With one veteran wing out the door, the Bruins are apparently in the market for a replacement.
UCLA men's basketball is one of the potential landing spots for Illinois transfer guard Jacob Grandison, the wing told CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein on Friday. Grandison is also considering USC, BYU, DePaul, Arizona, Iowa State, Michigan, Kentucky, Oregon and Duke.
Grandison is a graduate transfer heading into his sixth year at the college level, as he started his career at Holy Cross. After two years averaging 11.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in Worcester, Massachusetts, Grandison transferred to Champaign, Illinois, and redshirted his first year with the Fighting Illini.
Settling in as a part-time starter for Illinois in 2020-2021, Grandison averaged 4.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 15.3 minutes per game for a team that won the Big Ten Tournament and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Grandison rose even further through the rotation this past season, averaging 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 25.0 minutes per game as the Fighting Illini won the Big Ten regular season title.
Perhaps Grandison's defining trait the past few years has been his perimeter shooting, hitting 41.1% of his 3-pointers since joining Illinois while taking 4.5 shots per game from beyond the arc this past season.
Grandison had previously declared for the 2022 NBA Draft, but he withdrew his name on May 29 and entered the NCAA transfer portal two days later.
The Bruins similarly had a player take their pro decision down to the wire earlier in the week, but instead of losing him to the portal, they lost theirs to the draft pool. Guard Jules Bernard reaffirmed his commitment to turning pro this summer in an Instagram post Wednesday night, leaving UCLA without one of its projected veteran starters next season.
Bernard would have been playing his fifth season in Westwood had he returned.
Like Bernard, Grandison comes in at 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds. Bernard may have played more games with 130, but Grandison isn't far behind with 124 appearances.
Coach Mick Cronin and his staff have also been in contact with Kentucky transfer wing Keion Brooks, according to a report from Rothstein back in May. The Bruins have three open scholarships spots with Bernard out of the picture, and it appears they are prioritizing long wings to fill those holes.
Bernard, Johnny Juzang and Peyton Watson provided a lot of that length last season, but all three are headed to the NBA Draft. Jake Kyman transferred to Wyoming as well, so between him, Bernard and Juzang, the Bruins have also lost three of their highest-volume 3-point shooters.
Grandison would bring the same length and 3-point attempts that Bernard did, and at a higher efficiency than the former Bruin's 33.7% clip from deep last season. Grandison had a 17.5 PER in his two years at Illinois, very much in-line with Bernard's 17.8 figure in that same span.
Between the two, Grandison has better rebounding and assist percentages, more win shares per 40 minutes and better offensive and defensive box plus/minuses, although Bernard did post the lower turnover percentage.
Although UCLA has the room to add as many as three players via the transfer portal in the coming weeks, it is unlikely they fill up their entire roster.
More must-reads: