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UCLA Basketball: 2024 Commit Drops Insane Stat Line In Viral Video

He still remains underrated from a national standpoint.

Jason Fray

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The UCLA Men's Basketball program doesn't have any issues when it comes to recruiting. 

The brand of the school is quite attractive when combining the academics, location, success of the basketball program currently, and past success. Simply put, UCLA is one of the more intriguing programs out there. 

While UCLA traditionally loads up on Top-100 prospects, there have been occasions where a few Bruins flew under the radar in high school before signing in Westwood. They would then go on to have fantastic college/professional careers. In recent times, the likes of Russell Westbrook, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Darren Collison come to mind. 

Based on his rapid development over the last year, we could be adding Eric Freeny to that list sooner than later. 

The 2024 guard out of Corona Centennial High School quietly committed to UCLA on July 1. At the time, he was a 3-star guard with offers from UNLV, San Francisco, UC Irvine, New Mexico, Nevada, and Cal (among others). 

To say the least, UCLA was by far his most significant offer. On the surface, you might've questioned whether the Bruins should've taken Freeny. Well, instead of questioning Mick Cronin and his staff, those skeptics probably should be praising them for unearthing what looks like a real gem. 

Per the highlight video above, Freeny has been exploding on the AAU circuit in recent months. He's a smooth shooter from beyond the arc, a physically strong, willing defender, and a mid-range savant. Freeny plays the game with a calmness not usually seen in younger prospects. He's also tougher than a $2 steak.

Not only that, but the combo guard does a lot of the dirty work necessary to win on top of being a leader on both his AAU and high school teams. In essence, Freeny is both an elite glue guy and most importantly, a winner. 

Unsurprisingly, he went from being a 3-star unranked prospect into now being listed by 247Sports as a top-100 player in his class (which he's very young for comparatively speaking to his peers).  

Without a doubt, Freeny's best basketball is ahead of him. He's just scratching the surface as to how good he can eventually be. Even better for UCLA, there seems to be a lot of untapped potential still yet to be realized. 

Hailing from an elite high school program, it's always a nice thing to land a player from your backyard who comes into college ready to play from the jump. Look for Freeny to play right away once he enrolls at UCLA next season. He has the makeup of a guy who will be a Cronin favorite from Day 1. 

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Jason Fray
JASON FRAY

Jason Fray is a proud native of Los Angeles. After graduating from UCLA in 2011, he's written for a number of publications -- including Bleacher Report, FOX Sports, Saturday Down South, and New Arena. In his downtime, he enjoys writing scripts, going to shows, weekly pub trivia with the boys, trying the best hole-in-the-wall food spots around town, and traveling (22 countries & counting).