UCLA’s latest high school basketball signing class could make history.
It might not exist.
For the first time in at least a quarter of a century, the Bruins are not expected to bring in a high school prospect during the early signing period that started Wednesday.
It’s possible they might not land a high school player in the spring or summer either, largely because of their roster construction. The team has just two seniors in addition to three players who plan to redshirt in hopes of a larger role next season.
Plus, there’s this thing called the transfer portal.
“There’s really only one rule: You can transfer every year,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, who has referred to all players as free agents. “So who the hell knows [what will happen] next spring? Who knows? And then you sign early now, it used to be binding, now it’s just an aid thing. If a guy wants to change, he can sign with you and if he decides to change his mind, they’re going to let him out [of his scholarship]. There are no rules, let’s just be honest about it.”
Cronin was referring to structural recruiting changes in which the NCAA recently eliminated the national letter of intent. Now, players agree to binding grant-in-aid agreements. Within five years, Cronin said, players could sign contracts based on the way things are headed.
UCLA would have loved to announce one future arrival Wednesday. Cronin and his staff doggedly pursued Nikolas Khamenia, a star forward from Harvard-Westlake, as part of an intense recruiting battle that ultimately went in Duke’s favor when Khamenia announced last month that he would become a Blue Devil.
The Bruins could always add a high school player or two after the season to fill the holes created by the departures of Lazar Stefanovic and Kobe Johnson, the only players on their roster whose eligibility is about to expire. They could also turn to the transfer portal, which has become an increasingly large part of their recruiting strategy thanks to what Cronin described as exponential growth in name, image and likeness funding.
Boston University’s Nico Nobili, right, vies for the ball in front of UCLA’s Kobe Johnson, left, and Tyler Bilodeau Monday in Los Angeles.
(Etienne Laurent / Associated Press)
After missing the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since he was at Cincinnati in 2010, Cronin sought a talent upgrade mostly through the transfer portal. The coach imported Johnson (from USC), Tyler Bilodeau (Oregon State), Eric Dailey Jr. (Oklahoma State), William Kyle III (South Dakota State), Skyy Clark (Louisville) and Dominick Harris (Loyola Marymount) to complement a freshman class that included guards Trent Perry and Eric Freeny in addition to walk-on Christian Horry.
Considering it was the second consecutive season that Cronin had added at least eight new players, roster stability appears to have gone the way of baggy shorts.
“The building-of-the-program days are over,” Cronin told The Times last summer. “I think our best chance to build with guys is to recruit Southern Californians that are more apt to stay at UCLA because they want to be at home. The one thing I’ve learned — and it also bears out in research — is that Southern California guys tend to come back if they go to school elsewhere and they tend to thrive more when they’re here and that’s not just at UCLA, that’s at other Southern California schools as well.
“So I think your chance to recruit a high school guy like an Eric Freeny that’s going to be with you for a long time, that’s your chance maybe to still do it like the old days. But how many guys like that are there going to be? I don’t know. This is all so new.”
Complicating Cronin’s high school recruiting efforts is escalating uncertainty about how many roster spots will be available in this new free-agent era. After last season, Adem Bona headed for the NBA; Kenneth Nwuba ran out of eligibility; Will McClendon, Jan Vide and Berke Buyuktuncel transferred to other schools and Ilane Fibleuil joined a team in his native France.
“As we signed guys,” Cronin said this summer, “the guys that left us in the portal … all called and said, ‘Can we meet again, coach? I think it’s going to be hard for me to play.’ And I said, ‘I understand.’ It’s just a new era, stuff you never dreamed you’d be sitting here doing an interview about, but this is where we are.”
Cronin on Wednesday confirmed that Freeny would redshirt this season, joining Brandon Williams and Devin Williams (no relation) in preserving eligibility in hopes of a larger role in future seasons.
“In this era, you have to build a team one year at a time and obviously you’re hoping that you’re not going to have to totally start over every year,” Cronin said. “So there are some prospects that we could have a team — Kobe and Lazar are seniors and one or two guys could make the NBA — but if we could have a multitude of guys back that would be great, that would be awesome for a lot of reasons — less craziness for me in the spring with some continuity for 2025-26, but you just don’t know.”
Etc.
Junior point guard Dylan Andrews, who sat out the Bruins’ victory over Boston University on Monday with a groin injury, remained sidelined for the portion of practice reporters were allowed to observe Wednesday. His status is considered day to day.