UCLA head coach Ben Howland discusses touted recruiting class

DraftAmerica recently spoke with UCLA
basketball coach Ben Howland about the upcoming season and his
highly-touted recruiting class which features four talented players
in Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Tony Parker, and Jordan Adams.

DA:

What is your outlook on the team this
season?

BH:

My staff, my assistant coaches do a
great job recruiting. With the new facility – we have a brand new
television contract that starts this year for the Pac 12 – there
are a lot of good things happening. I’m very excited about the
upcoming season. We have a good nucleus of guys returning, and now I
think we’re adding to that with the incoming kids.

DA:

What about the potential of dealing
with players who go one-and-done

BH:

You have to be aware of it, because you
have to make plans, and it’s real, and there’s a chance we’ll have
one this year but we’ll see.

DA:

Can you discuss this year’s recruiting
class?

BH:

Shabazz has a great motor, he plays
extremely hard. He’s aggressive, he’s a very good scorer. He’s a
slasher but he can also really shoot it. He’s an outstanding
rebounder, a very strong and physically gifted, explosive athlete.
Kyle has a great feel for the game, in that he’s 6’8” and possesses
a lot of point guard skills and sees the floor really well and he’s a
great passer, he knows how to play without the ball. He has length,
size, and rebounds the ball. He just has a real good feel for the
game. And Tony Parker is a big man that we’ve sorely needed, he’s
going to be a very good inside player and has a really good motor as
well. He plays hard, has a great work ethic. And Jordan Adams is one
of the best shooters that we’ve had coming in here in a while. He’s a
very good outside shooter with excellent touch.

DA:

How tough will your schedule be?

BH:

We have a tough schedule. This will be
one of the tougher ones we’ve had in a while. It’s geared to help us
get ready for Pac-12 play. Also to try to give us a chance to get
into the NCAA Tournament by playing a tough non-conference schedule.
We’ll be going to China in late August for a week and playing four
games over there. (The team will have 10 practices before going to
China). We’ll play one of their national teams and a couple of the
college teams that they have.