UCLA basketball, surgery news and a very good rumor

[Russ Smith]

josh Shipp had arthroscopic surgery on his left hip, essentially the same procedure he had on his right hip that caused him to miss most of the year 2 years ago. Because he had it 3-4 months earlier this time he's expected to fully recover in time for the season. His older brother Joe has had the same procedure on both hips, they said they repaired a torn labrum. So I guess I was right when I said repeatedly this year Josh didn't look near 100%. They said the surgery was a complete success, 8-12 weeks recovery time.

Now the hot rumor from houston, where there's a big tourney, is that UCLA will get Jrue Holliday, rated the top junior in California and one of the top 5 juniors in the country. It's not an official commit or even a verbal but 2 different scouting services are saying it's "as close to a done deal as it can be without signing". If true that would be huge, UW signed his older brother Justin who will be a frosh this year, and that was thought to be the key to getting him away from UNC who were considered his favorite. Apparently he wants to be near his family and they want him near. Heavily touted guard can play either Sg or PG. UCLA has 2 other guards committed in that class in PG Jerime Anderson and PG/SG Malcolm Lee so they've cornered the market
on guards. All 3 are very good friends so nobody expects Holliday to scare either other kid off.

 

[Mr. Boldin]

Romar is crapping in his pants right now.

 

[AZBALLER]

And the rich get richer...What a program Howland's put together!

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Jrue and his brother are ASU legacies I believe. Hilarious turn of events if true, I always get a chuckle when supposed package deals blow up in a coach's face.

 

[Russ Smith]

Jrue and his brother are ASU legacies I believe. Hilarious turn of events if true, I always get a chuckle when supposed package deals blow up in a coach's face.

One correction, I posted that right after coming back from Sacramento and upon re-reading Bruinzone, I slightly erred, it's not recruiting sites that are reporting it, it's people who were at the event in Houston, and are Bruin fans.

So it's a little less reliable than I originally implied it was since obviously Bruin fans are going to hear more of what they want to hear like any other fan would. But 2 different reports completely disconnected said the same thing, the rumor at Houston was Jrue is going to be a Bruin.

FYI Mao, apparently Brandon Jennings is much less interested in USC now he's still got them on his list but says he wants to see who they bring in and who stays which tells you he's figured out that USC is throwing a ton of names out there but many of them won't be there when he gets there. UA is still high on his list but I guess he told Rivals that if he picked UCONN, Ed Davis, one other big, and Tyreke Evans would probably all pick UCONN.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI from the what the hell is he thinking file apparently Luc Richard Mbah A Moute is considering declaring without an agent just to find out what scouts think. Great kid but a very silly move, he's scheduled to go to Cameroon this summer, so declaring and working out and then going home for the summer would really cut into his school time and he's a very serious student. he's not going to go very high in the draft at all, not much sense declaring coming off a down year with injury questions. Better to wait and test after next season.

He hasn't declared yet and is being advised not to so we'll see.