UCLA Chinagate scandal

[Southpaw]

Finally some context for the talking head media to bat around. Sounds as if the facts are worse than the speculation. So much for honest mistake theory.

Upcoming spin from Lavar Ball.



" UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero also spoke in the press conference and provided some context into the situation in which the three stole from three different stores in a high-end shopping center, including Louis Vuitton.

"The students were given 90 minutes of free time," Guerrero said. "At that time, they took items from three of the stores without paying for them. And took those items to the team hotel."

https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...china-suspended-indefinitely-by-steve-alford/

 

[Dback Jon]

Yeah, not a good look

 

[Southpaw]

Maybe UCLA did not give them enough per diem. Not sure what constitutes a felony in Beijing.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I️ wonder what Trump traded China to free them. Hopefully some Wildcats.

 

[Russ Smith]

where did anybody say honest mistake I haven't seen that claim anywhere. The only claim I saw was 1 player did it the others failed to report it. They all 3 said shoplifting today so clearly that's not true.

I'm thinking 1 year is not out of the question just because of the NCAA implications of the legal fees UCLA picked up. I figure them letting them speak means expulsion is unlikely, but it's going to be both athletic and student review so the school could decide expulsion anyways.

Based on what I saw today it was bad enough anything is on the table for them

 

[Russ Smith]

wow I sure hope the China story was the problem they had to go to OT tonight to beat Central Arkansas, who does not have Scottie Pippen playing for them.

This team and the China story may get Alford fired.

 

[GatorAZ]

wow I sure hope the China story was the problem they had to go to OT tonight to beat Central Arkansas, who does not have Scottie Pippen playing for them.

This team and the China story may get Alford fired.

UCLA fans rejoice. Alford was probably the worst hire by a blue blood after Billy Gillespie.

 

[Ronin]

They will be playing again this year, sometime in the middle of the season.

 

[oaken1]

damn...******** kids. risk freedom, education, scholarship..humiliation....all for sun glasses

 

[AZCrazy]

But, but, but.... there was just no way I could live up to my brothers reputation, y'honor.

 

[Southpaw]

I️ wonder what Trump traded China to free them. Hopefully some Wildcats.

I find it quite sad and am disgusted that the President had to turn over a " diplomatic chip " for such a wasteful purpose but it would have been a P R cyclone if he didn't.

where did anybody say honest mistake I haven't seen that claim anywhere. The only claim I saw was 1 player did it the others failed to report it. They all 3 said shoplifting today so clearly that's not true.

I'm thinking 1 year is not out of the question just because of the NCAA implications of the legal fees UCLA picked up. I figure them letting them speak means expulsion is unlikely, but it's going to be both athletic and student review so the school could decide expulsion anyways.

Based on what I saw today it was bad enough anything is on the table for them

So true and supposedly some UCLA heavy hitter alum will have a say. Now will it come down to wins or institutional integrity.

They will be playing again this year, sometime in the middle of the season.

Could happen but it might be time for no 2nd chances free passes since universally those have a high rate of failure.



I find it quite interesting that into the run up to yesterday's disclosure it was minimized and flat out unfactual when media and spin doctors reported. Who the hell was driving the spin doctor mobile?

 

[Russ Smith]

UCLA fans rejoice. Alford was probably the worst hire by a blue blood after Billy Gillespie.

Lavin was a worse hire than Alford but yeah he was not my choice.

It's too early to totally panic but these types of teams can get a coach fired if they're not careful.

And I'm not sure I'm ready for the Earl Watson era!

 

[Kel Varnsen]

damn...******** kids. risk freedom, education, scholarship..humiliation....all for sun glasses

I️ can’t even imagine what was going through their heads. Morons.

 

[Ronin]

Lavin was a worse hire than Alford but yeah he was not my choice.

It's too early to totally panic but these types of teams can get a coach fired if they're not careful.

And I'm not sure I'm ready for the Earl Watson era!

This city was sad when Alford decided to leave UNM for UCLA. I did not understand the hoopla for Alford.

 

[GatorAZ]

Lavin was a worse hire than Alford but yeah he was not my choice.

It's too early to totally panic but these types of teams can get a coach fired if they're not careful.

And I'm not sure I'm ready for the Earl Watson era!

Wasn't Lavin a no brainer hire after the Harrick scandal? He was an elite recruiter and longest tenured assistant coming off a championship. At least thru their first five years at UCLA Lavin has a better winning% [than Alford].

 

[GatorAZ]

This city was sad when Alford decided to leave UNM for UCLA. I did not understand the hoopla for Alford.

Two tournament wins at New Mexico. It didn't make sense to me.

 

[Russ Smith]

Wasn't Lavin a no brainer hire after the Harrick scandal? He was an elite recruiter and longest tenured assistant coming off a championship. At least thru their first five years at UCLA Lavin has a better winning% [than Alford].

To be honest I was one of many UCLA fans that said just hire him. UCLA made him an interim coach, were doing well, recruiting was going ok not great and the general feeling was it was because Lavin wasn't permanent so making him permanent would fix that. So he got hired.

The problem is it fairly quickly became obvious he was totally in over his head.

The regular seasons were never as good as the talent was but then he'd make the 16 and people would say wait til next year and it never happened. He wouldn't hire better assistants, things were spiralling down and when he was finally fired Howland had a fairly sparsely stocked team.

Based on how things are going it would appear if Alford were to get fired, the next coach would inherit a decent amount of talent. It sure looks like Wilkes and Hands will be there next year with Smith. Don't know yet about the 3 shoplifters but it's possible they will be. THere's considerable talk Aaron Holiday is going to stay too although I'm not sure I believe it yet. If he finishes up the recruiting class well, with a couple of bigs, a new coach might inherit a roster similar talented to the one Alford inherited from Howland.

With Lavin what he inherited and what he left to Howland were totally different.

I thought Howland did a good job early but I always think people forget the timing there. Howland dominated early at a time when Monty left Stanford for the NBA, Lute was at the end of his career and the UA was in turmoil, USC was dirty with Floyd, and Oregon had Kent.

By the time Alford came in, Monty was back but at Cal, UA had Miller, SC got Enfield and Oregon had Altman so the conference is considerably better now than it was when Howland was there. The best coaches Howland faced were Bennett and Floyd but WSU is just not going to get enough talent, and Floyd was dirty and it was a matter of time before that imploded.

Last year was a perfect example UCLA was good enough to win the conference for sure, except so were Arizona and Oregon that just wasn't the case when Howland was at UCLA.

 

[Russ Smith]

Two tournament wins at New Mexico. It didn't make sense to me.

I always believed Dan panicked, he wanted Stevens, they'd been telling the fan base for months we were getting a Homerun, Stevens, Pitino, Donovan were being tossed around. The first day it was obvious Pitino wasn't in play(luckily), it quickly became clear Donovan wasn't coming, so when he didn't get Stevens he panicked.

The media was having a field day, coaches all over the country were using UCLA to get extensions and raises(Smart for one) and guys like Gottfried were leaking their name out there when UCLA wasn't even talking to them. I think Guerrero knew the name Alford from his playing days, found out he was interested but had to move quickly before his new deal at UNM took effect, and he panicked and hired him.

I think now Dan doesn't want to have to make another major hire before he retires but Mora is clearly on the hot seat and if this team implodes for Alford, he will be too. The fans see the chance here another bad season plus the China situation get a new coach while Arizona and USC are dealing with the FBI fallout and go forward, just not clear to me who that coach is. I sure hope its' not Watson.

 

[GatorAZ]

To be honest I was one of many UCLA fans that said just hire him. UCLA made him an interim coach, were doing well, recruiting was going ok not great and the general feeling was it was because Lavin wasn't permanent so making him permanent would fix that. So he got hired.

The problem is it fairly quickly became obvious he was totally in over his head.

The regular seasons were never as good as the talent was but then he'd make the 16 and people would say wait til next year and it never happened. He wouldn't hire better assistants, things were spiralling down and when he was finally fired Howland had a fairly sparsely stocked team.

Based on how things are going it would appear if Alford were to get fired, the next coach would inherit a decent amount of talent. It sure looks like Wilkes and Hands will be there next year with Smith. Don't know yet about the 3 shoplifters but it's possible they will be. THere's considerable talk Aaron Holiday is going to stay too although I'm not sure I believe it yet. If he finishes up the recruiting class well, with a couple of bigs, a new coach might inherit a roster similar talented to the one Alford inherited from Howland.

With Lavin what he inherited and what he left to Howland were totally different.

I thought Howland did a good job early but I always think people forget the timing there. Howland dominated early at a time when Monty left Stanford for the NBA, Lute was at the end of his career and the UA was in turmoil, USC was dirty with Floyd, and Oregon had Kent.

By the time Alford came in, Monty was back but at Cal, UA had Miller, SC got Enfield and Oregon had Altman so the conference is considerably better now than it was when Howland was there. The best coaches Howland faced were Bennett and Floyd but WSU is just not going to get enough talent, and Floyd was dirty and it was a matter of time before that imploded.

Last year was a perfect example UCLA was good enough to win the conference for sure, except so were Arizona and Oregon that just wasn't the case when Howland was at UCLA.

Interesting. I was unsure how Howland would work out in Westwood. It just seemed he had a different type of personality but you can't argue with three F4's. He seemed to be more of a tactician than elite recruiter. I remember Gershon saying Lute straight up stole Budinger from him and UCLA was Chase' dream school. Imagine that Westbrook/Love squad with him on it too.

 

[Russ Smith]

What we were told on BRO was Chase didn't want to deal with Howland's intensity and focus on defense. he would have been a nice player but to be honest I'm not sure how he would have fit he might have bailed really quickly due to Howland's personality.

Of course the textbook argument against him playing for Howland was the famous step out of the way to let Kevin Love dunk play.

 

[Southpaw]

and Lavar Ball just amped up his pompousness, arrogance. His kids are so screwed.

 

[Russ Smith]

and Lavar Ball just amped up his pompousness, arrogance. His kids are so screwed.

He's going to be on for an interview on CNN tonight at 4pm Pacific. The good news is that is the same time UCLA's game with Creighton starts so clearly UCLA fans are not the target audience.

I've alluded to it before but I think Lavar is pushing the angle that several have been pushing that Trump is taking credit for a release that was already well underway, they were already out on bail and moving through the system. So my guess is Ball is going to say that tonight, that he's not convinced Trump actually did anything but take credit.

That should be interesting to see Trumps reaction.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

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Wow. LaVar is just a mess. I would avoid drafting any of his kids because of the circus atmosphere that follows their father. Just not worth it, IMHO.

 

[Ronin]

My head hurts after watching that interview.

 

[Southpaw]

My head hurts after watching that interview.

Shame on CNN for chasing ratings with such a despicable eh whole.