Photo scout.comUCLA basketball: Matt Carlino commits to UCLA
By Chris Foster
The LA Times
April 27, 2010 | 3:41 pm
Matt Carlino, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard from Bloomington (Ind.) South High, said he has committed to play at UCLA.
Carlino, who is a junior at South, will graduate a year early and enroll at UCLA. He visited the campus last week and said, “It’s probably the best campus around. I love the coaches and the guys on the team.”
Carlino said that Bruins Coach Ben Howland talked to him about leaving high school a year earlier. Carlino was held back in second grade after coming down with mononucleosis. He has the necessary credits to graduate and will enroll at UCLA in June.
“Coach Howland brought it up and I thought about,” Carlino said. “UCLA has a lot of good players coming back and some good players coming in. This was an opportunity I had to take.”
Carlino, who averaged 13 points and five assists last season, was also being recruited by Butler, California, Nevada Las Vegas and Florida. He previously committed to Indiana, but changed his mind in March.
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Quick chat with Matt Carlino
By Jon Gold
LA Daily News
April 27, 2010 3:08 PM
JG: What led to the decision to switch from Indiana to UCLA?
Matt Carlino: "What led to my decision was going down there this past weekend - I already liked UCLA from when I was recruited before Indiana - and I checked out the campus, hung out with some of the guys, and just really love it there. I love the coaches - Coach Howland is a great coach - and I just thought it was a good situation. Here are a lot of good players coming in, a lot of good young players there. It was a good fit for me as a point guard, and how many guys Coach Howland has done a great job."
JG: Word is you're graduating early and enrolling in June?
MC: "I'll be leaving early, reclassifying 2010. I'm really looking forward to being on a good young team next year. Coach Howland was the one who initially brought it up to graduate early, and once he said that, I thought it was a really interesting idea. I felt like I could help. So did he. I thought it was a great opportunity, and I wasn't going to pass up that opportunity."
JG: How did your parents (Carlino's father is a basketball coach) react to your desire to leave early?
MC: "It's great for my family - I'll be a lot closer to them on the West coast again. I'm basically, I had mono in second grade and held to get held back for health issues. I should be in that class anyways. It's not a huge jump. I've been playing up my whole life anyways. I just felt like I was ready."
JG: I'm sure you saw UCLA's play last season; did the opportunity to help rebuild such a program factor in your decision?
"I feel like that is part of it. There's a great group of guys there. Yeah, it was an off year, but they were young and still are. We have a great opportunity next season."
JG: How important will playing time be to you next season?
"Whatever coach Howland feels is going to help him win, he'll do. I'm concerned on doing whatever coach asks me when I get there. Everything will work out how it works out. We have a lot of good players coming in and a lot currently there. He has the tools and he knows what to do with them."
2 comments:
carlino has been jumping around following his dad for years. Google Matt and Mark Carlino and you will see the big picture come into focus.
It does look like Matt's dad has been heavily involved in his son's basketball career, and continues to be. High school kids going cross-country to play hoops seems pretty common these days so this is nothing new to me. I just hope he is good enough to be a contributor on a Ben Howland team. If not, he'll be forced to transfer. :-) Coach B is not tolerating non-contributors these days.
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