Stanback's surprise

My in-box seemed pretty tame today ... Kevin Love is in a new documentary ... Terry Donahue is named alumni of the year (more on that later) ... Ben Olson officially decides to have surgery on his foot ... Chace Stanback is transf... Wait. What?

According to UCLA, the freshman swingman who came in with a ton of potential has decided to leave after the spring quarter. He hasn't decided where he's going, but he isn't coming back to Westwood. He didn't see a lot of action last year and there's one heck of a recruiting class coming in, but with all the other departures I'm a little surprised. It'll be easy to speculate that he might have been influenced by the return of Darren Collison, but Collison only has one more year left. Stanback has three.

The full Stanback news release is after the jump.

Also, what appears to be the NBA's final list of early entries to the draft appeared on NBC today. No surprises for UCLA.

Freshman Chace Stanback Will Not Return Next Season

The 6-foot-8-inch guard/forward will transfer after the spring quarter.

April 30, 2008

LOS ANGELES — UCLA men's basketball head coach Ben Howland announced today that 6-foot-8-inch freshman guard/forward Chace Stanback will not be returning for next season. Stanback, a two-time state champion from Los Angeles' Fairfax High School, will transfer to play his final years at another school.

Stanback, the 2007 California Division I Player of the Year, will leave UCLA after the spring quarter and hasn't made a decision as to where he will transfer.

"Chace [Stanback] is an outstanding young man and we appreciate what he did for this program this past year," Howland said. "He helped us win a Pac-10 championship and get to the Final Four and we will always be appreciative of his efforts. We are supportive of him and his future in whatever direction he decides to go."

Stanback averaged 1.0 points and 0.7 rebounds per game while appearing in 25 of the 39 games without making a start during the 2007-08 season. He played in 144 minutes (5.8 minutes per game) while shooting 40.4% (19-for-47) from the field and 33.3% (7-for-21) from three-point range on the year.

"After speaking with my family and thinking about it for a long time, I feel that it is in my best interest to explore other opportunities," Stanback said. "I want to thank my coaches and teammates because they have helped me improve as a player and grow as a man and I am thankful to them for that. I have a lot of great memories and really enjoyed my time here at UCLA."

Comments

[zzyzxroad]

Good luck Chace! Just another over-hyped AAU player that could not cut it at a big time program. Maybe you can transfer to Villanova with Taylor King.

[Steve M.]

yea, i feel sorry for him that he couldn't play. i think its best that the connection is severed.

[Steve M.]

yea, i feel sorry for him that he couldn't play. i think its best that the connection is severed.

[AW]

I always wondered what Howland saw in Stanback. Everytime he was in a game, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. Usually you at least saw flashes of brilliance or you would ooo and ahh if a freshman had potential, but just did not get playing time.

I watched most of the Bruin games and I never saw him do anything that was impressive.

Good Luck Chase

[MJSSF]

Stanback seems pretty athletic, but I agree with the other poster who said he looked like a deer in the headlights during games. Not the way a "normal Howland freshman" plays. Good luck to him - he's probably not really a D1 player, so this is a good move.

From UCLA's perspective, I'm worried about replacing the 1.0 points and 0.7 rebounds per game. I hope some of the new freshman live up to their hype.

[Kevin C.]

come on, "probably not really a D1 player"? there are more than 300 schools that play D1 men's hoops, he will be sought after and will be starting if he picks a good a good spot...maybe Santa Clara under Kerry Keating will be his destination...this news does not reflect well on Howland's handling of his bench last season

[Josh]

"this news does not reflect well on Howland's handling of his bench last season" . Huh ?
Maybe you missed it, so I'll fill you in. The Bruins were in the final four again.
I hardly think playing Chace more would have helped their chances at a national championship.
I'm sorry if Chace's feelings got hurt because of lack of playing time, but it's not the job of a major program coach to be popular with his players. It's to win games and with all due respect to the young man, he did not do that this year. I really do wish him all the best, but if you can't take competition to win playing time, you should not play ball at UCLA.

[Kevin C.]

Has it occurred to you why Aboya is seriously thinking of quitting rather than playing his senior year, when he is their only current front-court player who can play center? It's because Howland didn't give his bench guys enough minutes this season, including Aboya. His starters played among the most minutes in all of college basketball. I love Howland and think he's a great coach, but he's not perfect. Why didn't he put Stanback in the sweet 16 game against WKU just to steal a couple of minutes when Collison, Westbrook, and Shipp all had 4 fouls? Terrible strategy, Collison soon fouled out. If he didn't have enough confidence in Stanback to play him 2 minutes against WKU, it's because he never played him enough during the season to find out what he could do in a real game. If I were Stanback, I would have told myself right after the WKU game ended that I'm going to transfer. Why sit on the bench as the 8th or 9th man when Howland only gives substantial minutes to 6 guys?

[ucla girlie]

Unlike many D1 student-athletes, Aboya's goal in life is not to play in the NBA. He places his education first. His leaving has nothing to do with Howland but rather an opportunity to finish his undergrad work and get on to grad school.

Maybe Stanback should have a lesson from DC. He came to UCLA willing to sit on the bench, watch and learn until Jordan left. Look how that paid off!

James Keefe didnt start his freshman year... he was another "deer in the headlights" and look at him now -- expect big things from him next season.

Maybe Chase is afraid he cant compete with the new recruiting class.

[Kevin C.]

as if UCLA doesn't have good grad schools, yeah right...it is not uncommon for NCAA athletes to use last year of eligibility while taking graduate school classes, hopefully Aboya will do the same