Travis Richard

The girded loins are really starting to pay off

I know this is something for weeks down the road, but curious how Schloss coming would impact Jonah Williams? 🤔

I went to A&M basketball camps as a kid and he always ran warm up drills for all the campers each morning. That’s awesome.

I will be more crushed if we don’t get her than any football or men’s basketball recruit we’ve ever missed out on. She slots in perfectly to come in as Rori graduates. Chavez and Booker would be such a hellacious duo for 2 years.

I like Toppin a lot but I just don’t see how the front court would fit together. He’s pretty similar to Dillon Mitchell and I wasn’t a fan of the Mitchell+Shedrick duo when they played together. Disu was able to stretch the floor and let Mitchell occupy the dunker spot when they played together. Unless Shedrick and/or Toppin really expand their range, the paint’s going to be pretty clogged with that pairing. I’m assuming Toppin would start at the 4 and play the majority of the minutes at the 5 when Shedrick sits, but that could be an issue against bigger teams which would mean thrusting Onyema into a pretty big role which leads to its own question marks. Kent will fill in a lot of the gaps when he plays at the 4, but with Toppin and Shedrick both needing to play starter’s level minutes, that’s probably a pairing we’re going to be forced to play a lot together.

I’ll take a Louisianimal running back for $500, Alex

OU SUCKS 😂😂😂

Bobby has been hinting at filling the last spots with young guys with potential and worth taking a flier on. Scruggs from 247 retweeted Mikal Harrison-Pilot saying he was switching from WR to DB at his new school. Wonder if maybe we offered him a roster spot if he made the switch…

It’s a portal guy. Going to assume Bowens but holding out hope for a nice surprise.

I know it’s way more complicated because of NIL and all that, but feel like it should always be relatively easy to build a roster at UCLA. Get the elite local kids you’re supposed to get, every couple of years get that out of state 5 star that wants to be in LA (Kyle Anderson, Kevon Looney, Tyger Campbell, etc), and fill out the rest with an All-Star team of best players from UCSB, UC-Irvine, Pepperdine, Long Beach St, Loyola Marymount, etc that enter the portal.

I like Cronin a lot but I think he got kinda lucky with his initial roster construction because guys like Tyger Campbell, Jules Bernard, Jaime Jaquez, etc that Alford brought in are hard nosed players that were willing to buy into defense. Most elite So Cal recruits don’t fit his profile and think that’s starting to catch up to him. Weird decision to bring in the 4 Euro guys last year and to not find a true point guard to replace Tyger Campbell. Skyy Clark is a better floor general than Dylan Andrews and Sebastian Mack but he’s going to have to cut down on the turnovers for Mick to be okay with playing small lineups with all 3 of them out there. Do like most of the other transfers they brought in. Mick gets a pass for me on last season but can’t afford to miss tournament again.

And let me add that UCLA didn’t have a true point guard so everyone on that team suffered offensively

UCLA was my childhood favorite team so still loosely follow them. Would be weird having a Bruin transfer to Texas. Berke is crafty but really struggled adjusting to the speed of the game. I think he’s going to be a solid pro in Europe in the long term though. Enough to work with there where I would be cool with taking a flier on his upside.

Garrison has no scoring ability outside the paint but very underrated passer which was main reason I wanted him. Block and rebound numbers solid for a big but not elite (for context averaged 2.6 blocks per 40 minutes and Onyenso from Kentucky who’s also in the portal averaged 5.9 per 40). Haven’t seen us linked to Onyenso and other than him not sure who else is out there that would’ve clearly been better than Garrison.

Gerry what’s your theory on who’s behind Trilly Donovan? (He predicted Pope to Texas)