march madness 2009: heart attack-ville

take that, obama!

he may be the most powerful man in the free world, but he knows jack when it comes to basketball.

go bruins!

march madness 2009: my picks

it pains me that ucla is not gonna make the final four, but it is what it is. if they do, great. if they don't.... well...

so here are my picks:

ucla: we're number ... 2?

so ucla beat oregon. but, washington beat wazzu.

which meant ucla finished the regular season at number 2. strange. the dark days of the lavin era feels so long ago that i can't seem to fathom supporting a schizophrenic-but-will-eventually-flame-out team anymore. i'm not saying that this team is like that. not at all. i 'm just saying that it's weird not being the top dog in the pac this year. ah well. there's still the pac-10 tournament and the ncaa tournament to look forward to.

good luck aboya!

this story about alfred aboya's family finally seeing him play "live" for the first time ever on senior day makes me very happy.

that being said, ncaa title hope is slim but still possible. ya never know.

back at pauley: ucla v. arizona

it has been awhile since the last time i was at pauley. ever since i decided to give up my tickets (around the same time bruin basketball got better... and the tickets got more expensive), i have been cherishing the rare moments i set foot at pauley.

so, i am pleased to say that my first time back in a year has been enjoyable. first off, coach john wooden is still around. he is being wheeled in a wheelchair these days but hey, he is 98 or so. pretty darned good, if you ask me. he still gives me the goosebumps everytime i see him sitting behind the bruin bench. what an awesome man.



second, ucla won 80-63. i was pleased that nikola dragovic has actually been productive this year (and even the leading scorer this game) as i had high hopes for him when he first came to the states from serbia about 3 years ago... and turned out to be a dud. not so much anymore.

third, i was pleased to see alfred aboya again. he has improved much in his free throw shooting as seen in the video below. it used to be that every time he went to the charity stripe, i had to cringe. it was almost an automatic turnover. but, he is much improved and am happy for him. plus, he has been very good about not fouling too much. this will probably be the last time i will see him in a bruin uniform as this is his last year (he is currently a grad student at ucla -- he graduated college in 3 years!). hopefully, i will see him soon as the president of cameroon, as he has dreamed to become.



fourth, i was pleased to see crazy alumni guy again. this guy cracks me up. wherever you may be sitting at pauley -- whether on the floor or in the nosebleeds, you can hear this guy screaming and hollering at the other team when they are attempting to make free throws. his shrill voice and spastic moves is classic. gotta love him.



last but not the least, i enjoyed watching the fab five freshmen - jrue holiday, drew gordon, malcolm lee, jerime anderson and j'mison morgan. ok, granted, they were not all in good playing form. e.g., morgan needs to get fitter to go up and down the court but he has lots of potential. otherwise, holiday rocked. and if memory serves, gordon made a couple of awesome blocks towards the end of the game.

overall, i still love my bruins. while they are not top ranked in the country, it is all good. i think they will make a deep run in the tournament.

just another friday night

on friday night, i mourned the loss of ucla to michigan (michigan!!!) from the night before. yep, it's basketball season and i had such high hopes. ucla has got to have its best incoming freshmen in the howland era although i must admit that there are no real big men on this squad. with kevin love playing in the nba, the 5 is tasked to alfred aboya.... whom i absolutely think is a hustler and a team player. and this article about aboya just made me want to cry.

but more importantly, even with the highly touted freshmen and the senior leadership of darren collison and josh shipp, ucla's seeming inablity to break a zone is puzzling.

so what to do on a friday night.... i inwardly pondered on the future of bruin basketball as i waited for my friends to show up at this newish sushi/izakaya joint (go for the izakaya not the sushi) called bimi. then, i went to see that james bond flick, "quantum of solace" (crap!).

we started off with a white fish carpaccio in hot olive oil. let me just say that this dish was delish. i liked the raw fish with the flavors of the olive oil. simple. yummy.



similarly, this corn tempura was excellent. not corn on the cob tempura. just ears of the corn in tempura batter and deep fried. the corn was sweet and but had that crunch of the tempura.



the crab dynamite roll was bland and a waste of calories.



the crunchy rice with spicy tuna was very good.



the rainbow roll did not stand out. let me just point out now that i also had the sweet shrimp (no picture). it came at $12, which was market price. but, it was not worth the money. the fried heads came lukewarm to cold and the shrimp itself was not as sweet. the rice was also not warm (but then again, as a rule, i prefer warm rice with the fish/shrimp on top as opposed to the cold rice most sushi joints have).



the uni fried rice below was too salty. the uni was not fresh either.



the roast duck was tender.



the ethnic chicken (i swear, that's the name of the dish) was very good. it had a sweet aftertaste.



there were other dishes we tried, like the miso soup (can't screw that one up) and other cut rolls, which were nothing to write home about. we also had a bottle of wine and it came to about $31.50 per person. the price was definitely affordable. if i go back, i will definitely have to skip the sushi and just go izakaya.

as for quantum of solace? can someone tell me what the plot was? cuz i just don't get it.

RIP coach newell

a sad day in the college basketball world.

may you rest in peace, coach.

luc, what were you thinking?

today, per the la times, ucla forward luc richard mbah a moute (loooook ree-shard um-bah ah moo-tay) decided to keep his name in the nba draft. um, why?

i don't doubt that he will be a good player (not a superstar, but a good solid role player off the bench) in the nba. but, he could do so much more to develop his game. his injuries have prevented him from being the stand out that he was his freshman year. and he still has not improved his shot. yes, he is good on defense. but his sophomore and junior season showed he needs lotsa work on offense.

ah well. good luck, prince. hope you get drafted higher in the second round or better yet, towards the end of the first round.

food and basketball

so i am about to dine at bouchon (because i can't get a table at french laundry) and ran across this video of charlie rose interviewing chef/owner thomas keller (of bouchon and french laundry fame). i certainly perked up when i heard rose compare keller's legacy with that of john wooden starting at around 7:37 of the video. don't think it is apropos but when one compares two of my faves - coach wooden and food - then i pay lots of attention.

new love

ok, so j'mison morgan is not like kevin love. but morgan is a big man who will be good down low and should be a great addition to the incoming fab four -- which could be fab five. well, i am hoping that he will commit to ucla soon.

great news

college basketball

the la times reports that darren collison is staying for his senior year. this is great news.

jrue holiday, jerime anderson and malcolm lee will be great with collison in the backcourt. and if russell westbrook stays, ucla will arguably have the 1st and 2nd best backcourts in the country. and to have such an excess of excellent players at the point... wow!

by the way, holiday and lee will fit right in with ben howland's defensive mindset. looking forward to next season.

now, if love would just stay...

as for josh shipp "considering his options" to jump to the nba -- it really doesn't make sense. he definitely needs to stay. he has not shown to anyone how he can get out of his shooting slump, which plagued him the second half of the season and into the post-season. bad move, shipp. you best stay.

nba

the la lakers are up 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs series against the denver nuggets. woohoo!

i never liked kenyon martin -- even when he was at cinci. him going to the nba hasn't really changed my opinion of him. but then again, i just never liked that cincinnati team under bob huggins.

on the other hand, i did enjoy carmelo anthony -- especially when he led syracuse to the national championship. too bad he is a nugget.

friday ramblings

kevin love bolting for the nba

uh. no surprise there. neither is it surprising that westbrook will bolt too. collison will likely follow.

mbah a moute should not.

a friend was wondering why ben howland said it was a blessing to have a one-and-done player. uh. recruiting. good to have that resume for recruits. "ucla players develop to become nba players."

and yeah, i'm over it. bring on jrue holiday, malcolm lee, jerime anderson and drew gordon.


time to be indignant

the economy is definitely in the crapper. the litmus test? beer.


oh brother, big brother

ugh. to quote whitney houston, "oh hell to the no!"

nostradamus, i am not

clearly, i suck at predicting anything.

and clearly, i am still not completely over it. (soon, soon.)

i'm over it

yeah, it took me a while. but ucla's loss on saturday to a far more athletic memphis team has lost its sting.

derrick rose practically owned darren collison. a shame, really. i doubt though that even with such shoddy performance, collison would still stay in school. i'd love to be proven wrong....

last night's chamionship game between kansas and memphis proved to be one of them great games. an overtime thriller even. memphis had that championship in sight... until it failed to make free throws.

while the championship game was definitely thrilling, i have also put that behind me (along with ucla's failure to bring home banner #12).

i am now eagerly awaiting next season when ucla's fab four comes in: jrue holiday, jerime anderson, malcolm lee and drew gordon. i am fairly certain that kevin love and collison will be gone. maybe russell westbrook too. but luc richard mbah a moute should stay and provide a leadership role to a young team. josh shipp should also stay. i'd love for alfred aboya to stay -- yeah, he fouls a lot, but he is tough. but from what i hear, he is graduating (from what i hear, he did it in 3 years with a 3.3 something GPA as a poli sci major). should be an interesting off season with new kids coming in and seasoned kids leaving.

ucla's three consecutive trips to the final four ain't bad. but, here's hoping next year will be THE year the bruins hang banner #12 at pauley.

meanwhile, on to the lakers...

love passes

i really have nothing to ramble about. this video from youtube says it all:

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.