UCLA Basketball Recruiting: Howland officially adds Zach LaVine

Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE

UCLA coach Ben Howland recently has signed Zach Levine during basketball’s early signing period (which lasts one week). We’ll see if Howland can add others as well, but for now Zach looks to be a great addition. For now, UCLA basketball is pretty good with the 4 and 5 position (though it’s always good to stock up on the 4 and 5 positions, especially in college level basketball) and Zach looks to add some depth as a guard.

Zach is a point guard, though Howland is probably looking to use him as a shooter/ scorer and he’ll most likely play a hybrid point guard and shooting guard type role. While Levine will not be a dominating force just yet, he bodes very good news for our basketball program in general- he should be the “glue” that holds the team together as he’ll probably stay for 3 years (more or less depending on how quickly he develops). He’s the best player in the state of Washington the 10th best point guard, and ESPN rates him as the 51st best so we know he has plenty of talent.

Winning this recruiting battle was quite important, but we’ll need to see what else Howland can add before we can predict next year’s performance. Of particular importance was that we won this recruiting battle over Louiville, Gonzaga, and the Washington schools.

With the recent rise of Jordan Adams, UCLA’s future looks to be well balanced.