Steve Alford, Andy Enfield
UCLA basketball Coach Steve Alford, left, and USC basketball Coach Andy Enfield have already begun recruiting for their respective universities, searching for that elusive missing piece each school needs to make a run at a national championship. (Gina Ferazzi / Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / July 20, 2013)

By Diane PucinLA Times
July 20, 2013, 5:55 p.m.

New UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford calls recruiting, "A puzzle to put together. And that puzzle changes every year."
New USC basketball coach Andy Enfield calls recruiting, "A test. And every year there's different right answers."
Alford and Enfield have different puzzle pieces they need and different right answers but at least one thing in common: A point guard is the missing puzzle piece and Etiwanda High's Jordan McLaughlin could be the right answer.
The new coaches have been here, there and everywhere this month looking to sign signature recruiting classes in their first year at a new school.
Alford and Enfield are both in hot pursuit of McLaughlin and Santa Ana Mater Dei forward Stanley Johnson, two of the top-rated recruits in the country.
McLaughlin is from the same high school that produced Darren Collison. Johnson is also being courted by schools such as Kentucky and Indiana. Either player would be a recruiting coup for Alford or Enfield.
Enfield has already rankled a peer, and it just so happens to be a former USC coach.
Texas El Paso Coach Tim Floyd confirmed that Isaac Hamilton, a highly regarded shooting guard from Bellflower St. John Bosco High, had asked out of the letter of intent he signed with UTEP last fall and wants to enroll at USC.
Floyd said UTEP denied the request and Hamilton has appealed to the National Letter of Intent Steering Committee. According to Floyd, Hamilton told him he wanted to stay closer to home because of an ill grandmother. Hamilton could not be reached for comment.
"Isaac made his decision for all the right reasons," Floyd said of the player's decision to attend UTEP. "If this appeal is allowed, we might as well not have letters of intent." Enfield declined to comment.
That's recruiting — a cutthroat business.
Before Ben Howland was dismissed as UCLA's coach, he had signed forward Noah Allen and shooting guard Zach LaVine, who will be freshmen next season. Alford's son, Bryce, a guard who had signed with New Mexico but was released from his letter of intent, will join his father at UCLA. A fourth Bruins signee, Wannah Bail, a transfer from Texas Tech, recently had knee surgery and probably will not be eligible until the 2014-15 season anyway.
Before Kevin O'Neill was fired in the middle of USC's season last January, he had signed forward Roschon Prince, guards Kendal Harris, Kahlil Dukes and Julian Jacobs and forward Nikola Jovanovic. Harris, from Texas, was released from his letter of intent by Enfield and won't be at USC next season.
Maybe Hamilton will be.
Enfield said recruiting well in California is crucial. "You can win a national championship with only the best California players," Enfield said.
When he was head coach at New Mexico, Alford had success getting players from the Los Angeles area. Tony Snell, from Riverside King High, and Drew Gordon, who transferred from UCLA, helped Alford's Lobos to back-to-back NCAA appearances.
"First and foremost, I want to be able to recruit the best players locally," Alford said. "We've had a lot of success with players from the Los Angeles area, and I've been able to build relationships with local coaches."
Dave Benezra is the coach of a local AAU team that includes well-regarded prospect Thomas Welsh, a 7-footer from Los Angeles Loyola High who is being pursued by both UCLA and USC. Benezra described the recruiting styles of Enfield and Alford this way: "USC is new media. UCLA is old media. USC is pop. UCLA is rock 'n' roll."
Josh Gershon, a West Coast basketball scout for the Foxsports.com basketball site, said it's obvious what USC's sales pitch is. "Up-tempo," Gershon said.
He also said that the new USC staff, which includes assistants Tony Bland, previously at San Diego State, and Jason Hart, formerly of Pepperdine, is focusing on Southern California prospects. Alford and his staff of Duane Broussard, who came with Alford from New Mexico, and David Grace, who had been an assistant at Oregon State, are said to be looking nationally for players.
"In some ways it's not much different, Alford and Howland," Gershon said. "The UCLA staff is thinking nationally. This USC staff is different. The previous regime didn't seem to recruit SoCal very much. It seemed like it had more commitments from Serbia than Los Angeles."
Dave Telep, another recruiting expert, predicted that Enfield would focus locally first but "his eyes will be wide open to the entire country." Telep said that when Enfield was a Florida State assistant, he was instrumental in recruiting Michael Snaer from Moreno Valley out of the clutches of UCLA and over to the Seminoles.
Alford, an Indiana native, likes to burrow into specific areas of the country, Telep said.
"He's used his Midwest roots to his advantage at every place he's been," Telep said, "and I bet he's got an eye on Indiana and surrounding areas again. I'd be willing to bet he uses California and the Midwest primarily. He'll be very personal in his relationship approach to recruiting."
The next NCAA signing period will be in November. Wherever McLaughlin and Johnson decide to play will at least partially determine what UCLA and USC fans think about their new coaches.
Twitter: @mepucin