looking forward.... to saturday and basketball

i know ucla won yesterday against oregon state. but it was ugly. the score might state otherwise (40-14) but the first 3 quarters were painful to watch.

i am looking forward to the notre dame game this saturday...

but more importantly, i am looking forward to college bball to begin. so this article re kevin love makes me laugh. i just have to remember that he is, after all, just a kid and most likely hormone crazy:

Asked why he chose to attend UCLA in 25 words or less, Love lists his teammates' names, along with "campus, academics, atmosphere, winning, tradition and California girls." Asked if he's more tired of answering questions about Bill Walton '74 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '69 or — talk about California Girls — the Beach Boys (singer Mike Love is Kevin's uncle), he admits it's Kareem and Bill. "How can you respond when they compare you to the two best college basketball players ever?"

The comparisons continue, but Love seems ready. "My role will be different than [in high school]," he says. "Now I get to play with great scorers like Josh [Shipp] and Darren [Collison] and rebounders like Luc [Mbah a Moute] and Lorenzo [Mata]. We will look out for each other. My goal is to win the NCAA championship."

Well, that's one of his goals. His final e-mail concludes, old-school style: "I am also looking forward to getting to know the many girls on the UCLA campus. Girls, keep me in mind, please."

nostalgia for the czech republic

i want to go abroad now.

but, because i am not abroad, i can only fondly remember trips of the past and my then-ramblings:

within minutes of arrival (with no sleep on that trans-atlantic flight) with no clue what i am looking at and just excited to be there!



first night at prague (still no sleep) and doing pub walk stuff



zizkov tv tower ramblings



ramblings just hours before leaving prague, with more info on what i am looking at.

man, i want to travel badly!

i heart la

yes, i am a homer but here is one reason why i enjoy living in this melting pot that is lala land: the people. in this case, this funny guy lets it all out on olvera street.

uh oh

FOOTBALL



















pre-game

saw a beautiful full rainbow on the 10 on the way to the rose bowl.


the game

went to the rose bowl to watch the ucla v. washington game. it was a w. thank god -- especially after last week's debacle.

we lost patrick cowan to an injury -- saw him on cruthces. we have a third string quarterback (bethel-thompson) most likely starting next week. a walk on. it can't be good. although i'd like to be pleasantly surprised and eat my own words.

again, defense scored a touchdown off an interception. there was a touchdown off a punt return. otherwise, our offense sucks! ...or more appropriately, our play making sucks! so frustrating to know that we always run the ball down the middle. ugh!

doesn't dorrell know that everybody else knows what he's gonna do? and just going back to basics: what about all those false starts (4 of them, i think)??? how many returning starters are there? how many seasons has dorrell been at ucla???? ugh!

a friend said that ben olson is having difficulty learning the west coast offense. he said it took drew olson 3 seasons to get it down before getting good at it.

meanwhile, ben olson has been injured last season and appears to be injured again this season; thus, can't possible be comfortable with dorrells' offense. i said, why can't dorrell coach and make plays that enhances the strength of the players he's got? why does he have to force the west coast offense on them?

i see it like this. coach ben howland works with what he's got -- coach howland's (initial) recruits may not be superstars but we've gotten back to the big dance in his second season, the national championship game in his third season and back to the final four in his fourth season. we've gotten nowhere with dorrell in his first 4 seasons. and i think coach howland had to climb out of a bigger hole from what lavin left than what dorrell had to get out of from what toledo left.


out the tunnel. GO BRUINS!!!



we are the mighty bruins!

fight song. U-C-L-A, UCLA fight, fight, fight!

the hoochie dance has gotten tamer.

post-game

went to roscoe's chicken and waffles after.

saw neyo.


BASKETBALL

let me just say this now. if kevin love makes a sweet outlet pass (or any other pass) to darren collison, that should be referred to as a "love line" -- i think "love connection" sounds too cheesy. you heard it hear first!!! do i have a proprietary interest in that? you betcha!

ucla football and legal ramblings part quatre

ucla football

ucla fell out of the ap rankings today because of that horrid "no touchdown" loss to utah. utah!?!?! the same utah that was 0-2 before the game against ucla!!!!

olson has not delivered. clearly. but, i think a lot of this has to do with coaching. ucla barely won against byu. and this loss exposed the joke that dorell has been.

i am almost dreading going to the ucla-washington game this saturday!

surely, ad dan guerrero knows what to do next..... and it starts with getting an exploratory committee to get a new coach in!

more on chemerinsky

the word today is that chancellor drake rescinded the rescission of chemerinsky's contract and he will now get to be the first dean of the uci law school. over the weekend, there have been reports that some conservatives were on drake's ear prior to the rescision.

i almost feel that chemerinsky should just say "thanks, but no thanks." i am sure that chemerinsky will do a fabulous job as dean and get funding, hire excellent faculty, etc, etc. but there have just been too much bad karma already. and, if in the .0000000000000001% that he fails, the conservatives will just have ammo to say "i told you so." and i hate that.

legal ramblings part trois

professor chemerinsky wrote an op ed piece about the rescission of his dean-ship with the about-to-be-established uci law school. was this a surprise? of course not. we all know he is outspoken.

but, it appears that even if the rescission is rescinded (through petition efforts), he will stay at duke. darn.

... if i were chancellor at ucla or dean of ucla law, i'd offer you (and professor fisk) a position.

legal ramblings part deux

the whole chemerinsky affair has been much discussed in the legal profession and in uci circles today. so, uci chancellor drake issued this statement today. interestingly, drake says

The decision was mine and mine alone. It was not based on donor pressure or political pressure; it was based on a culmination of discussions – over a period of time – that convinced me we could not effectively partner to build a world-class law school at UC Irvine.

well, let us look at the timeline. drake offered chemerinsky a job on august 16, 2007. chemerinsky supposedly signed a contract on sept. 4, 2007 and drake rescinded the contract on sept. 11, 2007.

what possibly could have happened between august 16 and september 11 that convinced drake that chemerinsky was not the person for the job? drake alludes in the la times article that he did not want chemerinsky to write op ed pieces because chemerinsky should "focus on things like legal education in this new role." but the op ed piece that apparently irked drake was published on august 16, 2007 -- the same day drake made the job offer to chemerinsky and well before chemerinsky signed the sept. 4 contract.

if drake was so unhappy about the existence of the op ed piece, he should not have made the offer when the op ed piece was published. if drake did not know about the op ed piece until after he made the offer, drake should not have negotiated terms of the contract or given the contract to chemerinsky (i assume that negotiations occurred between august 16 and september 4 -- 19 days!!!). instead, drake should have immediately rescinded the offer before there was any acceptance.

drake then makes this excuse:

In fact, there are individuals here with political views far more liberal than Professor Chemerinsky’s who conduct research, teach and serve in senior administrative positions.

still sounds bad...

legal ramblings

so i read that professor erwin chemerinsky was axed days after signing a contract to be the dean of the university of california irvine's brand new law school. what a shame.

i think that professor chemerinsky has a brilliant legal mind and to have him as a first dean would have brought national prominence to a brand new law school. he is a nationally known constitutional scholar and to axe him because he was perceived as "too liberal" is just outrageous!

perhaps professor chemerinsky should go to ucla. he and professor catherine fisk (his wife) could teach at ucla. it would be a nice point-counterpoint between professors chemerinsky (the supposed liberal) and eugene volokh (the supposed conservative).

speaking of professor volokh, his blog shows that a couple of his bloggers are just as outraged at the canning of professor chemerinsky.

professor volokh, states that

It is generally not proper, for instance, to refuse to appoint a professor because he's too controversial; but it may well be proper to avoid deans who are lightning rods for criticism, or likely to run into trouble with the Legislature or with others.

The example I give is Dean Ken Starr of Pepperdine. If he wanted to move to UCLA, I'd be delighted -- but, if the faculty, the administration, or the Regents opposed such an appointment on the grounds that he'd be too controversial, and the controversy would get in the way of his effectiveness, I would not condemn their position as a breach of academic freedom, or of the First Amendment.

another professor at ucla law, professor bainbridge, is outraged by uci's action.

uci, i think, majorly screwed this one up.

so professor chemerinsky (and professor fisk), if you are reading this, forget uci (and duke).... move back to southern california and please go to ucla!!!!

ucla, please extend an offer to professor chemerinsky -- you already had him as a visiting professor in the 90s -- why not offer him a tenured position? it'd be good to balance his views with those of professors volokh and bainbridge!

i have that wanderlust

i just had dinner with an acquaintance who now lives in london and is back home to visit family and friends. while living abroad, he gets to travel to portugal, spain, france, hungary and all other parts of europe -- just because it is so close. i am so jealous. as much as i love cali, i am not that close to the carribean or europe where i can just jet off for a weekend jaunt. i am so wanting to go to croatia, slovenia, slovakia, romania, hungary, and on and on and on.....

so much to see and do.... so little time... so true.

"d!%^ in a box"

i think it is quite funny that this won an emmy. WARNING: contains explicit lyrics and a lot of sexual content (posted by NBC on youtube).

offense needs a lot of work

went to the rose bowl today to watch ucla beat byu 27-17.

it is a w. but 7 of ucla's 27 points was off a defense interception. plenty of times, bruin defense held off a byu charge.

but, offense, c'mon! this was supposed to be olson's "in your face" game against his old alma mater. but, no. offense was, at times, painful to watch. block! what a concept.

they better play better at the end of the season!!!

...and beat $c december 1, 2007.