NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing Cassius Stanley’s final three

UCLA Bruins

UCLA has one major problem with regards to recruiting Cassius Stanley at this point in time: they…uhh…don’t have a head coach. The Bruins have been on an extensive coaching search since firing Steve Alford midway through this past season but they have been unable to find the perfect candidate with mutual interest to this point. Because of that, the program is in a tough spot to land any new recruits, let alone one that is ranked in the top-30 of the class. With that said, though, Stanley seemed to indicate a couple of months ago that he could still be interested depending on the new hire so maybe there can be a sliver of hope.

With regards to UCLA’s prior engagements with him, Stanley stated (247Sports): “UCLA actually gave me a pretty interesting pitch about like me being a kid from LA and seeing what that does for my brand if I eventually go to UCLA and afterwards.” And while this might seem like a good sign, it is hard to imagine that Stanley would commit to the Bruins without a head coach. Unless they hire a head coach very soon, there is probably not enough time for a new hire to make his pitch to land Stanley with less than two weeks remaining until his commitment day.

If, though, the Bruins were able to land Stanley, it would be a massive win for the program. UCLA has only made the NCAA Tournament in two of the last four seasons. Snagging an elite head coach as well as a top-30 prospect within the span of just a few weeks would be huge for the future of the program. It might seem unlikely but, as referenced above, UCLA certainly does have an intriguing pitch if the right coach comes along.