Here is an article from BruinReportOnline with a quick update on the accolades that our recruits are receiving. It's basically a summary of what I posted earlier here, here, and here. The only new information is that Kelvin Kim, who likely will walk-on at UCLA next year, made first team All Southern Section for Division 1-A, while UCLA 2006 target Alex Stepheson won Player of the Year for Division 3-A.

First we had JR and Charles in Japan, and now we have Jelani McCoy playing in the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs. This is a link to some news stories about the games; there is a March 8 announcement that Jelani has been picked up by the Jiangsu team for the rest of the year, and there is a March 30 recap of his team's road playoff win in the one of the league's semi-final series. Jelani had 22 points in the 135-129 victory, and there were TWO 50-point scorers on the other (losing) team. Jelani is on the same team as former Cal Bear Ryan Foreskin, err, Forehan-Kelly. One other thing: Jelani is not the only former Bruin playing pro ball in China, as TJ Cummings also is in the league (if you follow the link, you won't see TJ in the team photo, but his name is on the roster). His team won its division but has been eliminated in the playoffs.

Here's a photo of Jelani in action:

In case we have any avid Bruin fans in Virginia or Kentucky:

Luc Richard Mbaha Moute will be playing in the Commonwealth Classic on Friday, April 1.

Ryan Wright and Darren Collison will be playing in the adidas Derby Festival Basketball Classic on Saturday, April 16.

As you might know, Coach Wooden is the chairman for the McDonald's All American game, and he will be honored at the game tonight. Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has proclaimed that March 30 be John Wooden Day in the state. The press release has a brief bio on Coach Wooden and lays out his connection with South Bend. Also, you might want to check out this article about a reunion Wooden had with some of his former players from South Bend (these guys are now 80 years old or so), and this article lists many of Coach Wooden's accomplishments, along with other information.

In Davis' own words at SI.com, on why "experts" like himself are wrong so often:

The answer is obvious but seldom spoken: We're guessing, just like you.

Ahhhh. Then maybe you should be paid as much as we are. Or maybe there needs to be a disclaimer whenever one of you "experts" starts spewing off at the mouth: "Warning - I really don't know more than you, I'm just guessing."

Davis, to his credit, candidly walks us through all of the picks he's gotten wrong. He originally had Syracuse and Wake Forest in the Final Four, and then after the first weekend of the tourney, he picked Arizona and Duke to emerge from their respective regions. Perhaps the biggest indictment of his lack of ability to pick winners is that his picks were worse, over the season, than those of randomly selected readers.

Brian Dohn takes us through the 1994-1995 UCLA basketball season in this brief article. He discusses the pressure to win, Ed O's leadership, and some of the moments of the season that we don't always remember like JR Henderson's two free-throws against Kentucky in the Wooden Classic and the home loss against Cal. I personally will never forget that Cal game as it was the first time I camped out for floor seats in the student section, and of course, we lost. Ed was in foul trouble for most of the game, and I still remember him fouling out when Monty Buckley dunked on him near the end of the game. After the game, Buckley taunted the student section, and in response, some students (not me, really) threw promotional music cassettes that had been given out before the game at him (yes, cassettes were still around back then). Anyway, it was a terrible experience as far as UCLA games go (which probably is why I remember it so well), especially considering it was one of only two losses the Bruins experienced that year, and it was the only loss at Pauley. Thankfully, we won every game after that, and well, you know the rest.

The All CIF-Southern Section teams have been announced, and UCLA recruits Darren Collison (senior), Mike Roll (senior), and James Keefe (junior) each won Player of the Year for their respective divisions. The fourth Southern California UCLA commitment, sophomore Taylor King, made first-team for his division (his Mater Dei teammate Mike Gerrity was awarded POY in their division).

Geez, I'm tired of reading about these guys winning city titles and player of the year awards. :)

Seriously, though, I'm eager to finally see them suit up for the Bruins.

Today's Daily News has an article on Jim Harrick's new coaching gig: an AAU team out in the Valley. One of his assistants will be none other than Ed O'Bannon. The article also has a "where are they now?" section on the 1995 title team, which gives us brief updates on not only key contributors like Ed and Tyus, but also players like Kevin Dempsey and Ike Nwankwo.

Sean Farnham walks us through his memories of participating in the NCAA tourney. He shares about his experience of sitting through the selection show, traveling, prepping for the game, and then playing (yes, he actually played). Check this comment regarding the actual day of the game: "But as game time got closer, excitement got the better of me. I was first to the bus dressed and ready to go." What!?!? Sean Farnham being over-eager? I don't believe that for a second!

If Farnham had been a Simpsons character during his playing days, I picture him something like this:


Of course Sean was skinnier. :)

In all seriousness, of all the former-Bruin tv/radio personalities out there (Walton, MacLean, Haley, Bob Meyers), i think Sean has moved up to second place, albeit still far behind Marques "get my other gun, shoot everybody's azz" Johnson.

LA Times writer Lonnie White has an article on Trevor Ariza today. The piece highlights how Ariza was the only one who truly believed he was making the right decision by declaring for the draft. I know I thought he was nuts. White also includes a quote from Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy reciting a laundry list of great aspects to Ariza's game - of course the Clips had two chances to draft Ariza and passed both times. Some of Ben Howland's comments also are included. You might want to compare this piece with a story in the OC Register on Ariza that came out in February.

As I write this, Ariza is perfect shooting the ball against the Lakers: 3-3 from the field and 4-4 from the line. The guy looks as explosive and athletic as ever. He also appears excessively skinny - perhaps Mike Sweetney has been stealing Ariza's meal money. It looks like Ariza is attending the Tayshaun Prince school of bodybuilding.

Frank Burlison in today's Press-Telegram (see the second half of the article). He sees UCLA in one of the top three spots of the conference next year. He has Stanford as his conference winner, with Arizona still challenging for the title. Of course, all of this is highly dependent on who leaves early. Oh, and he flat-out says UCLA will win the conference in 2006-2007. Who am I to disagree with that?

BRO has a report on UCLA recruits who played in the Las Vegas Easter Classic. This report is from the first day of the tourney; BRO also has a roundup on the entire tournament that includes a capsule on UCLA's commits plus several other players. James Keefe and Taylor King, the two players who have verbally committed to the Bruins, performed very well over the weekend. However, one of the Bruins' main recruiting targets in the class of 2006, center Ray Hall, appeared overweight and has lost mobility according to BRO. Also, "[h]e was beaten to numerous rebounds by smaller players and had trouble finishing plays around the basket." That doesn't sound too encouraging if you ask me, but he supposedly has great hands and is an excellent passer. It will be interesting to see if Howland maintains his interest in this guy - we need a big man, and since it will be hard to pry Seattle native Spencer Hawes away from Washington, Hall might be the best that's available.

According to BeatSC.com (aka the trojan-haters club), $C's legal department has informed the website operators that the site is violating the university's trademark. Supposedly, the site must not sell any merchandise with the letters "SC" in red - if the color is changed, then all is okay. This sounds a little fishy to me. Anyway, if you follow the link above, you'll also see that the site could use some pro bono legal assistance, so maybe one of you Bruin attorneys out there can give them a hand.

the Pac-10 race next year will most likely make themselves eligible for the NBA draft without hiring agents. It appears both Ike Diogu and Hassan Adams will be "testing the waters" but leaving open the option of returning to their respective teams next year. Diogu leaving would be a huge loss for ASU, but i'm unconvinced they'd be in the upper half of the conference even if he came back. And Adams exiting early would appear to deplete the Wildcats, who are also losing all-conference players Channing Frye and Salim Stoudamire, but they always seem to reload without losing too much ground.

who are still following the tournament closely, you might want to check out the Carnival of the Hoopsters offered by the ACC BasketBlog. Despite the blog's ACC focus, the Carnival gives a great summary of all "blogospheric reaction" to the tournament games (in other words, links to blog entries commenting on NCAA tourney action for all of the teams involved). The first edition of the Carnival, which came out after the tournament's first weekend, included a link to my reaction as well as a couple other Bruin sites. There also is a second edition that came out today. It can be interesting to see how other schools' fans are reacting to their team's success (or lack thereof).

The Daily Breeze has a recap of the Reebok Collision HS All-Star game yesterday at El Camino College. The game featured two players who will attend UCLA next year, Darren Collison of Etiwanda and Michael Roll of Aliso Niguel. Collison scored 19 points and was the game's MVP, while Roll pitched in 15 points of his own.

Doug Krikorian, also of local sports talk radio "fame", has a column about covering the UCLA Bruin basketball team back in the 1970s.

I'm sure you've seen a college hoops player make a great play, and then show off his jersey as depicted in the pictures above. Have you ever seen this action, known as "popping" one's jersey, in an NBA game? Probably not, according to this NY Times article on the subject. Popping is meant to draw attention to the name on the front of the uniform, and thus is a way for an NCAA player to give love to his school. The typical NBA player doesn't share the same love for his team.

So what does this have to do with the UCLA? The article, while acknowledging that it is unknown exactly how or when the practice started, states that one of the first instances of jersey popping was by former Bruin Earl Watson, in a game at Pauley against North Carolina in December 2000, after the Bruins had erased a 19-point deficit (of course, we eventually lost the game). The article also includes a quote from current Bruin Jordan Farmar.

Last week, two SC fans wrote letters to the LA Times belittling the UCLA basketball program. This week, a letter was published criticizing those ignorant SC fans. A snippet: "criticism of men's basketball by a Trojan is akin to criticism of the Atkins diet by a Sumo wrestler." Very nicely done.

First, ESPN Classic's SportsCentury will feature Coach Wooden on Tuesday, March 29 at 9am PT, with a replay on Thursday, March 31 at 10am PT. SportsCentury has a biography on Coach Wooden here.

Next, ESPNU will have a show called Walton & the Wizard, in which Bill Walton interviews his former coach. Perhaps this is a "repackaging" of the Outside the Lines Nightly show on Wooden. It airs several times, the first time on Saturday, April 2 at 12:30pm PT.

Finally, College Sports Television (CSTV) has a program called Coach: John Wooden, which focuses on Coach Wooden's unique relationships with his former players, according to a release from CSTV. Many former Bruins are interviewed, including Walton, Gail Goodrich, Swen Nater, Marques Johnson, and others. The show premieres on Sunday, April 3, at 3pm PT.

over the last couple of days, I've made a few changes to the sidebar. The searching for the site now uses Feedster, which returns individual posts as results. It should make it easier to find past posts, if that is what you are trying to do.

Also, I added a listing of "Recent Posts" to the sidebar so you can quickly view the latest entries by title.

From my earlier post about Henderson's team beating Charles O'Bannon's in Japan, you know that Henderson's Aisin Sea Horses moved on to play the Toshiba Brave Thunders for the Japan Basketball Super League title. Unfortunately, Henderson's squad fell behind in the series 0-2, and despite winning Games 3 and 4, lost the 5th and deciding game. Henderson, however, continued to play well, as he was "nearly unstoppable" and finished with 36 points and 15 boards. You also can take a look at the box score here (in Japanese).

It turns out that the Toshiba Brave Thunders received extra motivation before the fifth game from some of Henderson's comments. He said that the matchup wasn't a big deal, because it was "Just Toshiba." Okay, I made that up (if this makes no sense to you, it means you forgot or don't know about an amusing incident in UCLA-USC basketball history: see this old Daily Bruin article, especially the second and last three paragraphs).

Some pics of JR from the team website:

In a letter to the Roanoke Times, a person named Tim Luck, who I'm guessing is high on something besides life, writes the following regarding the University of Virginia's search for a new basketball coach:

The prefect fit would be former UCLA coach Steve Lavin. He is a class person, nationally known, a proven winner and only in his early 40s. UVa would be an immediate top 10 team and contend for a national championship on a regular basis. [emphasis mine]

Of all the things I've ever read or heard in my entire life, this has to be the most, ummm, well, I can't even think of the word. I think my body is still in shock. Oh boy. I recommend bookmarking the page and going back whenever you're having a rough day and need something to lift your spirits. I'm reading it again right now...UVa...Lavin...national championship...regular basis...I wish I could make up stuff half as entertaining as this.

Norman Chad (yes, the analyst from ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker) writes a rather entertaining column called the Couch Slouch that basically describes his experiences of watching TV and getting divorced on a regular basis. His latest column addresses his dislike for most current college basketball analysts. He also notes the connection between most of the CBS analysts and the ACC, especially Duke:

Actually, Raftery is a CBS rarity; of its eight game analysts over the weekend, he was the only one without ACC ties. Everyone else -- Jay Bilas, Dan Bonner, Len Elmore, Mike Gminski, Billy Packer, Jim Spanarkel and Bob Wenzel -- played and/or coached in the ACC. Apparently, the ACC has the best RPI in basketball and broadcasting.

Plus, if you went to Duke -- where you probably learn bigger words ("perimeter") and fancier expressions ("dribble penetration") -- you get preferential treatment, just like in real life. Bilas, Gminski and Spanarkel all played at Duke, and Wenzel, as a Duke assistant, coached Gminski and Spanarkel. Even CBS's non-jock studio savant, Seth Davis, went to Duke and works for Sports Illustrated -- that's two strikes against him, but he seems like a pleasant fellow so I won't scuff him up today.

You might also want to check out his column from last week, entitled "Down With Duke" (I like the title, but the column itself wasn't his best work, in my opinion).

After seeing Trojans comment on UCLA basketball in letters to the LA Times, now we have a Daily Trojan writer giving an opinion. Geez, it's like they don't have their own basketball program over there...oh yeah, that's right, they really don't. The article starts with a section concluding that McGwire, not OJ, might now be the most disgraced member of the Trojan family - uh yeah, steroid use is MUCH worse than (alleged) DOUBLE MURDER. Then it tries to look at the state of our program. A sampling:

UCLA was knocked out in the first round by Oregon State, setting the stage perfectly for their humbling a week later at the hands of that legendary jerk Bob Knight and his Texas Tech Red Raiders.

And for those folks across town who think the team will get better next year - not so fast, my friends.

Then the writer hashes into how Thompson and Morrison will be missed, and how Fey and Hollings are no good, with no mention of any of this year's or next year's freshmen. What thorough analysis!

as proof that this blog is reaching a wider audience, i received a comment from someone clearly not a Bruin fan. regarding my critique of Seth Davis, an anonymous poster wrote the following:

Where's the retraction on Seth Davis now that your Bruins disgraced themselves and had their asses handed to them in the 1st round? Davis was the only analyst who flat out pick the Alabama upset. He picked the exact final four a few years back - google him and you'll see it - before the first game began. Read "the sports guy" at espn.com's comments on Davis being unreal in his opinions and predictions. Wake up and ride the bandwagon of the Next Nantz.

Hmmm, where to begin? Let's start with this: losing to a higher-seeded, more experienced Texas Tech team is hardly a disgrace, especially considering that the Red Raiders made it to the Big-12 Championship game and have advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating a very good Gonzaga team.

Moving along, my initial complaint with Davis was that in his bubbleology article, he picked ten teams more likely to make the tourney than UCLA, one of which was a Notre Dame team that the Bruins had just beaten in South Bend. of those ten teams, four did not make the tourney, while of course, UCLA did. So clearly Davis was flat-out wrong with this list.

And my main issue with his comment on the Bruins was his devaluation and apparent lack of understanding of the RPI. He felt the Bruins' RPI was "inflated" because we played (and lost to) good teams. How can the RPI be inflated by measuring exactly what it is intended to measure, i.e. the strength of opposition you faced while compiling your season record? This was, and is, complete nonsense. The RPI is not perfect, but as I've said before, it captures in one number many of the factors considered by the selection committee. That is why, according to Ken Pomeroy at the end of this entry from his blog, if you had picked the at-larges in order of RPI, you would have only gotten three picks wrong.

As far as Davis being the "Next Nance", I never knew that Nance was the standard to which college hoops analysts try to achieve. I do know that despite your claim, Davis wasn't the only one picking Alabama to lose in the first round: see this article by Tim Keown at ESPN.com, items 10, 11, 40, and 41. You'll see that Keown also picked UW-Milwaukee as the most likely darkhorse to reach the Sweet 16.

Finally, it seems a tad gutless of you to come on here and post AFTER the Bruins lose. if you really think Davis is such a genius, then where were you before the brackets came out? At least have the courage to say something before the Texas Tech game, while the outcome is still an unknown. I have a feeling had the Bruins managed to get lucky and pull out a W in the first round, we never would have heard from you.

In any event, and I am very serious about this, I appreciate hearing an opposing point of view. As fans (and as people), it is easy for us to interpret objective facts in a way that reinforces what we want to believe. There are certain things that I believe, including that the UCLA basketball program is on its way to recovery and there exists an East Coast bias from media knuckleheads like Seth Davis. It's good for me to be reminded every now and then that these are not irrefutable truths, so if someone wants to present an intelligent argument counter to what I believe, I'll do my best to listen. So yes, I do want to hear others' opinions, even if they're wrong different than mine. :)

last night (unfortunately I missed it). He was interviewed by Bill Walton. You can see a short clip here (you might need to download ESPN Motion).

First, the Orange County Register named incoming UCLA recruit Mike Roll as its player of the year. Roll, as you might know, is a wing player with an excellent outside shot. Some believe he will challenge Josh Shipp for a starting spot next year.


Mike Roll (photo credit: OC Register)

The OC Register also announced its All-Orange County teams. Roll obviously is on the first team, but so are two other players who have verbally committed to UCLA: junior James Keefe and sophomore Taylor King. While both would be tremendous additions for UCLA, keep in mind that verbal commitments are non-binding. King in particular is being courted by other schools and has his eye on the NBA. Of the two remaining first team all-county players, one, senior Kelvin Kim, is considering walking on at UCLA. The page at the Register has a short write-up on each of these players.

Next, Frank Burlison, in a column that begins talking about the McDonald's All-Americans, gives out his Southern California high school basketball "awards". His junior player of the year is James Keefe, and his sophomore player of the year is Taylor King. On his all-senior team is Roll and UCLA's other incoming recruit for 2005-2006, Darren Collison. He also notes, as mentioned here before, that Roll and Collison will be playing in an All-Star game this Saturday, March 26, at El Camino College in Torrance.

Finally, check out this feature on Ryan Wright, another Bruin incoming recruit in the fall. You can also see a short writeup on him and other players in the All Canadian game at this page.


Ryan Wright (photo credit: HoopLife)

The themes continue to be getting stronger and tougher:
Howland thinking big for next season
Improvement plan enters critical phase

Today's Daily Bruin has three more stories on Thursday's game and the season in general:

M. basketball: Farmar learns from first NCAA Tournament - this one also has a section at the end on Dijon Thompson.

M. basketball: Optimism after March sadness

Congrats in order for great season

Bob Keiser of the Press-Telegram looks at each Sweet 16 team and their ties to Long Beach, UCLA, and southern California. Not surprisingly, most of the UCLA ties have to do with former Bruin head coach Larry Brown, who seemingly has coached everywhere.

Mark Heisler takes a look at the top 30 NBA prospects, and also has a "right there" group (sort of like an "honorable mention" or "others receiving votes" category) that includes Dijon Thompson. However, keep in mind that the list includes all players 18 and older, including many likely to remain in (or go to) college next year. Interestingly, the only Pac-10 players in the top 30 are Martel Webster, a high school senior headed for Washington, at #11, and Ike Diogu at #30. Channing Frye and Nate Robinson are in the "right there" group, but Salim Stoudamire's name is nowhere to be found.

First, Steve Dilbeck addresses a problem that plagued the Bruins all of this season and might still be a concern next year: lack of a productive big man.

Brian Dohn looks at this year's freshmen's prospects for next year.

Diane Pucin has a piece on the need for the bruins to get more physical.

And Dan Weber, while taking a quick look at Bob Knight, also addresses what the bruins need to do to improve.

put their basketball "intelligence" on display by writing letters to the LA Times.

well, the local press hasn't been terrible (but we'll see about letters to the editor at the times tomorrow). most of the stories have been fairly on-point, just painful to read for a bruin fan. the exception of course, is Plaschke. He attributes the loss completely to the Bruins being soft. obviously, this is a somewhat accurate assessment, but he goes as far as to say that the loss couldn't be blamed on being young. ummm, yeah, our still-teenaged backcourt being bullied by more physically developed, experienced players has nothing to do with youth. whatever. i just don't understand exactly what processes (if any) are taking place in that guy's head.

on a different topic, Arron Afflalo took responsibility for Ross's big game, but i saw Morrison unsuccessfully trying to guard Ross on many occasions.

anyway, it's still the best sports time of the year, so enjoy it. Here are some recaps of the Bruin game if you're interested.
Tech-nical knockout
UCLA Is Fresh Out
UCLA's freshman guards get schooled
A twisted ending
Young Bruins are taught an early lesson
Tech-nical difficulties
Good night, UCLA
College Basketball Notebook: Thompson has no regrets

Well, you're not going to win too many games if your opponent shoots 62% from the field. yikes. the red raiders ended up scoring 48 points in the paint. in fact, in the first half, they scored 28 out of 37 points in the paint, with the other 9 points coming on two 3-pointers and 3 free-throws. in other words, not a single 2-pointer outside of the paint. unfortunately, the bruins often lost track of their men under the hoop and away from the ball, leading to WAY too many layups. I don't think the Bruins quite understood that they could not ease up at all during any Tech possession.

besides giving up easy baskets, we were hurt by the usual culprit: turnovers. although we ended up with only 13, it seemed like every time we had the ball and could gain some momentum, we wouldn't even get a shot off. this happened numerous times in the 1st half. Tech's d was less than dominating for many stretches in the 1st half, but we didn't take advantage.

and our freshmen backcourt got completely dominated by the Red Raiders. this was not a complete surprise, but it was much worse than expected. oh, and starting the game down 8-0 certainly didn't help us either.

this was probably a very frustrating last game for the seniors, but dijon thompson did all he could to keep us in the game. 22 points and 7 boards is not a terrible way to end a career.

Josh Shipp also contributed plenty, especially in the first half. with thompson gone next year, i hope Shipp looks to create for himself a little more, as he is a terrific finisher around the basket for his size. and i know i've said this many times, but he does a great job getting loose balls and picking up the garbage, basically giving us extra points that we don't deserve. i know his role was not to be a primary scorer this year, but if farmar isn't scoring and we need points like today, i'd like to see him more aggressive.

perhaps the worst part of this loss is simply all of the annoying comments that will come out tomorrow, with several people probably mentioning how Lavin got to the sweet 16 5 out of 6 years, and how our team was inconsistent because we had a four game losing streak followed by two losses to end the season. don't believe me? here's a letter to the Times from LAST week. i'm afraid it will only be worse tomorrow.

as far as the rest of the action today, i think we were the only team out West to lose (except Utah St. and Montana, who don't count because they lost to West Coast teams). also, there were only two real upsets: UAB and Wisconsin Milwaukee. UWM knocked out Alabama, whose coach is former bruin assistant Mark Gottried, in the now infamous yearly 12-5 upset.

anyway, i'll do my best to enjoy the remainder of the tourney. hopefully, the bruins will take this as a learning experience and use it as motivation to work hard over the off-season.

Here are the recap and box score.

That's the number of teammates' thighs they have bruised. Hollins kneed Shipp back in February, and McKinney got Brian Morrison just this past weekend. But now Hollins has jumped into the lead by injuring Dijon Thompson, who was forced to sit out Tuesday's practice. Thompson also is bothered by a sore tailbone and sinus problems. Let's hope none of this affects his play tonight.

Maybe our big men should be forced to wear kneepads in practice. :)

Okay, I'm getting excited about our return to March Madness. I wanted to do a more in-depth analysis than this, but alas, I have no time. Basically, all I keep reading/hearing about is how great Tech can execute in the half-court, specifically how they are excellent at setting screens. What we lack in experience, we hopefully can make up for with effort, especially on the defensive end. We also will have to be physical, as one way of disrupting offensive execution is to body up on screeners and those coming off the screen. Impede their progress as much as the refs will let you, and make the other team work for everything. I'm sure Afflalo will do his part, but we will need everyone to be physical, including our big guys.

On offense, my assumption is that Tech will play straight-up man with no planned double teaming. If this is the case, it is a given that we need to get Dijon Thompson the ball, and we will need him to create things. We also will need Farmar to break the defense down, and we need our big guys to take advantage of their size (Tech has a small front line). Like all of our games, if our big men can provide an offensive threat inside, it will make everything easier for us on the perimeter.

If you haven't heard, Brian Morrison is hampered with a thigh contusion and has not been practicing. We're thin enough as it is depth-wise, so we're much better off if he can go, his eradic play notwithstanding. An interesting thing to look for: sometimes when a shooter is injured, he focuses more on his fundamentals and takes fewer off-balance shots, thereby improving his shot selection. maybe this injury will force morrison to make better decisions and play more under control (I can dream, right?)

Here's a picture to get you fired up about the game:


if that doesn't make you too sick and you want to see more about Texas Tech, you can go to the Tourney Cental page at their website. All of our local papers also have plenty of tourney coverage, and today's Daily Bruin had a huge section dedicated to the tournament.

In any event, I expect us to come out with plenty of intensity after the Oregon St. loss. Hopefully that will translate to production, and not miscues. Go Bruins!

oops, missed this feature on Tyus Edney in the LA Times. I didn't realize he was such a success in Europe. According to Ed O, "When my teammates overseas found out that I played with him [Tyus], it would be like someone in the States finding out that you played with Michael Jordan." I think Ed might be embellishing just a bit, but it's great to read that Tyus is happy.

Steve Lavin's name is being mentioned for the UMass opening. I'd be shocked if Lavin left ESPN for this, but weirder things have happened.

was one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time. And now I have a new reason to be a Jason Alexander fan. Why? Check out his tourney bracket. Other celebrity brackets are here.

In this Daily News article, Warren vocalizes what so many others have been thinking:

"Where they were ... were the depths of devastation. The program had sunk so low. It was so inconsistent. I don't think they would turn out quality players.

The program really did a disservice to a lot of its players who had pro potential, but they never really realized it because there was not the structure I think is necessary. Now, I am very, very encouraged by what Ben Howland is doing."

The article, of course, is talking about the dramatic turnaround taking place at UCLA. Gail Goodrich and Bill Walton also chime in with opinions.

One quick gripe: why do so many of the articles that mention Lavin imply that he was fired for having one bad season? I know, i should just let it go, but it's still so annoying to constantly see such a misconception.

Today's Orange County Register has a feature on Arron Afflalo and his defense. A quote from Afflalo, addressing the possibilty of being assigned to Texas Tech's star guard Ronald Ross:

"To contain him, I have no doubt it would help the team. It's just like scoring for me. To stop a 20-point scorer, hold him to single digits. Do that, and you've done your job." (emphasis mine)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that approximately zero other freshman shooting guards in the country (let alone former McDonalds All Americans) share Afflalo's attitude toward scoring and defense. i know it's just a quote in the paper, but it's refreshing nevertheless.

First thing, it looks like Cameron Dollar's name is being mentioned as a possibility for the head coaching job at LMU.

Next, if you read the LA Times article I mentioned yesterday, then you know that JR Henderson and Charles O'Bannon met in the Japanese Basketball League playoffs. Yes, I know, this isn't exactly the future we imagined for them while they were at UCLA. Anyway, in a fit of fan overkill, i decided to look into the results of their series. You will be happy to know that JR, a member of the Aisin Sea Horses, played extremely well in the deciding third game against O'Bannon's Toyota Alvark team. JR had 37 points and 14 rebounds. Based on this box score and my severely limited Japanese language skills, I was able to figure out that O'Bannon had 17 points and 8 boards (luckily, he still wears #13 so I'm pretty sure it's him). i also saw that in the other games in the series, JR had 28/15 and 47/13 (yes, those are points and rebounds - i guess he likes playing in Japan)! JR's Sea Horses now will play the Toshiba Brave Thunders for the championship. if you are very interested and have a LOT of time on your hands, you can look through all of the box scores at the game results page (less time is required, of course, if you read Japanese fluently). You also might want to take a look at the league's homepage.

and so are the Bruins themselves, rightfully so. Just making the tournament is something to be celebrated. But will it be the same next year? In a word, no. Not to diminish anything Howland and the team have accomplished this season, but 18 wins and an 11-seed won't be acceptable in 2005-2006. This article by Kevin Modesti does a good job laying all of this out.

Our game will start around 6:55pm PT. For those that care, the Lakers-Heat game starts at 5pm, so by the time UCLA comes on, the lakers should be sufficiently behind that you can change the channel without missing anything :). not that anyone would actually choose the nba over the tournament, would they?

As far as our perceived chances of winning, Vegas has us as about a 3.5 point underdog. This roughly translates to oddsmakers believing we have a 39% chance of winning. To compare, in other 6-11 matchups, LSU is -2.5 over UAB, Utah is -3 over UTEP, and Wisconsin is -7.5 over Northern Iowa.

This game will test our basketball skills and require maxiumum effort, but it is winnable. More comments specifically on the game later.

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles has a nice article on Jordan Farmar. It's a few days old, but the story gives some background on Farmar.

The FKD Blog has a good summary of the interview. You also might want to see the recap at the Jim Rome site. If you're REALLY interested, you can pony up some cash and listen to past shows at JimRome.com.

Among its current tourney coverage, the LA Times has a feature on the 1995 championship team. A must read for anyone interested in what the players from that team are up to now.

ESPN Classic will be showing the 1995 UCLA-Missouri game (where Tyus Edney takes us from Boise to Oakland in 4.8 seconds) this Wednesday, March 16, at 3pm PT.

to face Bobby Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders, who have been playing well the last couple of days. We will play on Thursday. if we win, we play the winner of Gonzaga versus Winthrop. Our loss to Oregon State looks to have hurt our seeding, but luckily, we 'll be in a familiar atmosphere and we won't have to travel too far for our first game. i'm curious to see if fans in Tucson will root for or against us.

I'm also wondering if our 11-seed is really indicative of us being one of the last three teams in, as the networks are suggesting. could we have been moved to make matchups better or to get us closer to home in tucson? perhaps we were originally supposed to be in the Syracuse region, where there is no Pac-10 team, instead of being in the same region as Washington. if we really were one of the last teams in, i'm guessing our relative lack of high profile wins (Washington being our only one) and poor conference tourney performance hurt us considerably.

it looks like other teams' seeding was impacted by their performances in conference tourneys as well. Bob Bowlsby, head of the selection committee, said that Kentucky would have been a one-seed had they won the SEC tourney. Also, washington won the pac-10 tourney and ended up a one-seed, while Arizona dropped all the way down to a #3. duke winning the acc tourney seems to have vaulted them past Wake Forest in the seeding, despite Wake finishing two games ahead of Duke in the conference regular season.

notable teams left our are Notre Dame, Maryland, Indiana, Miami of Ohio, Depaul, and St. Joe's. the talking heads are particularly upset that a Big East team like Notre Dame got left out (and no, it's not just Digger that's complaining).

Check out the bracket and matchups.

before we learn our fate later today, here is something to think about:

Too often we neglect our journey in our eagerness or anxiety about reaching the goal.

The goal for this team has become making the NCAA tourney. While most fans (including myself) and the players will be preoccupied today with finding out whether this goal comes to fruition, let's not forget about the journey this team has taken. The squad began the year incredibly inexperienced, and in its early games, really struggled with its defense and half-court execution. However, the players worked hard, were unselfish, and never gave up, even when facing large double-digit deficits in games. A sign of their is effort is that despite playing four perimeter players (of which three were freshman) and a less-than-dominant center, the team ended up with the #2 rebound differential in the pac-10. the team now plays solid team defense and is back in the upper echelon of the conference. its senior leader emerged as one of the premier players in the country, and the young players have given us numerous flashes of brilliance. While the program is still far from where it would like to be, i certainly can't complain about the attitude of any of the players on the roster. I enjoy and appreciate watching them play this year.

Oh, and who wrote the passage quoted at the beginning of the post? Coach John R. Wooden (naturally).

today is the ten-year anniversary of one of my best experiences at Pauley Pavillion. On March 11, 1995, i was lucky enough to attend the last home game of Ed O'Bannon, Tyus Edney, and George Zidek, the senior leaders on our 1995 national champion team. we blew out Oregon that game, and Ed's performance was especially memorable. His knee seemed to be in very good shape at the time, as i still remember him catching an alley-oop on the break and getting so high that he tilted his head while dunking to avoid hitting it on the backboard. and when he came out of the game late in the second half, he got down on the ground and kissed the middle of the half-court circle. when the game ended, some folks rushed the court (okay, i did too) - i'm not exactly sure why, as i don't believe we clinched anything with that game. i guess it was just to celebrate a fantastic regular season. who knew that the postseason would turn out to be even better? :)

Here are some pics of my memories (sorry, they were captured from low quality video)

Ed's dunk:




Ed showing some love for Pauley:


EDDD-OHHHHH:


Tyus taking a bow:


**Update: if the photos aren't appearing above, you should be able to link here to view them.

okay, I was a little hasty in my post last night after the game, as i alluded to the fact that yesterday's game might have been our last of the year. well, i forgot about the NIT. now, it's possible that we decline an invite to the NIT, but that's probably not going to happen, so we should have at least one more game no matter what. besides, this NIT talk is most likely moot as every major bracket prognosticator is counting us as a lock to make the tourney. our rpi is still in the 30s, and a lot of the bubble teams behind us are dropping out. thus, despite conference tourney losses by teams more likely to get bids than us (such as Nevada last night), losses by teams like Maryland, Indiana, Virginia Tech, Vandy, and Georgetown should mean that we're in. it's looking like our seed will be in the #10 range. of course, these "experts" could be wrong, so feel free to root for Utah and Pacific in their conference tourneys.

something that might make things a little dicey would be Oregon State winning the Pac-10 tourney. There aren't supposed to be "conference quotas", but eyebrows will be raised if the Pac-10 gets five teams in. This is even more true since the Pac-10 is no longer the #2 RPI conference, at least according to this article by Gregg Doyel. whether this means you should root for Arizona tonight, well, that's up to you - i'd never actually encourage someone to do that :).

For the best bubble breakdown, see Steward Mandel's page at SI.com. It makes it very clear who is in, who should get in, who might, and who won't. Be aware that there are no brackets, just bubble analysis. You might also want to look at ESPN's bubble watch, ESPN's bracketology, and FoxSports.com's bracket update.

with the lakers in a funk and the clippers and trojans being, well, the clippers and trojans, i guess the L.A. media was looking for a local basketball team to grab our attention and become the next hottest thing. this is the only explanation i could think of regarding some of the "commentary" i saw in the local papers this morning. i know that ripping Bill Plaschke these days is hardly a novel concept, but i have no choice but to address the filth filling his column today. Let's just take a peek at the beginning of his column (including the headline):

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time
Lights, camera … fracture.

Those child stars known as the UCLA basketball team made their debut under the postseason hot lamps Thursday amid giddy reviews and great expectations.

You know how there's a first time for everything?

That apparently includes embarrassment.

It was Oregon State 79, Bruins melted.

It was the beginning of the magic becoming the end of the illusion.

Now don't get me wrong. Yesterday's game was a bad loss. We were playing close to home, we were favored, and we fell behind by 22 at one point. but this bruin team had "giddy reviews and great expectations"? this loss was the "end of the illusion"? what illusion? this was a 4-seed losing to a 5-seed in the Pac-10 tournament. this wasn't a final four caliber team losing in the first round of the real tournament.

Gregg Patton of the Press-Enterprise is not much better:

Well, that was quick.

Whatever buzz UCLA had generated for itself with its little four-game winning streak to end the regular season went swirling down the drain in the first game of the Pacific-10 Tournament Thursday.

I guess I just didn't realize that UCLA basketball had such a "buzz". I thought this was a team playing good ball recently but with shortcomings obvious to anyone who spends even the smallest amount of time following the team: three freshman starters with prominent roles, limited inside presence, and questionable bench strength. The flaws we showed yesterday were not new; heck, we saw most of them in the win against OSU last week. The loss was disappointing, but Plaschke's implication that this was the team's first embarassment demonstrates an astounding lack of ability to learn about the subject he purports to cover.

I suppose this is just part of being in the second largest media center in the country; every misstep is magnified, especially in a "tournament" setting. I also must point out that neither Plaschke nor Patton follow the bruins regularly (what a surprise), as those reporters that do follow the team - Pucin (2), Dohn (2), Kuwada, Weber, Thomas - recognized the loss for what it was: not some great shock, but something that will make us sweat out selection sunday more than we would like. Steve Dilbeck has a more informed column as well. Also available is coverage from the Daily Bruin and a second story from the Daily Breeze.

"John Wooden: Values, Victory and Peace of Mind", a 90 minute profile of Coach Wooden, will be airing on public television during the next couple of weeks. In southern california, KLCS (channel 58) will broadcast the program at 10pm on Monday, March 21. Oddly enough, if you search for upcoming episodes in Northern California using Google Video, it returns a showing at 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 15, on KRMA, which seems to be a Colorado-based station. Anyway, check your local listings (or have tivo do it for you) to see if it will be shown in your area. Yahoo also has searchable tv listings. In addition, the program can be purchased on DVD (see the very last recommendation on the right side of this page - clicking on the image will take you to its entry at Amazon).

This one, from Luke Winn at SI.com, has a detailed chronology beginning on the Thursday before selection sunday. It is an interesting read and very detailed. It even includes sample forms used to evaluate teams.

The US Basketball Writers' Association picked their first and second All-American teams, each consisting of five players. The Pac-10 representation was Stoudamire and Diogu on the second team.

not a good performance today. i haven't watched the first half yet, so I missed our poorest parts of our performance. but I'm going to take a wild guess and assume our defensive intensity in the first half was not nearly as high as it was in the second half. and we relied rather heavily on perimeter shots, which didn't work out too well (to say the least). both farmar and thompson had poor shooting days, which is almost impossible for us to overcome. one of the only bright spots was Shipp's performance: though still hampered by his ankle, he seemed to contribute plenty while he was out on the floor (5-9 shooting and 11 boards). if you want, check out the recap and box score.

anyway, now we get to sweat out Selection Sunday. i still think we go dancing, but certainly nothing is guaranteed. let's hope that all the conference tournaments are won by schools that are locks to make the tournament. the Pac-10 tournament would be a good start - Arizona or Washington (or even Stanford) winning helps us out. and we don't need teams like Southern Illinois losing in their conference tourney so a team like Creighton gets an automatic bid (which already happened, if you're not keeping track). also root for teams we've played (Michigan state, for one), as we could probably use every bit of help we can get. Notre Dame and Boston College did us no favors by losing early in the Big East tournament.

oh well, hopefully this is not the end of the season, as it would leave a horrible taste in my mouth. but pretty much all we can do at this point is wait.

Tracy Pierson of BRO provides a transcript of Ben Howland's press conference from yesterday. He addresses the matchup with Oregon State and gives comments regarding many of the Bruin players.

for those without access to Bruin local coverage here in Southern California, you might find this especially useful. Fox Sports has some of their past Bruin tv coverage online. Go to the FOXSports.com UCLA Bruins page and look for the video section on the left side of the screen. As of right now, the most recent clip is called "Howland at the Moon?" - click on it (or any other choice in that section) to go to the video player. Once at the video player, you can play the clip you've selected (obviously), or you can choose from a whole bunch of other sports news video clips. Here's the best part: there is a search box. if you enter ucla in the box, you should get a selection of clips for all of our games going back to the first $UC game. it doesn't look like you can do very advanced searching, but you can try other search terms as well (bruins, howland, etc). on the down side, each clip is preceded with a 15- or 30-second advertisement.

You most likely will need Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer. Also, I'm on a broadband connection, so I don't know how/if it works with dial-up.

Plenty of previews of the Pac-10 tourney are out there. See this official guide from the Pac-10 (pdf). also check out the official ucla release. Former Bruin Sean Farnham has his preview of the tourney, and he points out the less than favorable matchups that Washington has with Arizona St and Stanford has with Washington St.

Brian Dohn looks at the Oregon State game and catches us up with the Bruin program. He includes comments on Josh Shipp's ankle and Janou Rubin's plans to petition for another year of eligibility. The Daily Bruin also discusses plans to keep Josh Ship out of 5-on-5 drills for the rest of the year.

The Daily Breeze has a feature on Michael Fey and Ryan Hollins (the duo affectionately referred to as "Fellins" on some Bruin message boards).

Diane Pucin tells us that Howland likes the Pac-10 tourney.

Lastly, the Press-Enterprise has a feature on former Bruin assistant and present UW head coach Lorenzo Romar.

If you go to this page, you can link to audio of this week's conference calls with each of the Pac-10 coaches. The page has the order in which the coaches speak: Ben Howland happens to be last. If you have no need to see the schedule, and you want to go straight to the call, click here. You will need the Real Player to listen (the free player download is on the right side of the screen).

Highlights from Howland's call: he addressed how UCLA's team has changed since playing OSU the first time. he of course went out of his way to comment on how talented OSU is. he said that UCLA was very fortunate to beat OSU last thursday (with which I agree wholeheartedly). Howland also received the obligatory question about the Bruins' chances of making the ncaa tourney. he responded by bringing up the stat that 60 of the last 61 teams with 11 Pac-10 wins have made the tournament, but that he doesn't know for sure, so the team just has to worry about winning the next game. Howland also talked about how the freshmen are no longer freshmen, not only because they have played in 27 games, but also because they have played so many minutes. a good point indeed.

I haven't listened to his call, but Jim Saia also is on the list. Isn't that a little cruel? What did they ask him? Perhaps the conversation went something like this:
Q: So Jim, what are your thoughts on this week's Pac-10 tournament?
A: Well, i haven't thought about it too much because we're not in it.
Q: Oh yeah, sorry, SC's season is over, I forgot. Well, what about next year?
A: Actually I don't have to think about next year either because I am no longer the coach; my replacement was hired during the season.
Q: Okay, sooooo, ummm... well, errrr... read any good books lately?...

(comma optional)

Like a rubbernecker compelled to slow down and gawk at a wreck on the side of the road, I couldn't help but to click over to Dick Vitale's year-end awards. his national player of the year: J.J. Redick, in a shocker!

Please excuse me while I wash out the vomit collecting in the back of my mouth.

See the full story here. Congratulations to him as he has done a great job leading the team this year.

Also see the three rivals.com all-freshman teams, available at the official UCLA website. As possible evidence that lock-down defense is undervalued, Arron Afflalo received honorable mention, behind the likes of Malik Hairston who made the third team. Nevertheless, Afflalo has had a tremendous season, and we would be lost without his defense and all-around game. congrats to him as well.

UCLA. very odd indeed, but i won't complain. Pomeroy is a numbers guy who re-creates the RPI rankings at his site. In today's post, he also picks winners of the other conference tourneys and the entire NCAA tourney field.

in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on SoCal hoops, including the Big West and Pac-10 tourney, plus some commentary on the previously mentioned high school regional playoffs. He also mentions a high school all-star game scheduled for 5pm on March 26 at El Camino College in Torrance that will include Darren Collison and Mike Roll, the two southern california recruits that will be joining the bruins next year.

with UCLA's SoCal commitments on teams still alive for the state championships, you might want to follow the remainder of the playoffs. Games are taking place at high school sites tonight and thursday night, with southern california regional finals on Saturday at the Sports Arena. State championships are the following Saturday (3/19) at ARCO Arena in Sucremento. See a pdf with the entire bracket here, which includes the NoCal games.

from Jay Bilas at ESPN.com. If you are wondering what factors are considered by the committee, here they are:

a team's record against Division I competition, a team's RPI (overall, conference, and non-conference), conference records, road records, record in the last 10 games, records against teams sorted by the RPI, head-to-head results, common opponents results, good wins, bad losses, good losses, bad wins, the quality of competition throughout the year, and injuries, scheduling issues and other circumstances that could have affected the results on the floor.

Makes a lot of sense. But then Bilas adds a whole separate section on why the RPI is "RIP" in the selection process, meaning that it really is not used by the committee. What? Looking at the factors above, I see team's RPI (overall, conference, and non-conference) as one factor, and records against teams sorted by the RPI as another. So i'm not sure exactly what he's talking about. Regardless, even if the committee doesn't use the term "RPI" in its discussions, it is a bit misleading to say that the RPI is not considered. it's clear that the committee is looking at many of the same factors that the RPI attempts to capture like a team's record (including road record) and the quality of competition throughout the year (see the last paragraph of this post for a quick description of the RPI). While the committee has the luxury of looking at other factors individually (good and bad wins and losses, common opponents), the RPI does this by indexing all of a team's wins, losses, and opponents. Obviously, simply looking at a team's RPI ranking is not as effective as looking at every single one of its games and opponents, but when you're quickly trying to compare bubble teams, especially in a 30-second tv segment, having one number versus a detailed breakdown is much more appropriate.

in any event, i bring all this up because the RPI has been and probably will continue to be attacked. this year in particular, RPI rankings are not matching up very well with how many teams are perceived, which is angering quite a few of the talking heads. I'm not only referring to the Pac-10's high RPI ranking that is being assailed, but also the high rankings of many mid-major teams. it will be interesting to see how some of the high RPI mid-major schools without automatic bids get treated, especially if they are not media darlings. not that the RPI is perfect (far from it), but it is objective, and its rankings aren't succeptible to preconceived notions regarding a particular team. we all know that the same cannot be said about most human analysis.

for reference, the RPI measures winning percentage, opponents' winning percentage, and opponents' opponents' winning percentage, with a new weighting in place this year that gives extra credit for road victories. You can check Ken Pomeroy's discussion for the exact figures used.

UCLA will play around 2:50pm on Thursday. If we win, we will play around 6:15pm on Friday. If we win that game, we will play at 3:10pm on Saturday. The first two rounds will be televised on FSN, while the final will be on CBS.

Click here for the whole bracket (pdf).

Diogu named Player of the Year, Farmar is Freshman of the Year, Romar is Coach of the Year. Dijon Thompson made all-conference, and Afflalo made all-freshman. Farmar also received honorable mention for all-conference, and Shipp received honorable mention for all-freshman. no real surprises among the awards that I could see.

Romar becomes the second former Jim Harrick assistant to win Pac-10 Coach of the Year - i believe we all know who the first was :(.

In addition to the stories i mention in a previous post, there is this very good wrap-up from BRO. It also has a section on some players who have yet to commit.

in honor of what will most likely be his last game at Staples tonight. Includes a few old photos, from high school to college to the NBA. Here's a sample:

as mentioned earlier, four prep stars who played in southern section championship games at the pond yesterday have committed to UCLA. how did they do? their teams went 4-0. impressive to say the least. here are some wraps on each player's game:

Darren Collison (senior)
Mike Roll (senior)
James Keefe (junior)
Taylor King (sophomore)

Plus one article on all four players: Future Bruins shine now

on whether the Bruins have secured a spot in the tourney: one right, one wrong (let's hope).

not our sharpest game by any means, but with the win, we reached the 11-win mark in the conference and 18 wins overall, so i believe our dance card is punched. as far as the game itself goes, i thought we were a little sloppy, especially with our passing, but i think it was mainly because we knew it wouldn't matter (I know, no excuse). our defense was very good, as it has been in most of our recent games. we outrebounded oregon 42-22. at no point in the game did i think we were in danger of losing, regardless of how we looked or how small our lead got (it got as low as 8 down the stretch).

after thursday's game, I suggested that it might be wise for Shipp to sit out due to his injured ankle. what a great idea! not only did he play, he tied a career-high with 20 points. as usual, he was constantly around the ball, being active, and pretty much just "filling in the gaps" - doing whatever was needed to help us win.

another key contributor tonight was Mike Fey. He actually was very assertive once he got the ball, leading to some very positive results. on one memorable play, he put down his shoulder and cleared out a defender on his way to the hoop (i thought he was gonna get called for a charge). he ended up with 15 points (6-7 from the field, 3-3 from the stripe) and 11 rebounds (5 offensive). a very solid game indeed.

one observation about Howland: it is clear that he does not like to empty the bench unless he is ABSOLUTELY certain the game is out of reach. even with Josiah Johnson playing his final game at Pauley, Howland left him on the bench until about 20 seconds were left, even though there were several clock stoppages in the last few minutes with the Bruins up by 12. when johnson did get in the game, in a display of class, he didn't try to shoot or anything, he just let the clock run out. his dad, on the telecast, joked that he (Marques) would have gotten two shots off in that time.

anyway, we now have matched our season long for a winning streak (4 games) - not a bad time to be playing good ball. hopefully we will keep it up next week. not to ignore the chance of losing in the first round, but if we can pull off an upset against arizona in the second round, maybe our ncaa seeding gets bumped up a few spots.

Some recaps:
Box Score
Official UCLA Recap
Pucin
Plaschke
Dohn
Weber

on sportscenter last night, Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas were asked to give a possible candidate for the national championship besides the small group of teams that most people are considering. Digger's choice? Arizona. I almost fainted in disbelief.

but then that nimrod Bilas brought me back to reality. perhaps not understanding the instructions, he chose Illinois. maybe he actually believes that anyone besides wake, unc, and duke qualifies as a dark-horse. this just in: the #1 ranked, only undefeated team in the country should be considered as a potential winner of the national championship - thanks, Jay. maybe tomorrow you can do a segment on whether the sky is blue.

just learned yesterday that Kobe Bryant's favorite reporter, Jim Gray, was awarded his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame. So I guess it's official: whatever small amount of luster this "honor" had left is now gone. i mean, who's next? Nicole Richie? maybe Jared from the Subway commercials?

perhaps i have a misunderstanding of the word "fame".

I hope we send our seniors out with a bang. A win sews up an ncaa bid, which obviously is great for the team, but should be especially rewarding for Dijon Thompson. if anyone deserves a little something special at the end of this year, it's him. The development he has shown has been tremendous. Diane Pucin has a feature on Thompson today.

also, today should be the last time we see #54 worn by a Bruin player in Pauley, as Marques Johnson's old number will be officially retired after Josiah's last game. Congrats to Marques and his family.

If you're wondering, our starting lineup today will be johnson in the middle with thompson, morrison, afflalo, and farmar.

Some more previews of today's game:
BruinReportOnline.com: Regular Season Finale Against Ducks
Eleven Bruins' magic number
A lost Taylor finds his form (The Oregonian)

i addressed this in my review of the notre dame game, but it needs to be stated again, because i keep seeing it, even when people are trying to support UCLA's claim to a tourney bid: UCLA's vs. top 50 RPI record is a bit misleading. it has been shown as 1-7 or 2-7, followed by comments of how unimpressive that record is (implying that we're not as good as others when facing top competition). however, 5 of these games have been against the RPI top TEN, so our top 50 competition probably is a lot tougher than that faced by most other teams.

a really good illustration of how silly this stat can be popped up today: according to Ken Pomeroy's numbers, Stanford is now #51 in the rpi. So while one of our past opponents who beat us twice is being shown to be weaker than before, it actually HELPS our vs. top 50 record (bringing it to 1-5 instead of 1-7 according to his numbers).

the vs top 50 stat might give a vague picture of how a team has fared against top competition, but it is very crude and can be deceiving. to get a better picture, one should look at each individual opponent a team has faced, which, incidentally, is what the RPI does (not that the rpi is perfect either).

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch story addresses how ESPN has allowed people all over the country to watch games from different parts of the country on pretty much a nightly basis. And this has led to the simultaneous explosion in popularity of college basketball and ESPN, culminating (at least to this point) in the launch of yet another ESPN network, ESPNU, which debuts tonight.

so now if one wants to follow the national college hoops scene on a nightly basis, one must tune into espn. of course, there is a problem for us Pac-10 folks: none of our conference games are on espn. this means nobody in other parts of the country sees our games, but a bigger problem is that it means a lack of attention and respect from espn's analysts. there is no incentive for espn to promote the Pac-10 because they don't benefit from increased viewership of our games.

this is why i hope Howland realizes how important it is to have big non-conference games on our schedule. we need to have these games because our lack of presence on ESPN denies us the national exposure that other conferences get just by playing their regular conference schedule. When Howland was at Pitt, he would have a national audience on a weeknight if they were playing say, UCONN. So there's no need for him to travel cross-country for a big non-conference matchup late in the season. But at UCLA, he doesn't have this luxury. He needs to put his team on display against tough non-conference opponents to hopefully earn the respect of analysts, recruits, and fans. This actually is one thing UCLA did right under Steve Lavin, as we always had plenty of widely televised, marquee matchups while he was coach.

by the way, if you're wondering why we have no conference games on espn, my understanding (which is based on information from several years ago), is that espn would want our games to be on after the 11pm ET sportscenter, which means they would start at 9pm on the west coast. obviously, the pac-10 wants no part of starting games this late.

i know that from a basketball perspective, what actually matters most how good we play as a team, and not how we are perceived. but with recruiting being as big a deal as it is, it helps to do as much as we reasonably can to keep bilas and company from ignoring and/or insulting our program and our conference. the firekarldorrell blog also addresses this in its call for increased media communications from the athletic department.

Stanford lost last night, so if they lose and we win tomorrow, we will get 3rd place in the conference. they host washington, so they will have their hands full. while a 3rd place conference finish is really not that big a deal, this might be a must-win game for stanford to keep its tourney hopes alive (in case you care). so all those knuckleheads screaming that the Pac-10 only deserves 3 bids might end up being right.

and SC lost to oregon, so the trojans will not be making the trip up figueroa to play in the Pac-10 tourney. so sad.

by no means our best effort, in fact probably one of our worst in recent weeks. basically, we came out looking like someone spiked our pre-game gatorade with nyquil, as we were half a step slow, out of sync, and just plain sluggish. it even looked like we were tired on our jump shots; very peculiar indeed. luckily, one of our players came to play: Jordan Farmar. He finished with 23 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds, but his leadership and clutch plays were even better than his statistics. an example: with about 13 minutes left in the second half, OSU scores to take a 5 point lead (i'm pretty sure this is their largest lead of the night). Farmar comes down the floor, goes around a high pick and buries a 21-footer to bring us within two. Then OSU comes down the floor and takes a shot, misses, and farmar boxes out and draws an over-the-back foul on a bigger OSU player (maybe Jeffers, i don't remember). he then goes to the line and hits both free throws: in just a few seconds, he nearly single-handedly takes us from our biggest deficit to a tie game. another sign of how much we needed him: the team minus farmar shot 15-49 from the field (yikes!!). unfortunately, farmar did get another technical, though this time OSU had the ball so we didn't lose possession like in the Cal game (see, he's even improving in this area!).

afflalo had a solid game, though like the rest of the bruins, he did not shoot well. he tied a career high with 9 boards, meaning our starting freshman backcourt ended up with 16 of the team's 33 rebounds. this ability and willingness to rebound by our guards is another reason why we can get away with doubling in the post - even if our big men are left scrambling, we have guards that can box out and get the ball.

speaking of our double-team-in-the-post defense, it was not nearly as effective against OSU, as it looked like they were ready for it. Also, their main post presence, David Lucas, is very skilled with the ball and gets his shot off very quickly from pretty much anywhere within 12 feet of the rim. he was difficult to double, and even when we forced him to pass, OSU has so many perimeter shooters that one of them usually got an open look. it also didn't help that thompson picked up two fouls in the 1st half, making him less agressive on d. despite this, i believe that in a ncaa tourney situation, the doubling strategy will be an effective weapon.

thompson was definitely one of the players who looked sluggish. he just seemed out of rhythm. he ended up 5-15 from the field, meaning he's 9-30 in the last two games. by the end, however, he seemed to at least be hitting is free throws again, as i believe he hit 5 of his last 6. he finished 7 for 10 from the line.

josh shipp was hurting last night. badly. he looked worse than against notre dame, and in the final minutes, he was on the bench and morrison was on the floor. it will be interesting to see if howland keeps him out of any games. obviously shipp is a big part of our team, but it would be nice to have him healthy before the tourney. morrison will most likely get the start tomorrow anyway (it's senior day), so maybe shipp sits the game out? i guess it all depends on how shipp feels, but he just looked very uncomfortable last night.

also of interest, Howland went to Hollins as the center du jour (well at least during crunch time). while in the game, fey somehow managed to shoot 1 for 6 from the field, although, as in recent games, his d was okay. as for his o, i'm not sure how a guy listed at 7-0 and 270 pounds catches the ball on the block, faces single coverage, but gets forced FURTHER from the basket, and then shoots with his momentum going away from the hoop. fey did it on at least two occasions last night. in any event, hollins was very active, as he had 9 points and 6 boards in 20 minutes - he had a couple of key offensive rebounds and putbacks.

in general, though our performance was unspectacular, it is a good sign that we can pull out a W even when thompson does not have his A game AND we shoot miserably, especially from 3-pt land (5-23). we should be very happy as the bruins were fortunate to come out with this win. the only ones luckier (and happier) should be those who were playing "the game within the game" and had UCLA -7 (we didn't lead by eight until the last points of the game were scored).

Local roundup (plus one from Corvallis):
Box Score
M. hoops: Farmar does it all in win over OSU
Creating a shot: Farmar's effort lifts UCLA's NCAA hopes
Bruin Victory Is Bid Business
Bruins continue automatic drive
Farmar to the rescue
Late UCLA run edges Oregon State
UCLA Edges Out Oregon State, 69-61
Beavers come up cold late

again with a Seattle influence. Dijon Thompson is considered an obvious pick for one of ten all-conference spots, and Jordan Farmar is given the nod once more for freshman of the year. Arron Afflalo (but not Josh Shipp) is on the all-freshman team.

If you haven't been following the southern california prep scene, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that all four of UCLA's southern california commitments will be playing in southern section championship games. Two, Mike Roll and Darren Collison, are part of next year's class, while the other two, James Keefe and Taylor King, have made only verbal commitments as they are a junior and sophomore, respectively. Frank Burlison has a nice roundup on these four and others worth watching on Saturday.

How did Roll and Collison (the two who will be at UCLA next year) do in their respective semifinal games? Roll had 34 points, while Collison scored 26 (and was praised by his coach for his defense).

To risk stating the obvious, the fact that these guys have tremendous talent AND are all on winning teams is a very good sign.

UCLA's women's gymnastics team, winners of four of the last five national championships, has some very passionate cheerleaders, according to the Daily Bruin. Who are these masked men? Members of the football team. Cheerleading attire? Perhaps "old Halloween costumes and their little sisters' work clothes." Read the article for more (there's even a picture).

Tonight's game is the classic potential let-down game after such a celebrated win on Sunday. Hopefully, we will show some maturity and come out focused.

Regarding injuries, Shipp hasn't practiced but is expected to play (of course). Mata also should be available.

Some local articles:
OSU Comes to Pauley (Scout.com)
M. basketball: Oregon schools present last hurdle
Happy New Year
UCLA finds Oregon State blocking path to tournament
Earlier losses serve as motivating force
Winning beats worrying for UCLA

Perspective from the other side:
Oregon State Daily Barometer Online - Men's hoops hits the road with high postseason hopes
Corvallis Gazette-Times: Beavers hungry for a crucial road victory
The Oregonian: Beavers still hope to escape skid road

Common themes: avenging our earlier loss to them and staying focused on the game instead of the ncaa tourney.
Young Bruins bearing down on NCAA berth
Freshmen remember opener
M. basketball: Men’s basketball stays focused
Bruins Focused on the Present

if you're planning to watch the bruins in the Pac-10 tourney, the 4-5 game is slated to start at 2:30 pm on March 10 at Staples. So start thinking about excuses to get out of work/class, and/or set your tivo. If somehow Stanford falters and we end up with the 3-seed, we would play at 8:30 pm instead.

if you're interested in watching U$C in the tourney, you might need to contact the Pac-10 and convince them to set up a special ninth place game. or perhaps you can somehow organize your own "city championship" and have $C play the winner of the March 5 Fairfax-Weschester game. :)