Chris Carlson To Be Named UCSD Head Coach

By Bruin Basketball Report

Update: Official UCLA Press Release (6/11/07)

UCLA's Chris Carlson will officially be named head coach at the University of California at San Diego next week, the UCSD Guardian reported today.

Carlson served as UCLA's Director of Men's Basketball Operations the past four seasons where he was responsible for the the day-to-day operations of the program and served as a liaison to the athletic administration and other school officials. He additionally assisted in scheduling and recruiting. 

He was born and raised in the San Diego area where he attended Helix high school in La Mesa and earned All-League honors in basketball. 

Carlson was an assistant coach at his collegiate alma mater, University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), for four seasons (1994-1998), and served as an assistant for one season at Northern Arizona under Coach Ben Howland.  Carlson later joined Howland as Director of Operations at Pittsburgh before moving out west with him to UCLA in 2003.

The UCSD Tritons, a Division II team, finished last season 12-15.  Former Triton Head Coach Bill Carr recently left the school to be an assistant coach at the University of San Diego (USD).

(photo credit: UCLA Athletics)

Coach Ben Howland's Camp Back June 25-29

By Steve Galluzzo , Sports Editor
Palisadian Post

Fresh off leading UCLA's men's basketball team to its second consecutive Final Four, Head Coach Ben Howland will be back at Palisades High June 25-29 for his youth basketball camp, which gets his juices flowing almost as much as March Madness.

"I love working with the kids and I'm happy to be coming back to the Palisades," the Bruins' master motivator said. "Especially since I found out that [legendary UCLA Coach] John Wooden used to run his camps there too."

Howland and his staff are delighted to have access to the small gym, which was being repaired during last year's camp. He also hopes to have some of his players give demonstrations. Last year, sophomores Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Darren Collison dazzled their young admirers with impressive shooting and dribbling exhibitions.

Entering his fifth season in Westwood, Howland has the Bruins poised for another run at the PAC 10 title with incoming freshmen Chace Stanback, L.A. City player of the year for state champion Fairfax, and 6' 10' center Kevin Love, one of the nation's top recruits. Love was born in Santa Monica and his parents, Stan and Karen, used to live in the Palisades.

"I was happy with our year but disappointed with the finish," Howland said of the 2006-07 campaign, in which UCLA lost to defending national champion Florida in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. "This is my dream job. This is where I want to be."

Howland was happy to see the Bruins, under the guidance of Palisades High boys varsity coach James Paleno, win the PAC 10 division (8 & 9-year-olds) at last year's camp and is eager for a repeat. "Coach Paleno does a wonderful job with his players and he was a great help at our camp," Howland said. "He was coaching UCLA so of course I was rooting for him."

Open to boys and girls ages 6-14, Howland's camp offers five days of specialized instruction with an emphasis on the fundamentals essential to a developing player's game, including rebounding, ball-handling, passing individual defense, free throw shooting and jump shooting. Each day, campers will get to apply these skills in three-on-three and five-on-five games. The camp starts at 8:15 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m. with a 45-minute lunch break beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Over 100 kids have signed up already and space is still available. Cost is $325 per player. Visit www.camphowland.com for more information. To enroll, call (310) 467-8488, fax (310) 206-3440 or e-mail info@camphowland.com.

(reprinted with permission)

(photo credit: Rich Schmitt /Staff Photographer)

Afflalo Skips Camp, Works Out For Teams

By Brian Dohn
Los Angeles Daily News

(reprinted with permission)

Former UCLA All-American guard Arron Afflalo
didn't attend the NBA's pre-draft camp in Orlando, but he was in town
and worked out for several teams before heading back to Los Angeles on
Tuesday night.

Afflalo's agent, Sam Goldfeder, said the former UCLA star
either worked out or will work out for the Lakers, Houston, Phoenix,
Philadelphia, Utah, San Antonio and Seattle in preparation for the June
28 draft.

Goldfeder said it was too early to determine if Afflalo,
projected as a second-round pick in many mock drafts, could work his
way into the first round. But Goldfeder added Afflalo's on-court
accomplishments, highlighted by leading UCLA to consecutive Final Four
appearances, was reason to decline an invitation to the pre-draft camp.

"His body of work speaks for itself," Goldfeder said. "He's been seen by NBA (scouts). There was no real reason for it." 
   

Afflalo's
father, Benjamin, said Arron wanted to use the individual team workouts
to demonstrate skills he was not asked to use while at UCLA.

"Everybody knows who he is, which is a big thing ... his
character, sensibility and everything," Benjamin Afflalo said. "During
the workouts he wants to showcase more of his game then he showed at UCLA, when he played in a system."

...

Carlson UCSD finalist: UCLA director of basketball operations Chris
Carlson is the leading candidate for the vacant UC San Diego men's
basketball head coaching job, but an announcement about the job may not
be made until after the weekend, sources said.

Carlson, who is from San Diego, interviewed for the position at the Division II school three years ago as well.

(photo credit: AP)

Bruin Recruiting: Prep News Roundup (6/4)

By Bruin Basketball Report

Prep News Roundup is published every Monday.

Commits

Archbishop Mitty junior
Drew Gordon will compete in the state track and field championships in
the discus and shot put beginning Friday in Sacramento. But after this
weekend, his athletic focus will return to basketball where he will
attempt to make the U.S. junior national team. Gordon, who recently committed to UCLA, was the youngest player invited
to last year's tryouts and surprised many by lasting until the final
cuts. Now 16, Gordon begins camp June 28 in Dallas, with the opportunity to
play for the U.S. team that will compete for the under-19 world title
in Serbia July 12-22. San Jose Mercury News 5/31

Featuring nine players possessing prior USA Basketball experience, and seven who collected conference honors in 2006-07, 20 of the nation's top basketball players 19 years old and younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1988) have accepted invitations to participate in the June 28-30 USA Basketball Men's U19 World Championship Team Trials
that will be held at the Dallas Mavericks' practice facility. The Trials will be used to select the finalists for the USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team...Drew Gordon. USA Basketball 5/31

For the first time, as part of Reebok's RBK U grassroots basketball program, Rbk Eurocamp will host a high school All-Star team from the United States. Some of the brightest prep players from the United States including standouts William Buford (Ohio State commitment), Isaiah Thomas (Washington commitment), Kenny Frease (Xavier commitment) and Malcolm Lee (UCLA commitment) are slated to test their skills against Europe’s finest. Reebok Eurocamp 5/31

Recruits

Campbell Hall of North Hollywood junior Jrue Holiday,
the nation's top shooting guard according to scout.com, has narrowed
his college basketball choices to UCLA and Washington. LA Daily News 5/30

A group of Southland players have been invited to participate in the National Basketball Players Assn.'s Top 100 High School Camp, June 19-24 at the University of Virginia.
Among the players expected to participate are Larry Drew Jr. from Woodland Hills Taft, Jordan Hamilton from Los Angeles Dorsey, DeMar DeRozan from Compton, Renaldo Woolridge from North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, Klay Thompson from Santa Margarita and Malik Story from Lakewood Artesia. LA Times 6/1

Demar DeRozan, 6-5 wing, Compton
(Compton, Calif.): The AAU teammate of Lil’ Romeo has always been
considered one of the best athletes in the class. Now, he’s also one of
the nation’s best shooters (and might be wavering on his spring
commitment to USC). SLAM Magazine 6/1

Jrue Holiday, 6-4 combo guard,
Campbell Hall (North Hollywood, Calif.): Holiday, the top player on the
West Coast in 2008, can simply do it all. Strong enough to finish,
defend and rebound over bigger players, he can also run an offense, get
hot from the outside and get to the basket at will. SLAM Magazine 6/1

Pangos Camp: Demar DeRozan 6-foot-7 WF Compton, CA - Had 22 and 21 points in the two games we watched today.  He hit open jumper with regularity and showed his ability to pass the ball especially on the break.  USC verbal was back to his old form and looked like a top thirty candidate again. CSTV 6/3

Pangos Camp: Hollis Thompson 6-foot-7 (2009) WF Los Angeles, CA Loyola - Showed he can really hoop it up with the best here on Saturday.  He's long and quick off the dribble with good bounce off the floor.  He will be among nation's top sophomores when we update rankings. Already has UCLA and Georgetown among early suitors. CSTV 6/3

Pangos Top 20 All-Star Game:
This was a wide open affair.  The Blue squad jumped out to a quick 12-0 lead as Brandon Jennings (Arizona) and Demar DeRozan (USC) hooked up in the early going.  The lead expanded to 19-4 before the White squad righted the ship and came back behind the early play of Dequan Jones and Anthony Jones to narrow the gap to 40-32 at the intermission.
The Blue squad was led by 6-foot-6 Demar DeRozan who had 12 points at the half.  He got solid support from 6-foot-7 sophomore Hollis Thompson. CSTV 6/3

(photo credit: USA Basketball)