Taylor King decommits from UCLA

[Russ Smith]

as rumored for a couple of weeks apparently Taylor King will or has already announced he's decommitting to UCLA and opening his recruitment back wide open. It's believed he's still looking largely at Pac 10 schools like UA, UW and Oregon and nobody is really sure if UCLA is still on his list or not. Apparently his dad is the man behind this feeling that UCLA's "offensive system" is not the best fit for Taylor and they want to explore their options.

APparently King's dad feels Taylor, an outstanding shooter, will be restricted in Howland's system because they play games in the 70's and not the 80's or 90's and he thinks that will hurt King's NBA stock. King is not a super athlete, often compared to Chris Mullin, so I can see where picking a system that is the "right fit" is important.

Not to worried when kid commits in 8th grade you kind of expect it's a pretty empty commit, he was too young. UCLA has a "strong verbal" from James Keefe a year ahead of King and I'm quite confident if Keefe stays with his commit UCLA will be just fine.

adding, UCLA is apparently actively recruiting Chase Budinger a SF in the same class as Keefe and apparently that has a lot to do with King's decision. All 3, King, Keefe and Budinger are teammates on the same AAu team and apparently King is concerned that having them both at UCLA a year ahead of him will impact his PT at UCLA.

 

[Russ Smith]

Some stuff from the LA Daily News on this.

"There will be a very good chance I still (attend UCLA)," King said. "It's a great school, they've got a great coach and it's close to home. I just want to see what other opportunities there are. There's also a very good chance I will not go to UCLA."

King planned to inform UCLA coach Ben Howland of his decision Monday, but was unable to do so because he could not get to UCLA. King added he thought the proper thing to do was tell Howland of the decision in person.

King, a 6-7 wing, averaged 24.7 points and 11.2 rebounds per game last season and is considered one of the top players in Southern California in the 2007 class. He said he is interested in North Carolina, Syracuse, Washington, Arizona and Gonzaga.

"I would just like to go through the process," King said. "I'd like to experience other coaches calling me."

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I like Arizona's chances with King with Miles Simon supposedly coming in as an assistant coach as they're both OC guys and Mater Dei alums. King and Jerryd Bayless (St. Mary's of Phoenix) would be huge for a Lute's last run at a title.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Jerryd Bayless

That kid can play!

 

[Russ Smith]

I like Arizona's chances with King with Miles Simon supposedly coming in as an assistant coach as they're both OC guys and Mater Dei alums. King and Jerryd Bayless (St. Mary's of Phoenix) would be huge for a Lute's last run at a title.

Yeah for those that don't know there's a long "history" with UCLA and Mater Dei that goes back for years related to their head coach Gary McKnight and at issue was him asking Jim Harrick to "help" his son (I forget whether it was Clay or another) get in to UCLA as a walkon. Harrick was recruiting someone else(I forget who) and he felt that McKnight was basically saying if you help my son, I'll help you get that kid(played for McKNight at Mater Dei).

Several years ago there was a public "burying of the hatchet" between McKnight and Steve Lavin and not long later Ced Bozeman committed to UCLA. But Ced is the only MD player to do so until Taylor King and I know the fact that Taylor played for MD has always made Bruin fans "nervous."

Based on that odd "there's a good chance I'll go to UCLA, there's a good chance I won't" comment from Taylor I'd say right now he's unlikely to go to UCLA.

I'll never say never though, very similar situation with Jason Kapono in HS everyone had him going to Syracuse and then he surprised everyone and went back to UCLA at the end. He hadn't listed UCLA in his top 5 list for over a year at that point.

I'm not overly concerned and if he decides he doesn't want to play at UCLA that's fine, 8th graders should not be making such decisions, just because he grew up a UCLA fan doesn't mean he should be committing so early.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I didn't know there was that history with Mater Dei and the Bruins, thank Russ. Lute has landed Miles Simon and Reggie Geary out of there so if he gets King, it will be very, very interesting to see the reaction he gets at Pauley.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI Sean Farnham, ex Bruin, apparently was on air last night suggesting that Nike is the real reason King is de-committing. King is playing for Mater Dei, a Nike school, UCLA is an Adidas school and Farnham says all other teams on King's new recruiting list are Nike schools except UCLA.

Might be sour grapes but I know last year a lot of UCLA people were convinced the reason Malik Hairston went to Oregon and not UCLA was that Nike flew him in on a private jet for his official visit and rumors swirled that Hairston got a little extra to sign the LOI. Since then Bruin fans have been pretty suspicious of Nike which is probably where the King stuff comes from.

UA is a Nike school so they're on his list along with UNC, Syracuse, Gonzaga and UCONN.

 

[Dback Jon]

FYI Sean Farnham, ex Bruin, apparently was on air last night suggesting that Nike is the real reason King is de-committing. King is playing for Mater Dei, a Nike school, UCLA is an Adidas school and Farnham says all other teams on King's new recruiting list are Nike schools except UCLA.

Might be sour grapes but I know last year a lot of UCLA people were convinced the reason Malik Hairston went to Oregon and not UCLA was that Nike flew him in on a private jet for his official visit and rumors swirled that Hairston got a little extra to sign the LOI. Since then Bruin fans have been pretty suspicious of Nike which is probably where the King stuff comes from.

UA is a Nike school so they're on his list along with UNC, Syracuse, Gonzaga and UCONN.

If that is true, that is sad - shoe companies determaning school choices.

 

[Russ Smith]

If that is true, that is sad - shoe companies determaning school choices.

Read Sebastian Telfair's book the jump, you'd be amazed how involved the shoe companies are these days, it's downright scary if half of what Telfair says is true.

One of Lavin's last acts as UCLA coach was to complain that the school wouldn't let him hire his choice as an assistant, a guy named Darren Kalish who worked for Adidas. Kalish is mentioned prominently in Telfair's book, he basically helps Adidas recruit young kids, he pays summer coaches, he was making offers to Telfair months before he was allowed to(jeopardizing his amateur status). At the time I didn't want UCLA to hire him because I never liked shoe company influence but had I known then what I read in this book I would have been beyond irate that Lavin was trying to hire him.

 

[Dback Jon]

The whole AAU/Summer Camp/Shoe Company influence is unreal - those top level kids that are involved so heavily in that should just go pro - which they are really only a step behind.

Colleges can't complain though - they get millions for their shoe contracts.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Sounds like Bruin sour grapes to me.

 

[Mulli]

I like Arizona's chances with King with Miles Simon supposedly coming in as an assistant coach as they're both OC guys and Mater Dei alums. King and Jerryd Bayless (St. Mary's of Phoenix) would be huge for a Lute's last run at a title.

I hope he signs with my team instead.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sounds like Bruin sour grapes to me.

If I hadn't read Telfair's book I'd agree, but there is clearly some stuff in that book that convinces me that shoe companies DO have a say in where kids go to school on occasion.

Don't know if that's the case with King or not.

I don't fault the kid but Farnham is closer to the situation than we are so I won't totally discount his theory.

King's a good prospect, he's not the next Lebron, so I won't be bent out of shape if he decides to go to UA or somewhere else.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I've been meaning to read the Telfair book, maybe this will motivate me to get out there and buy it. His recruitment adn where he ends up should be very intersting to say the least.

And Mulli - what "favorite" team would you be referring to? After surrounding Ike by scrubs for three years, Evans has about as much chance of landing a top recruit as NAU does. And it's back to mediocrity for the Illini in 2006.

 

[Mulli]

I've been meaning to read the Telfair book, maybe this will motivate me to get out there and buy it. His recruitment adn where he ends up should be very intersting to say the least.

And Mulli - what "favorite" team would you be referring to? After surrounding Ike by scrubs for three years, Evans has about as much chance of landing a top recruit as NAU does. And it's back to mediocrity for the Illini in 2006.

I am not sure what team I was referring to, guess I'll have to wait until March to see who is beats U of A in the Final Four.

 

[Russ Smith]

I've been meaning to read the Telfair book, maybe this will motivate me to get out there and buy it. His recruitment adn where he ends up should be very intersting to say the least.

.

It's a good read, who knows if it's all true but it's interesting.

On the Nike thing it's interesting to note that Sonny Vaccaro in a sense engineered the "Deal" that brought Howland to UCLA, they're good friends and Vaccaro was with Adidas and made the deal happen. He readily admits this. Now Vaccaro is with Reebok and blaming Adidas and Nike for ruining amateur basketball, which they did under HIM(since he worked at NIke first). He makes accusations against Darren Kalish of Adidas who was mentored by Sonny Vaccaro himself. Pretty crazy, Vaccaro is just a major sleaze, that was the one part of the whole hiring Howland thing I didn't like knowing that Vaccaro was involved.

It will be interesting to see if UCLA stays with Adidas or switches to Reebok or Nike now that Vaccaro is not with Adidas. UCLA is the only school in the Pac 10 that is with Adidas.