ coach, the Volunteers have committed at least six secondary N.C.A.A. violations — unintentional violations that provide minimal recruiting or competitive advantage.

That was from the New York Times this am. It is interesting to me why NCAA is looking into Kiffin's program for this. I was under the impression that the aspect of "recruiting hostesses" was SOP for football programs all over the country (especially in SEC/Big-12 land).However, according to the article here is how the Tennessee hostesses might have gone the extra mile beyond the parameter of NCAA rules:

In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing...The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.

The article provided the following explanation on why Kiffin might be facing extra scrutiny:

Kiffin’s numerous secondary N.C.A.A. violations could be a factor or might have prompted the investigation.

"Secondaries mean something to the N.C.A.A.," Evrard said in a telephone interview. "It’s very telling if an institution continues to report secondaries particularly if they’re in the same category. If you keep doing the same thing over and over and keep reporting it, that would trigger the N.C.A.A.’s enforcement staff to possibly go in and look at some of that activity."

That raises the question once again where is the scrutiny on the program where Kiffin got his key college coaching experience (which he used to market himself into a head coaching job with the Raiders and subsequently the Volunteers)?

GO BRUINS.

More photos » by Jason Redmond - AP

RN held preseason All American Aldrich to 7 points, despite giving up 3 inches

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Thank God for finals week. Not sure if I have ever typed that before. Given the injuries, drama our basketball team has gone through during this non-conference season, another week off from game action couldn't come at a more opportune time for the program. Bruins don't have a game till Saturday against Mississippi State Bulldogs due to their finals. This will allow them not only to fully focus on their finals, but more importantly continue to heal from the injuries suffered early in the season or in Reeves Nelson's case in last Saturday's game against Kansas.

As Jon Gold noted the UCLA medical staff is "optimistic" that Nelson will be ready to go on Saturday. Nelson in his first start not only reaffirmed our early impressions of him here on BN, he also impressed his opponent:

"He's going to be a good player," said Aldrich, who at 6feet 11 is 3 inches taller than Nelson. "He's real scrappy. You have to keep hitting him on the boards. He's one of those guys you love playing against, but you also hate it at the same time. You love guys who go after the ball really hard, but it's like, `Man, I have to keep boxing him out?"'

That's of course preseason All-American center Cole Aldrich of Kansas, who Nelson held to just 7 points on Saturday. Nelson brought the same energy and passion on defense, we got to used to by watching AA, RW, LRMAM, LMR and PAA. We have to keep our fingers crossed that he is feeling ok by Saturday and ready to go full speed against the Bulldogs.

Meanwhile, one issue we didn't discuss in our game wrap up thoughts was after all the chatter about playing zone, we didn't see any against Kansas. Per LAT's David Wharton Bruins stayed with the trademark man-to-man defense for couple of reasons:

First, Kansas is big but not as quick on the perimeter as teams such as Portland that have consistently beaten UCLA off the dribble.

Second, Kansas shoots with greater accuracy from outside.

"We watched film on them against zone, and they really attack it well,"  Howland said, adding: "It's harder to block out in zone coverage than it is in man coverage."

Even so, the Jayhawks penetrated enough to create problems and outscore UCLA 36-28 in the paint, which left Howland musing that maybe the zone "is something we should have looked at."

The Bruins still have concerns about being athletic enough -- at this point, at least -- to stay in front of the ball. Howland said they will continue to learn the zone in practice this week.

"There will be other teams where maybe it will be something to think about based on their personnel," he said.

That leads to the question whether we will see that zone against the Bulldogs on Saturday. Some early thoughts on those guys after the jump.

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Bruin Report Online's Brandon Huffman had the scoop last night. Los Alamitos cornerback Shaquille Richardson is the latest recruit to commit to Neuheisel's Bruins. OldSage linked up the story from OC Varsity blog here. Jon Gold posted some more info. on his blog:

Los Alamitos cornerback Shaquille Richardson - scout.com's No. 31 cornerback - has orally committed to UCLA.

Here's his profile: Shaq Richardson

All reports on the kid are positive, and he had solid stats this year, finishing with six interceptions.

Don't forget, he's also the cousin of Serra wideout Paul Richardson, a four-star prospect. Could be a tandem deal coming up.

More from Greg Biggins on Shaq's committment:

"I just got tired of the recruiting process," Richardson said. "UCLA has been my top school for as long as I can remember. I've always wanted to go there and when they offered me in the summer, I actually thought about committing on the spot but I wanted to take my visits first.

"I was most comfortable at UCLA and I knew nothing was going to change that, so I called up coach (Rick) Neuheisel and decided to get it over with. I'm excited to be a Bruin and I like the direction the program is going in. I know I have some things to work on but my goal is to get in there and get as much early playing time as I can. It would be great to play as a true freshman but if I'm not in the rotation, I would be fine with redshirting."

In the same post Shaq also provided some interesting comments on Carnell Lake:

"Carnell Lake is going to be my position coach and that's pretty exciting as well. A former NFL all-pro is going to be teaching me, how can you beat that."

I'd say interesting because it is cool to see a first year coach already getting referenced prominently by local recruits. When you see more of that you can take that as a sign of that coach busting his rear end on recruiting trail. Not to mention it is great to see recruits noting the cache Lake brings to our program.

Jon Gold also quoted an "inside source" from UCLA about Paul which indicated that he might be waiting to take couple of more recruiting trips. Paul of course was the first "commitment" during summer before he decided to back out thinking he wanted to enjoy the whole recruiting "process" (can't blame a kid for wanting to be wined and dined all over the country).

Anyway, I am not sweating Paul Richardson's recruiting all that much. He will commit to UCLA if he feels like we are the right fit after going through the process. If not I am sure we will not have any shortage of options. Rick Neuheisel is clearly making his mark in the Southland recruiting scene. Here is the latest evidence of it: CRN speaking at the Southern Section luncheon honoring the teams set to play this weekend in championship games:

The video was posted by Eric Sondheimer on LAT's Varsity Times Insider blog.

Going back to Shaq, he becomes the 16th commit for class of 2010. Given the news on graduation of four seniors, from my count UCLA right now has about 5-6 more scholarships to hand out in next few weeks. So it will be fun to see how the class fills out.

GO BRUINS.