it's all about the w

a friend called me after ucla beat xavier on saturday and said that other than kevin love and darren collison, no one on ucla's team has really impressed him.

it is true that ucla has not been as dominant as say, north carolina. but, one does not need to dominate teams to win the national championship. a team need only win by at least 1 point. that's it.

i think that the bruins are peaking at the right time with the trouncing of xavier in the elite eight.

but back to my unimpressed friend. don't hate just because your team *ahem* osu *ahem* did not make it to the tournament.

of all 4 final four teams, only ucla has been there twice before. north carolina hasn't been there since it won the national championship in 2005. memphis hasn't been there in many many many years. same with kansas.

in contrast, ucla returns collison, mbah a moute, aboya and mata from the team that went to the national championship game 2 years ago. ucla also returns westbrook and shipp who went to the final four a year ago. that's 6 guys on an 8-team rotation who have been "there" at least once before.

ucla is a strong defensive team that could pull out all the stops. ucla, if down, also has a knack for returning from a huge deficit (think gonzaga 2 years ago) and winning tight games (think games against memphis 2 years ago and against kansas a year ago).

but more importantly, ucla has love. kevin love, that is. yep, it's a love fest.

to my dear friend, ucla isn't out there to impress. ucla is out there to bring home banner #12.

...and i don't care whether the win is sexy, ugly or sexy ugly.

GO BRUINS!

the eve before the madness

always a good time to reflect on madness past before my next 3 weeks is consumed with more madness.

this from the great kareem abdul jabbar (the greatest college basketball player of all time, and a bruin):

But there was widespread interest in this game. It was played in front of 50,000 fans in the Astrodome and was a ratings smash. Hayes had an incredible game and led his team to a 71-69 victory. It was dramatic proof of the nationwide interest in college basketball. From that day forward, more and more broadcasters saw college basketball as a game worth televising. It wasn't too long before the NCAA expanded the field to 32 teams and, eventually, 64.

I took a Sports Illustrated cover showing Elvin shooting a jump shot in the Astrodome game and hung it in my locker. It provided a daily incentive for me to be at my best the next time that we met. Coach Wooden told us that we might get another shot at Houston, especially if we did what we needed to do in closing out our season. I felt we lost that game only because an eye injury had me seeing double and had kept me from practicing with the team for over a week. It turned out to be the only game of my UCLA varsity career where I shot less than 50% from the field.

Still, the media people who had liked UCLA as No. 1 quickly jumped off that bandwagon and were touting Houston as the team to beat. Elvin was eventually voted player of the year. My teammates and I were determined to change people's opinions if we got a second chance to play Houston.

That chance came in the 1968 semifinals at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, when we probably played our most effective game while I was on the team. We ran Houston off the court, winning by 32 points and silencing all of our critics. We went on to defeat North Carolina for the championship -- the second of what would become seven in a row.

well, as there is a chance that UCLA will meet UNC during the championship game on the first monday of april, i am hoping it will be deja vu.

GO BRUINS!

it's time to dance

as expected, UCLA is the #1 seed (#3 overall) in the west region of the ncaa tournament.

here are my tournament predictions:

12-5 upset: in the east region, george mason (12) beats notre dame (5); in the midwest region, villanova (12) beats clemson (5)
cinderella: villanova. i have them falling in the sweet 16.
first #1 seed to fall: memphis (south region)
final four: unc, kansas, texas and UCLA
championship game: unc and UCLA
champion: UCLA

let the madness begin...

GO BRUINS!!!

i am so glad...

i am so glad that ucla routed cal 22 points on thursday to silence all the critics about how cal allegedly got jobbed a game from a week ago.

i am so glad that ucla beat u$c on friday. and i am happy to finally see oj mayo play in person. overrated. i know a lot people say he will probably be a lottery pick.... but, that guy wants to be "da man" and i don't think that is good for the team. kevin love, on the other hand, is very team oriented, which is why ucla has been so successful.

i am so glad that ucla beat stanford today to win the pac-10 championship and silence all the critics about how the trees allegedly got jobbed a game from a week ago.

pac-10 champs, baby!!!!

selection sunday, bring it on. it best be a #1 seed out west.

below was video i took during the UCLA v. u$c seminfinal game of the pac-10 tournament at staples center:

all about love... and then some

i told you so. kevin love was named pac-10 POY and FOY today. woohoo!

what is even better is that russell westbrook was also named defensive player of the year. sweet!

congrats! GO BRUINS!

what this all means is that love (and potentially darren collison and westbrook) will be gone next year.

welcome jrue holiday, drew gordon, jerime anderson and malcolm lee ... potential future pac-10 POY's and FOY's.

to all the bruin haters

the cal game

people have been hating on josh shipp's unbelievable shot with 1.5 seconds left, which can be seen here. particularly, haters claim that NCAA rule 7, section 1, article 3 makes it an illegal shot because "the ball shall be out of bounds when it passes over the backboard from any direction."

ok, first, bill mccabe (the pac-10 supervisor of the refs) said it was a close call as it was too quick and it passed the corner.

"It comes right over the corner," McCabe said. "After the game, the official said it was too close to call."

second, rule 7 is entitled, "out of bounds and the throw in." there is a separate rule (rule 5) entitled, "scoring and timing regulations." thus, based on where the over the backboard rule falls, it only applies during the throw in and not during scoring.

so stop your whining.

i will admit though that while i am a homer, i find it interesting that there was no technical called when the bench stormed the court with .1 (which was later reset to .7) second left in the game. i think it interesting too that there was no call for shipp punching the ball out of bounds right before that. but then again, the home team usually gets calls its way.

either way, cal should have never allowed ucla to erase its lead.


the furd game

people have also been hating on the foul called against lawrence hill when he blocked darren collison's shot in the last few seconds of the stanford game on thursday.

people, the foul was not when hill blocked the ball -- yep, i saw the clip, which can be seen here, since my last entry. the block was clean. the foul, however, was for contact with the body.

also, that mccabe guy admits, that while he thought it should not have been called because of the close game, that it was still a foul. to be exact, he said: "There was body contact, but it's not a strong call, not a game-appropriate call. It's not an incorrect call and that doesn't make it wrong. But I want solid calls." (Emphasis added.)

as an aside, per the la times:

Earlier this year, McCabe had defended game officials for not calling an intentional foul on Washington's Tim Morris on an inbounds play where Morris threw a pass directly into the face of UCLA forward Alfred Aboya.

hmmmm....

finally, these two gems from collison and hill per the la times:

It was a hard-earned win and Collison was honest about it. The foul call on Lawrence Hill at the end of regulation? "I was fortunate to get a foul on that call," Collison said. "I heard it was a makeup."

Three of Collison's teammates -- Love, Mbah a Moute and Westbrook -- were telling Collison "shhh." But Hill didn't complain. "He drew contact when he went to the basket," Hill said. "It was still on him to make the free throws." (Emphasis added.)

so yes, bruins deserved both wins.

GO BRUINS!

pac-10 champs, baby!

i won't lie.

it was ugly for about 38 minutes.

i went through depression, anxiety, anger (yes, that last shot during regulation appeared to be a clean block; but, the trees got some gimme's that were clear fouls as well... so, don't give me the "refs-jobbed-stanford" line at all! please.) and finally, joy.

yep, pac-10 champs, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaby!!!!

if the bruins don't get the #1 seed in the west region for the big dance, then there is no justice in this world.

coach wooden: i wish you a speedy recovery.