Here's the tentative schedule (with venues) for b-ball for next year:

And per the release:

UCLA is currently researching round trip busing to all venues for season ticket holders. More details will follow shortly.  UCLA students will be offered the option of busing separately, similar to that which is offered to students for football games at the Rose Bowl. Student busing will be offered on a complimentary basis for basketball games.

The rest of the official release From the athletic department and ticket prices after the jump:

Continue reading this post »

So, everyone knows that we have some questions to answer at QB this week.  Houston, however, also has uncertainty at the QB situation this week.  Apparently, Case Keenum is day-to-day after sustaining a "mild concussion" against UTEP.  From the OC Register:

Houston All-America candidate quarterback Case Keenum is listed day-to-day concussion symptoms heading into the Cougars’ Saturday game at UCLA.

Keenum took a blow to the head trying to make a tackle after an interception in Houston’s54-24 victory against Texas-El Paso.

There is enough uncertainty over Keenum that Vegas has not even posted a line for our game yet.

And while Keenum's backup, Cotton Turner (what a great name for a Houston QB, by the way) has looked very good this season (17/21, 141 yds, 2 TDs, 0 INTs), I would feel a lot more comfortable facing him rather than Keenum, who should be all-time leader in passing yards and TDs by season's end.

As for our QB situation, I'm really hoping that Brehaut gets the start this week.  As Nestor noted on the front page, no one knows if he is actually going to be an improvement.  But at this point, Prince has had his chances to lay claim to the starting job.  When healthy last year, he showed signs of promise but rarely looked great.  This year he has looked atrocious.  Its looking more and more like Prince is not going to be the answer to our flailing offense, so give Brehaut an extended look during actual game time.  We can't get much (if any) worse...

I was only there for the last hour, so missed any of the guys that worked out in the first half and the special teams work.  Here are a few quick notes from the 2nd half guys:

Intensity: The guys were really working hard today and had a great intensity to the practice.  Still not in full pads, but most of the guys had the shells on so there was a bit more contact.  A lot of "playful" solid shots.  Especially some good shoving along the lines.  Little scuffle broke out at one point between Larimore and Baca, nothing serious and it was broken up quickly.  But I love that Randall Carroll (not exactly one of the big boys) came flying in and got right in one of the D-Lineman's face.  You like to see that kind of fight out of a receiver. (as long as it doesn't end up with one of the player's faces getting broken, we'll leave that to the guys across town)

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Just got back from the first practice of the season over at Spaulding and thought I'd share a few quick notes.

First off, keep in mind two important things.  First off, it was the first practice of the season for everyone, and the first real UCLA practice ever for the Frosh and transfers.  Secondly, without pads its hard to get an accurate gauge on a lot of aspects (its amazing how much the game changes when the guy can actually hit the hell out of one another).  Also, I only got there for the 2nd half of practice, so did not see any of the kids from the first group practicing today.

The Sight Test - Our team definitely passes this year.  The team as a whole just looks much bigger and more athletic than we have in years past.  A few guys in particular stood out to me.  Kevin Prince definitely looks bigger.  KP was with the first group, so didn't see him working out.  But just walking around, he looks considerably bigger than last year.  Crissman is another guy who put on some bulk this off-season.  The past couple of years he has looked very lanky, but the kid finally looks like a football player.  Some of the frosh are as big as advertised.  Malcolm Jones already looks very solid and Jordan James looks a little small on top, but the kid has some massive calves.  Also, two of our frosh on the OL, Kody Innes and Wade Yandell, both look big enough to be playing right now.  Whether the skill is there yet is another question, but the size is definitely there.

Continue reading this post »

Rebumped. This is tomorrow at 11 am. Even if game(s) are scheduled during this, it should take priority over everything else. GO BRUINS. -N

Bumped. Don't forget. This is Sat. GO BRUINS. -N

Photo Credit: Associated Press

Just received this via email from the Athletic Department. Coach's Memorial Service is scheduled for Saturday June 26th at Pauley Pavillion:

JOHN WOODEN MEMORIAL SERVICE SCHEDULED

FOR SATURDAY, JUNE 26

A public memorial service celebrating the life of Coach John Wooden has been scheduled for Saturday, June 26, in UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, beginning at 11 a.m.

The memorial service – expected to last approximately 90 minutes – will be broadcast live by Prime Ticket, which will provide a satellite feed allowing other outlets to also broadcast live. In addition, the service will be streamed live at www.ucla.edu.

Approximately 6,000 seats in Pauley Pavilion’s middle and upper levels will be available to the public on a general admission basis. The doors to Pauley Pavilion will open at 9 a.m. Per University policy, no overnight camping will be allowed and anyone on campus prior to 5 a.m. will be asked to leave. Attendees will enter through the Intramural Field. The entrance to the IM Field will be from the east at Wilson Plaza between the John Wooden Center and the North Athletic Field.

Floor seats in Pauley Pavilion will be reserved for the Wooden family, Bruin basketball players and coaches, as well as other designated guests.

For those not admitted to Pauley Pavilion, the service will be shown live on two video boards in Drake Stadium.

Those planning to attend are reminded that this is a memorial service; please do not bring cameras into Pauley Pavilion, and refrain from using portable devices to shoot photographs or video.

Additional details on the service will be made available when finalized.

A separate announcement will be made about a pool arrangement for news media and other accommodations for journalists.

Bumped with Savage quotes (via Gold) below the fold. Tough news but we will have to cowboy up instead of feeling sorry for ourselves. GO BRUINS. - N

Tyler's 2 run bomb against Fullerton. Photo Credit: Carlos Delgado/UCLA Athletics

Jon Gold is reporting:

UCLA second baseman - and three-hole hitter - Tyler Rahmatulla suffered a broken right wrist in the team's post-game celebration on Sunday night, and will be out for the College World Series in Omaha.

UCLA's bracket is a tough one, with TCU, Florida and Florida State. The Bruins open with the Gators at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Teams really need to rethink how they want to be celebrating after a victory.  First, Kendry Morales breaks an ankle after an Angels' victory celebration and now this.  This is obviously a blow, but hopefully our Bruins are able to bring back a championship despite this setback.  Go Bruins!

Continue reading this post »

Saw this today on Jon Wilner's blog today about the SEC's revenue from this past year:

Total: $209 million.

According to the league, that’s the highest total in SEC history and represents a 57.7 percent increase from the $132.5 million distributed in 2008-2009.

Average per school: $17.3 million.

That’s about double (maybe a bit more than double) what the Pac-10 distributes to its schools and does not include what the schools generate from their local media deals.

At the end of the day, this is why the Pac-10 needs to expand.  If Pac-10 schools want to stay relevant (a/k/a competitive) on the national scene, they have to find a lot more revenue to keep up with the SEC and the Big 10.  Let's face it, at the end of the day running a successful athletics department costs money.  Coaches' salaries and athletic facilities don't come cheaply.  Outside of that other school across town, none of the Pac-10 has private revenue streams that can keep enough money coming into our programs to stay competitive.  That is why I'm excited about the talk coming out of the Pac-10 about their aggressive proposal to bring in 6 high quality programs from the Big 12.  That is the type of thinking that will keep our schools competitive with the big boys back east.

From Jon Gold's blog:

UCLA freshman forward Brendan Lane sprained his left ankle on the final play of practice on Tuesday and is questionable for Thursday's game against Oregon State.

I am really worried about what our front court is going to look like if neither Lane or Nelson can go against the Beavs.  It will probably mean a lot of minutes for both Bobo and Drago, which is not overly encouraging.  Though it will also hopefully give Moser a chance to get some meaningful minutes to show what he can do.

UCLA got some real respect this week in Ted Miller's ESPN Pac-10 blog and the ESPN weekly power ranking.  First from Ted Miller, who has us ranked as the #3 team in the Pac-10:

3. UCLA: So the Bruins handled a Tennessee team out for revenge in workmanlike fashion, and Tennessee pushed a homestanding No. 1 Florida squad that was hungry to embarrass the Vols so hard that most folks are calling it a moral victory. Why isn't anyone saying, "Perhaps we should re-evaluate UCLA?" Or, "Why is a 3-0 UCLA squad that has physically dominated two BCS conference foes still not ranked?" (And who voted for 2-1 Nebraska, which has wins over Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State?)

And over on the ESPN weekly Power Ranking we come in at #26 nationally, with several of the voters having us quite a bit higher with Ted Miller putting us at #21 and Ivan Maisel putting us at #18.  I think #18 might be a little high at the moment, but its nice to see us getting some national attention.  Also, if Saturday was any indication, that already big win over Tennessee might start looking better and better in the coming weeks.  Go Bruins!

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

I know that it was discussed in another thread that Prince has a tendency to not always have his mouthpiece in, here is confirmation that that was the case when he got hit on the safety on Saturday.  From ESPN:

Neuheisel said Prince apparently wasn't wearing his mouthpiece, which appeared to be lodged in his facemask, where many players keep the plastic guard between plays. Prince, who was recovering from surgery Monday, might have removed the mouthpiece to yell out the snap count deep in the Neyland Stadium end zone surrounded by screaming Tennessee fans.

Hopefully this will serve as a very painful lesson to the kid that there is a reason why they have that protective gear and he'll be sure to always have it in in the future.

Just wanted to pop by and thank you all for an amazing weekend.  I was lucky enough to make it out to Knoxville this weekend with my brother for the game and it was an experience that I will never forget.  Aside from the results of the game (which I was obviously very pleased with) I have never met a a group of more passionate yet welcoming and friendly fans.  We were blown away by the number of Vols' fans that were stopping us (both before and after the game) to wish us luck, ask questions about our team, welcoming us to Knoxville, and offering to share some beers with us.  Plus, the experience of seeing a game at Neyland was truly like none other.  So thank you very much for the hospitality, I truly wish there was a way that both of our teams could have come away with a win from that one.  I will certainly be rooting for you guys going forward into the future (as long as you're not playing my Bruins of course!)  Best of luck with the rest of the season and beyond!

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Yesterday I was fortunately able to sneak away from the office for about an hour to swing over and catch some of our first practice.  Just had a couple of quick impressions that I thought I would share:

1 - Crissman was taking a few snaps with the 1st team and almost all of the snaps with the 2nd team and looked pretty solid.  It was also nice to see that he has put on some weight.  Last year at this time he looked incredibly scrawny to me, now he actually looks like a college football player.  Prince was taking the rest of the snaps with the 1st/2nd team and his arm looked good, though he made a couple of bad throws (one of which ATV was able to pick off).  Craft and Brehaut were only watching from the sidelines while I was there.

2 - Hasiak and Su'a Filo are as big as advertised and looked perfectly comfortable out there on day one.  Hasiak in particular was blocking Brian Price on his own for one set and handled him (and while admittedly they weren't in pads and hence not going full boar, the fact that one of our true freshman was even able to handle one of the best DT in the country on day one is encouraging.)  There were a number of plays were Hasiak and Su'a Filo were manning the left side with Kai Maiava in the middle and all three looked strong, were getting some push and worked well together as a unit.  I would not be at all surprised if that was 3/5 of our starting line against SDSU.

3 - Morrell Pressly is going to be near impossible to cover.  The match-up problems that he is going to create have already been discussed around here this summer, but its worth noting again.  When he was lining up as a TE he was flat out running by the LBs and when split out the DBs don't have the size to cover him.  He made a couple of great catches where Prince or Crissman just threw the ball up and between his height and his leaping ability the defenders never had a chance at the ball.

4 - Thigpen is really fast.  He was practising as a gunner on punt coverage and was fying down the field.  I didn't get to see Carroll sprinting on any plays, but would love to see a foot race between these two guys.  If they get much playing time this year they should be really exciting to watch.

5 - Lastly, a bunch of us in the stands were having a good laugh at seeing little Papadakis, the ultimate $C homer's younger brother, out there in Bruin blue.  He was getting some work on the punt coverage team.  Should make for some interesting family dinners for the Papadakis clan this fall.

[Apparently Demetrius Papadakis had a rough start carrying the ball. - BN Ed. Photo Credit: E. Corpuz]

I am hoping to get back out to the field this afternoon and have my camera with me this time, will certainly post any pics that I take.  I am so stoked that football has finally arrived!  Go Bruins!

Ryan Moya and Logan Paulson have both been named to the watch list for the 2009 John Mackey award (Best TE).  Only 30 players are named to the list nationally, and it is awesome that both were honored.  Three other Pac-10 TEs were named, Ed Dickson from Orgeon, Gronkowski from Arizona, and Anthony McCoy from USC.  We are the only school with two players named to the list.  Now here is hoping that Prince is able to get the ball to them!  The full list can be found here.