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!
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