Soon after I wrote about how Davidson Coach Bob McKillop received a contract extension through the 2015-16 season and won’t be around long enough before heading for the bigger and better, UCLA’s Ben Howland signed a deal lasting through the 2014-15 season this week. The new extension will pay Howland $1.97 million next season and $2.3 million in the final year, plus incentives that could top out at $235,000 a year.

And again I say, yeah, right!

Howland won’t see that $2.3 million because he won’t be at UCLA to collect it.

Howland is an even bigger commodity than McKillop. First off, he’s been to the Final Four three consecutive times. Second he coaches in the media capital of the world where everyone is watching him – especially NBA executives. And third, he coaches at UCLA, not known for keeping coaches for a long time unless their name happens to be John Wooden.

I’m predicting that Howland and the Bruins will win a national title or multiple titles before the 2014-15 season. And when that happens the NBA will call. Hey, it may even happen before the Bruins finally win one under Howland. All Howland needs is a few more solid seasons and some pro team in desperate need of a new makeup, new direction, or someone fresh to lead a team that just stinks will call him.

The NBA is tempting for just about every college coach. It was for Larry Brown, Jerry Tarkanian, Tim Floyd, Mike Montgomery and Rick Pitino just to name a few. Only Brown was able to win at both levels – at the University of Kansas and with the Detroit Pistons.

Howland is a good if not great coach. There’s no way he will resist the temptation of the NBA before 2014-15, especially since he plays in the same town that houses the Los Angeles Clippers.

What were most of you doing when you were in the eighth grade?

For some of us (especially me), it was an awkward time of trying to fit in with the cool kids or any kids for that matter who share some of your interests and awkwardness among other things. Dating was starting to become a reality as well as other things like facial and chest hair, change in voice and zits.

And if you were developing athletic skills of any kind, all you wanted to do was make it to high school, and playing anywhere beyond that was a dream at best no matter how talented you were.

Not so anymore today folks.

For some insane reason, some college basketball coaches are becoming so desperate that not only are they recruiting high school underclassmen, now they are hitting up the junior high and middle schools for commitments too.

Choosing a high school with a decent basketball program is difficult enough, now college basketball coaches want you to decide where you’re going to before you attend your first high school dance or beaten up by your first high school senior.

According to the Associated Press, Michael Avery, an eighth grader from Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks, CA has already committed to the University of Kentucky. He was recruited by Wildcats Coach Billy Gillispsie, who was scouting an AAU event Avery was playing in Akron, Ohio, making him the youngest player ever to be recruited by the Wildcats.

The 6-foot-4 Avery is likely to grow more and get even bigger. But who knows where his mental attitude will be by the time he gets to his senior year? And for that matter, who knows where Kentucky will? Kentucky has had problems with the NCAA before, and if it happens again or if they happen to stink up Rupp Arena by the time Avery is ready to enroll, rest assured he and his parents will do everything they can to get him out of that commitment and into another school.

On Thursday, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (that’s NABC for all you acronym junkies) said it is opposed to eighth graders committing without completing their sophomore year of high school and wants this to stop. NCAA rules stipulate that coaches aren’t even supposed to contact players before mid-June following their sophomore season.

According to the AP, the NABC board of directors said that the decision was made in part, because younger athletes had not yet “demonstrated sufficient academic credentials” to be admitted to school.

So you mean those eighth grade sewing or print shop classes don’t count towards enrollment into schools like Florida, Connecticut, North Carolina or Kansas?

To make matters worse, this isn’t the first time college coaches have made recruiting trips to middle schools. In 2006, USC Coach Tim Floyd got Ryan Boatright and Dwayne Poole Jr., both from the Southern California area to commit before entering high school.

But I digress. Even though the idea of recruiting kids before they hit high school may be a little silly (and a little weird), if I can get Floyd, Ben Howland at UCLA or Mike Krzyzewski at Duke to come and take a look at my kid and offer him an early scholarship that would be great.

My son is four years old and over three and a half feet tall. He as wicked ball handling skills and has been dunking on his Playskool basketball hoop since he was two and a half. My wife and I already have a college fund set up for him, but if he can get a college scholarship now, we can blow his college money on that trip to Europe we’ve always wanted to take, an HD television or on gas.

We’re paying well over $4.50 a gallon out here in Southern California!

Josh Shipp will return to UCLA, which means at least two starters will return from last year’s Final Four team.

Collison and Shipp should keep this team in the top 15 all year. Roll, Keefe and Aboya will be heavily relied upon as well.

Bruins Nation could not be happier!

Now all the focus is on forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Will he stay in the draft? Decision time is creeping up on him and dozens of other college underclassmen. The deadline to withdraw from the draft is June 16, 5pm.

Moute will be back. Borderline first rounder as of now. I just don’t see him making the leap.

UCLA fans will get to see Shipp do more of this

and this

ESPN has posted interviews with the Final Four coaches: Ben Howland, John Calipari, Roy Williams and Bill Self.

They are definitely worth the time to watch.

After two consecutive trips to the Final Four, UCLA signed head basketball coach Ben Howland to a 7-year contract that will pay him $1.5 million a season. Read more