ucla football: not a pretty sight

it is really quite telling when the highlight of the ucla scrimmage is the tailgate.

ucla's offense can be summed up in one word: suckage.

yeah, offense scored a couple of touchdowns. but the qb's would've been sacked -- multiple times -- before then but for the fact that there was a self-imposed rule of no hitting the qb's.

and oh, i was just informed that the touchdowns were against the second or third team defense.

great.

on the positive side, i love this guy:


"who does the taliban not want you to be? BRUINS!"


and another positive, i love the new grill for the tailgates. woohoo!

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.

the last game of the season: ucla v.u$c

all i can say is that thank god it's over.

let the rebuilding begin and a new season unfold.

meantime, as far as i'm concerned, the score was:

ucla athletes rock!

we got rhodes scholars awarded to bruin football and rugby players. guess they're not wearing their IQ's on their jerseys.

go bruins!

finally, a win.

yes, wazzu was (is) at the bottom of the pac-10 barrel. but hey, a win is a win.

so much confidence, indeed, that bruin fans were doing the wave.... a lot... during the bruins' commanding 28-3 win. i wanted the wave to stop.



kevin craft seemed more confident. that's good. but my euphoria was (still is) tempered by the fact that, again, wazzu was (and still is) at the bottom of the barrel. we shall see what happens next week when ucla travels to oregon (who just got embarrassed by $c last night).

to be continued...

ooops, sorry

ok, i feel a bit remorseful for what i said after reading this.

good for coleman overcoming so much. and i am happy he is at ucla. i'd be happier though if he can hang on to the ball....

don't drop the damned ball!

i think derrick coleman needs to run 5 miles (or even 10!) with the ball tomorrow so he gets used to NOT DROPPING THE BALL!!!

so much promise and energy at the beginning of the game coming out of the tunnel:


all wasted by coleman dropping the ball in the 4th with ucla only down 5 points. ugh.

let the bad times roll

just like the roller coaster that was wall street this past week, so was ucla's football season. but at least wall street got bailed out. don't think ucla will get bailed out anytime soon.

ucla v. tennesee (27-24)

it has been a long 5 months since college basketball ended. and finally, college football is here. i am still a bit tired from yesterday's activities and my throat is still a bit sore. but, can i just say that THAT was an amazing game.

i had very very low expectations coming in to the season. yes, rick neuheisel, norm chow and dewayne walker sounded like a very good solid coaching staff. but, ucla's starting quarterback, kevin craft, was a third stringer junior college transfer.

the first half was unbelievably depressing. craft threw 4 interceptions. and it wasn't like any bruin was in the vicinity of the ball. oh hell no... no bruin was even in the same zip code. yep, craft pretty much threw the ball to tennessee. the bright side was that defense was amazing. and, defense scored a touchdown for ucla.

if the first half drove me to prozac, i almost had a heart attack in the second half. i thought ucla was losing, then ucla started moving the ball. then ucla scored a touchdown with less than 2 minutes left in the game to be up by 3. it was pandemonium... until tennessee tied the game to put it into overtime. i was on pins and needles. it was, however, pure joy to see tennessee's kicker miss a field goal.

bottom line is, ucla suffered a whole bunch of injuries during the game (not counting the ones to cowan and olson). ucla had no business winning against then no. 18 tennessee. even if ucla loses most of its game this season, the future looks bright.

GO BRUINS!!!



bruins coming out of the tunnel


neuheisel's post-game speech

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.

what about 2008?

having a new QB for 2009 is nice and all but what about fall of 2008????

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.

bad news

it happened last season when both the top 2 quarterbacks went out injured, which led that bethel-thompson kid to play QB.... which led to disastrous results.

now comes news that patrick cowan and ben olson got injured yesterday during practice within minutes of each other.

oh good grief! at least one good thing that could happen is that the reserves (apparently, ucla has 2 or 3) get some practice time and attention in case it happens again (which it could very well do) during the season. (think westbrook getting PT when collison went down; or keefe getting PT when mbah a moute and roll went down.)

get well, kids. otherwise, it will be a looooooooooooooong season.

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!"