LOS ANGELES — Days after Eric Dailey Jr. entered the transfer portal, he paused a workout to check his phone, seeing a notification that surprised him: A text from UCLA associate head coach Darren Savino.
“Hey, that’s a pretty big school,” Dailey, who started 16 games in his freshman season at Oklahoma State, recalled thinking.
No need to be perplexed. As the UCLA coaching staff constructed a roster to bounce back from the program’s first losing season since 2016, they had a type.