Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
UCLA landed its point guard of the future on Wednesday when 6-foot-5 Lonzo Ball, a four-star floor general in the Class of 2016 out of Chino Hills (Calif.), verbally committed to the Bruins.
Give assistant coach David Grace the assist on bringing Ball into coach Steve Alford’s program.
After attending UCLA’s 107-73 win over USC on Jan. 5, Ball called Grace on Wednesday to commit.
“We just sat back down after we did all the talking and stuff and they’re running the type of system that he’s accustomed to playing – up-tempo,” Lavar Ball, the player’s father, told BruinSportsReport.com. “We’ve got a good relationship with the coach; I like his style as far as the way he talks to me in a relaxed mode. Not a super professional mode, saying everything that’s supposed to be right trying to get my son there.
“I don’t want to play the game where you have 50 colleges just to make you feel better like, ’50 different guys want me.’ Everything we want is right here. It’s on the West Coast, we’re from the West, so you know everything is like a glove. His style, his system, him being a new a coach, our guys being new players, it’s just like everything is perfect. My thing is this: If everything is right here, why should we go looking around … Everything we want is right here. We’re fine.”
Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
UCLA landed its point guard of the future on Wednesday when 6-foot-5 Lonzo Ball, a four-star floor general in the Class of 2016 out of Chino Hills (Calif.), verbally committed to the Bruins.
Give assistant coach David Grace the assist on bringing Ball into coach Steve Alford’s program.
After attending UCLA’s 107-73 win over USC on Jan. 5, Ball called Grace on Wednesday to commit.
“We just sat back down after we did all the talking and stuff and they’re running the type of system that he’s accustomed to playing – up-tempo,” Lavar Ball, the player’s father, told BruinSportsReport.com. “We’ve got a good relationship with the coach; I like his style as far as the way he talks to me in a relaxed mode. Not a super professional mode, saying everything that’s supposed to be right trying to get my son there.
“I don’t want to play the game where you have 50 colleges just to make you feel better like, ’50 different guys want me.’ Everything we want is right here. It’s on the West Coast, we’re from the West, so you know everything is like a glove. His style, his system, him being a new a coach, our guys being new players, it’s just like everything is perfect. My thing is this: If everything is right here, why should we go looking around … Everything we want is right here. We’re fine.”
