UCLA basketball: Stephen Zimmerman is not fit to be (Taylor) King
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Stephen Zimmerman is a tall, lanky eighth-grader with a scholarship offer from UCLA.
The significant Taylor King comparisons end there.
Zimmerman, a 6-foot-10, 203-pound freshman-to-be at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High, said he would wait a while before making his college commitment even though the Bruins and Nevada Las Vegas have offered scholarships.
‘It’s probably going to take a couple of years,’ Zimmerman said Friday night.
It didn’t for King, who almost instantaneously accepted UCLA’s offer only to later attend Duke ... and Villanova ... and Concordia. He never stuck at any of his colleges.
With UCLA Assistant Coach Phil Matthews in the stands at Las Vegas Centennial High on Friday during pool play in the Adidas Super 64 club tournament, Zimmerman scored 13 points and displayed excellent quickness for his size during Dream Vision 16-under’s last-minute loss to Kansas City Pump N Run 16s.
One of the first things that stands out about Zimmerman is his feet -- Size 19. He said he reached 6 feet in the middle of the sixth grade and sprouted to his current height at the beginning of the summer. A scholarship offer from UCLA, Zimmerman said, was a surprise.
‘I was really excited he offered me being an eighth-grader,’ Zimmerman said of Bruins Coach Ben Howland. ‘It was flattering.’
Zimmerman will play next season with Bishop Gorman standout Shabazz Muhammad, the consensus best player in the nation for the Class of 2012 and UCLA’s top target.
‘It’s going to be really fun playing with one of the best players in the country, if not the best player,’ Zimmerman said of Muhammad.
The chances of the duo playing together at UCLA are zero. Muhammad is widely considered to be a one-and-done talent. Muhammad rattled off a list of schools Friday that included Duke, Kentucky, Memphis, Texas, Texas A&M, Kansas and UNLV in addition to the Bruins.
Muhammad’s father, Ron Holmes, played for USC in the 1980s.
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