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UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton’s final appeal denied, will sit out this season

hamilton

Maxpreps

In news that didn’t come as much of a surprise, UCLA freshman guard Isaac Hamilton’s final appeal to have the National Letter of Intent he signed after committing to UTEP nullified was denied on Thursday. With that being the case Hamilton, a McDonald’s All-American from Los Angeles, will sit out this season and lose a year of eligibility per the rules of the NLI.

Hamilton will be able to receive an athletic scholarship and practice with the team, so head coach Steve Alford and his staff will be able to groom the prolific shooting guard with an eye towards next season. And having a player as talented as Hamilton should help the Bruins’ perimeter rotation, which includes Jordan Adams, Zach LaVine and Norman Powell, in practice every day.

While Hamilton was most valued as a scorer during his high school career (23.0 ppg at St. John Bosco last season), there was some thinking that if eligible he could throw his name into the mix at the point guard position along with fellow freshmen LaVine and Bryce Alford, and sophomore Kyle Anderson.

Those three players combined to dish out 11 assists (Anderson with five, Alford and LaVine with three apiece) against eight turnovers (Alford - 4, Anderson - 3, LaVine - 1) in the Bruins’ 96-66 exhibition victory over Cal State San Bernadino on Wednesday night. Both LaVine (15 points) and Anderson (ten points) reached double figures, and while the Bruins do have one more exhibition game to play prior to their season opener against Drexel next Friday it seems likely that multiple players will have the opportunity to initiate the offense for Alford’s squad.

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