Gauchos add two star guards to recruiting class

For the third consecutive year, UC Santa Barbara head coach Bob Williams has produced a National Letter of Intent signing class that gives the Gaucho program great promise for the future.
 
On Friday, Williams announced the signing of two talented guards to National Letters of Intent. The Gauchos will add backcourt standouts Troy Leaf (El Cajon, Calif./Foothills Christian HS) and Kyle Boswell (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison HS) to the program in 2010-11.
 
Leaf, a two-time East County Player of the Year and All-CIF San Diego Section choice, is expected to play the point at UCSB, but during his career at Foothills Christian he has played both the point and shooting guard positions.  As a junior, the 6-foot-2, 170-pound Leaf averaged 26.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 3.3 steals per game.  His scoring average was the highest in the CIF San Diego Section as he helped his team to its third straight Section Division 5 championship.  
 
In 2008-09, Leaf scored 30 or more points eight times and had a season-high of 40.  As a sophomore he averaged 25.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game.  In his first three years of high school, he has averaged 25.5 points and he is on-pace to become the all-time leading scorer in San Diego prep history.
 
“We are real excited to add a player as highly skilled as Troy,” Williams said.  “He is a coach’s son, has a very good aptitude for the game and has the ability to play the one or the two.
 
“Troy has been a prolific high school scorer,” Williams continued, “but he is a creative distributor who will be a great addition to our program.”
 
Boswell is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound shooting guard with outstanding range.  Although he missed a significant portion of his junior season while recovering from a back injury, he averaged 21.0 points in 10 games.  
 
As a sophomore in 2007-08, he averaged 22.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. He also made 69 three-point baskets and, following the year, was named First Team All-Sunset League and First Team Sophomore All-State by CalHiSports.  Boswell also scored the most points by a sophomore in Edison history and Scout.com calls him “one of the purest shooters in the West.”
 
“We targeted Kyle for more than a year and a half,” Williams said.  “He has great knowledge of the game and is very unselfish, but he also has the ability to shoot, and shoot from distance.  
 
“Kyle is also a great personality player and will add a great deal to the program,” he said. “He is exactly what we need.”
 
The duo of guards gives UCSB its third straight outstanding recruiting class.  In 2007-08, the Gauchos added Jaimé Serna, James Nunnally, Will Brew, Jr., and Greg Somogyi.  In 2008-09, they signed Lucas Devenny and Chris Brew.  In addition, sophomore transfer Orlando Johnson (Loyola Marymount) and junior transfer Jon Pastorek (San Diego State) were brought in during the same time period.
 
The 2009-10 Gauchos will tip-off the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 14 when they host Cal State Los Angeles in a 3:00 p.m. game at the Thunderdome.  The game was originally scheduled for 7:00 p.m., but was moved to accommodate fans that would like to attend both the basketball opener and the Big West men’s soccer championship game at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.