UCLA lost Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee to the NBA, which will force Ben Howland to find new offensive weapons.

"Those were two of our top three returning scorers, so at the two and three spot there’s going to be a lot of opportunity. Tyler Lamb is going to have a great opportunity this year, he’ll be a sophomore. Norman Powell, a freshman two guard. We have a JC player coming in who will play this year, De’End Parker. We’re going to definitely play one of the Wear twins at the three for significant minutes. Off the top of my head I’d say Dave. It could be Travis, too."

Howland hopes to keep the same offense in place despite the turnover of personnel.

"We still hope to be able to play inside-out, with the luxury of Josh Smith inside and Reeves Nelson, who’s a returning all Pac-12 player now," said Howland. "I think there’s only two or three returning. One of the players who’s had the best summer along with Josh and Reeves is Lazeric Jones, our senior point guard. He’s really had a great summer, and I expect he’ll be one of our top scorers and a real key to our team. The key for him is to stay healthy. Last year he hurt his wrist and prior to that he had another injury, I’m trying to remember what the heck it was. He had kind of an injury-plagued year but he was the only player to start every game on our team last year."

Combo guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera has committed to Georgetown.

Smith-Rivera was committed to Xavier at the end of last year and while Georgetown was seen as a frontrunner after he de-committed, there had been a surge of interest for the high scoring guard from the likes of Louisville, UCLA, NC State and Memphis.

Smith-Rivera is ranked as high as 22nd by Rivals and as low as 45h by ESPN.

Smith-Rivera is originally from Indianapolis and now attends Oak Hill

Dominic Artis has withdrawn his verbal commitment to UCLA, according to his mother Tamera Davis.

"He still loves UCLA and I would say really they're still his favorites," Davis said. "He just wanted to make sure he was making the right decision and take a step back for a minute."

The Bruins still have commitments from Kyle Anderson, a 6-foot-8 standout from Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony who can also play point guard, and shooting guard Jordan Adams of Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy. 

Artis is a senior at Findlay Prep and is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mike Krzyzewski made a personal appearance at Miller Grove High School on Monday for the second time in two weeks to visit with Tony Parker, the 6-foot-9, 270-pound power forward who is ranked among the nation’s top 25 overall college prospects.

“Coach Krzyzewski just reaffirmed that he’d like have Tony in a Duke uniform,” Miller Grove coach Sharman White told the AJC. “Colleges are allowed to see a player three times in the NCAA contact period. [Krzyzewski] said he rarely uses all three of them but he did with Tony because he’s a top priority.”

Parker has taken recruiting trips to Ohio State and UCLA within the last month, and will travel to Duke on Oct. 28. Parker has also made an unofficial visit to Georgia Tech.

“It was great to see Coach K; he has been recruiting me since the ninth grade,” Parker said. “He’s one of the most powerful names in college basketball, and I appreciate him visiting with me and my parents.”

The Los Angeles Athletic Club has announced its Preseason Top 50 list today on ESPN.com. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball media members, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.

Nineteen of the 50 players named were from two conferences, the Big East (10) and Big Ten (9). The SEC had seven players chosen, followed by the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 each with four; and the Atlantic 10, Big West and Conference USA with two each. Conferences with one players named include the Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC, Missouri Valley, Mountain West and WCC.

For the first time, a school had four players listed as North Carolina had Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Kendall Marshall and Tyler Zeller selected.