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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Ed O'Bannon wants to be a college coach

By Diamond Leung

Ed O'Bannon, who led UCLA to the 1995 national championship and has regained notoriety for his significant lawsuit against the NCAA, wants to become a college coach and is returning to school to get his degree.

O'Bannon, after 16 years out of school, on Tuesday began going to two classes at UCLA, where he'll be attending summer sessions and fall quarter in order to complete his degree.

Why would O'Bannon, a Henderson, Nev. resident, come back to campus after all this time?

"There are several reasons," he said in a statement. "I want to coach basketball at the Division I level so it's important to have a degree. Also, my children are old enough that they don't need me around all the time. The fact that I can go home each weekend and spend time with them is a plus."

O'Bannon, 38, after a brief NBA career has been a coach before at the high school level, but now becomes the latest Bruin off the 1995 team to take an interest in college coaching. Cameron Dollar is the head coach at Seattle and Tyus Edney is working his way up as the director of basketball operations at UCLA.

In fact, Dollar said O'Bannon's younger brother, Charles O'Bannon, wants to coach as well.

"I know for Charles for sure is going to do it eventually," Dollar said. "Ed had been mentioning it, too. It's natural to me because both of them love people, help people and have knowledge of the game."

Ed O'Bannon's aspirations have led him back to Westwood this week.

"This is a long time coming," O'Bannon said in a statement. "My wife and mother really never gave it [coming back to school] a rest and I really wanted to finish. There are a lot of people involved in this decision, like Coach [Jim] Harrick. I felt I owed it to myself and a lot of people to come back and get my degree."