UCLA Players Revel in Recruiting News

It wasn’t a handoff, but it felt like one: From O’Bannon to Baron, the UCLA story moves on.

In a convenient convergence of recent past and electric future, Charles O’Bannon and Baron Davis found their way into the UCLA basketball offices Tuesday, amid a parade of congratulatory phone calls and unrestrained anticipation.

“Man, I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited,” said junior forward Kris Johnson, a part of the gleeful scene. “I want the season to start right now. This is incredible.”

Davis, the Santa Monica Crossroads point guard who orally committed to UCLA on Monday night, did not deliver his signed letter of intent, but that is expected to take place soon.

Instead, Davis ambled around the offices, had a long talk with departing senior O’Bannon and Coach Steve Lavin, and, combined with Monday’s signing of highly touted forward (but not yet academically eligible) Schea Cotton, elicited serious talk about immediate glory.

“All the pieces are definitely in place,” Johnson said. “Now, anything less than a Final Four, it’ll be, ‘What happened?’ That’s basically what this [recruiting] class does to us.

“That’s a big-time first class for Lav.”

Said sophomore center Jelani McCoy: “Baron changes our whole outlook on next year. We knew we had to have a pretty good point guard come in here and distribute the ball. And getting Baron, who’s supposed to be the best point guard in the country, that’s got to help us.

“We’re pressuring ourselves to win the national championship regardless of whether we had Baron or not. And this just adds to it. This is reality.”

Although there is still no definite word from J.R. Henderson, both Johnson and McCoy said they are sure Henderson will stay for his senior season and not jump to the NBA.

McCoy, meanwhile, gave every indication he is no longer considering leaving at least until after next season.

“They’re all staying,” Johnson said, “definitely.”

Beyond keeping the present players around, the Davis and Cotton commitments (plus the four previous signings to give UCLA a gigantic six-man Class of 2001) sent out a bright signal that, after the turmoil of the Jim Harrick firing last November and some loud questioning of his ability to draw top players, Lavin is moving UCLA back toward recruiting nirvana.

Several of the top members of next year’s class, including forwards JaRon Rush from Kansas City, Mo.; Rick Anderson of Long Beach Poly; and Tayshaun Prince of Compton Dominguez, and guards Tony Bland of Westchester and Ray Young of St. Joseph’s Alameda, have indicated that they might follow Davis to UCLA.

“It’s important that UCLA has the ability to keep the top players of Southern California at home,” said Lavin, who is not permitted to comment on Davis until the school receives his signed letter.

“And it’s important that our staff has demonstrated the ability to recruit one of the top classes nationally.”

Said Davis, who said L.A.-area players are best off staying close to home: “Nobody really needs to leave. This is the place where we all grew up, where we started playing, and this is the place we should play college basketball.

“We should build this up instead of going away and making somebody else’s programs. We should build our home teams and bring all the national championships here.

“My first goal is to win a national championship next year. I think this year’s going to be a lot more exciting than it was last year, and last year was very exciting.”

Davis, with a deep awareness of recent hoop history and his place in it, said he sees obvious comparisons to Felipe Lopez, a New York prep legend who stayed at home by going to St. John’s three years ago and has vastly disappointed his home crowd.

“I look at this sort of like the Felipe Lopez situation, how he was big in New York and how the New York fans really wanted so much out of him,” Davis said. “And I think what he did was fall into that.

“What I want to try to do is play my game and be myself, and I know I’m a freshman and I can’t play great every game. I’m going to have a lot of ups and downs throughout the year. What I’m going to try and do is just focus through that and play through that.”

But there is a positive comparison Davis can make, from last March. Arizona freshman point guard Mike Bibby, heralded as an instant impact player, had a solid regular season, then, with Miles Simon, led the Wildcats to an improbable national title.

“When I made my decision, the thing I was looking forward to was playing against Mike Bibby,” Davis said. “That’s what I want to do--I want to go at it.”

So, with four of UCLA’s top six players returning to join an elite freshman class, and with Arizona coming off the national title and all five starters returning, who should be the preseason No. 1?

“They probably should be No. 1,” Johnson said. “But we’re going to be ready for them. We’ve got to go out there first game of the Pac-10 [scheduled for Jan. 3], and won’t that be great?”