Howland on 2008-09 roster

During a conference call Monday about Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (more on his departure in a moment), UCLA Coach Ben Howland broke down the roster for next season.

We're very lucky to have three seniors in our program in Darren Collison, Josh Shipp and Alfred Aboya. Those will really be the three guys leading us into next season. We have the junior class, which assuming [Michael Roll] gets his redshirt year back he'll be part of along with James Keefe and Nikola Dragovic, and the five freshmen.

So there's 11 guys on scholarship which again leaves us a little short-handed. We signed one over the limit in the fall, and because of Chace's departure we end up being two under at the end of the day! That really makes it difficult. I would rather have 13 guys on scholarship than 11. Maybe something else will happen in the future, you never know.

When reporters asked if that last remark was a prediction, Howland gave a clear "no." When pressed about Alex Stephenson, he declined to comment because of NCAA rules prohibiting coaches from talking to the media about recruits.