Quick hitters for Thursday:
• Former North Carolina forward
Alex Stepheson visited UCLA Tuesday night. He has already been to Arizona State. Cal, Stanford and USC are also in the mix for the transfer. The 6-foot-9 Stepheson transferred out of Carolina to be closer to home in California. Every one of these Pac-10 teams could use a post player like Stepheson in 2009-10. He has a chance to star with his shot-blocking ability and developing offensive game.
• UCLA coach Ben Howland is excited about having three seniors on next season's team after having only one this past season.
Darren Collison,
Josh Shipp and
Alfred Aboya (assuming he doesn't get and take an offer to play overseas) are all coming back for their senior season. Howland said the Bruins' newcomers, which make up the No. 1 incoming class, will need to lean on this experienced trio early.
• Summer school is starting around the country, and that means plenty of 2008-09 freshmen will be on campus, getting in workouts with future teammate. Beginning Monday,
Jrue Holiday -- the fourth-ranked player in the 2008 class -- will be on the UCLA campus.
• Howland said
Michael Roll and
James Keefe will need to play major roles for the Bruins next season after suffering through injury-plagued seasons.
• The NCAA announced the cities bidding for the Final Fours from 2012-16. The only dome city that was missing from the bunch was St. Petersburg-Tampa. Otherwise, if there is a dome in a city, then there was a bid. My personal favorites for location, location, location have always been San Antonio and Indianapolis. I actually liked having the Final Four in Atlanta, too. But I'm expecting Dallas and Phoenix to get a shot at hosting.
• Gonzaga is working on a game for next season against Arizona at the University of Phoenix stadium, the site of last year's Super Bowl. Arizona State is already playing BYU and Louisville is playing Minnesota in a double-header event at the same venue.
• All the praise on Celtics GM Danny Ainge for getting
Ray Allen and
Kevin Garnett in major deals last year is deserved. But Ainge and the Celtics staff deserve just as much platitudes for the signings of role players like
James Posey,
Eddie House and
P.J. Brown. Getting
Glen Davis in the second-round was also a coup.
The Celtics will be judicious with the No. 30 pick. They may not go with a guard because they still believe in former USC guard Gabe Pruitt, who was selected in the second round last year.
• Seniors usually get dumped on at draft time, but a year ago Boston College's
Jared Dudley and Oregon's
Aaron Brooks cracked the first round. This year, Indiana's
D.J. White, New Mexico's
J.R. Giddens and Washington State's
Kyle Weaver could be sleeper late first-round picks.
• Once
Robert Dozier came back to Memphis,
Emmanuel Negedu would have been a role player. That's the spin out of the Memphis as the 6-7 Negedu, the one-time Arizona signee, decided to go to Tennessee.
• Seattle may have to choose between
Jerryd Bayless and
O.J. Mayo. It's a tough call. Who will be the better playmaker?
• If Miami drafts
Michael Beasley, then the rumored trade for
T.J. Ford makes a lot of sense.
Andy Katz
