UCLA coach does 'bit more homework' with transfer Nico Iamaleava - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach DeShaun Foster on Tuesday said the Bruins just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get «the No. 1 player in the portal» in former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

In his first comments since Iamaleava's tumultuous transfer was announced Sunday, Foster said he and the rest of his staff were able to sift through the noise surrounding Iamaleava's exit from Tennessee, which included reports of increased financial demands from his representation and missed practices.

«You just have to go with your gut and with the people that you trust,» Foster said. «You can't just read everything on social media and come to a conclusion from that. You have to do a little bit more homework. So I think we did a good job in vetting and figuring out what we wanted to do, and we were able to execute and now we're here.»

Iamaleava, a five-star prospect from Long Beach, California, was recruited by UCLA out of high school. He entered the portal last Wednesday, and Foster said the familiarity between the two parties helped facilitate the process.

«If it wasn't a local kid, it would've been a little bit more difficult,» Foster said. «But being able to see him play in high school and evaluating that film at Tennessee wasn't hard to do. A lot of the kids on the team know him and have played with him.»

Foster said Iamaleava won't be able to join the Bruins until this summer.

Iamaleava was earning $2.4 million with the Vols under the contract he signed with Spyre Sports Group, the Tennessee-based collective, when he was still in high school. The deal would have paid him in the $10 million range altogether had he stayed four years at Tennessee.

Sources told ESPN's Chris Low that Iamaleava's representatives wanted a deal in