These are my quick hits after wathcing a really entertaining win by UCLA. Let’s enjoy this, celebrate this, but understand what kind of game we’ve witnessed keeping in mind the big picture of our beloved program.

First, MAJOR MAJOR PROPS to the players. Coleman continues to be an inspiration. He runs with power and vision, his blocking is great (that flip on Burfict the second time he tried to leap him was awesome. I hope he gets the chance to continue to show us his game on Sundays. Also, the much maligned Rosario played very well after one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from a Bruin WR at Arizona. Lastly, Tevin McDonald and Randall Carroll (the DB not the WR) need to see significant time for the rest of their careers as Bruins, they did a great job back there.

But there's more to this story.

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Yesterday, I went ahead and fired off an email to Chancellor Block urging him to make hiring changes at the Athletic Director position.

It was a very quick email whipped together in 5 minutes, as my guess is that with these types of emails, the Chancellor is only going to get statistics about the quantity of emails sent on this subject rather than going through and reading the substance of each email. I urged a friend to draft a similar email, and he objected that he didn't know what to write.  So I offered to let him copy and paste my email.

I figured I'd share the same email with you all.  Feel free to edit, revise, suggest improvements, and use this as a template for your own emails to Chancellor Block, whose email is chancellor@ucla.edu.

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Bumped. Good starting point to set expectations for next football season. -BN

The easiest way for me to turn the page on a very forgettable 2010 season is to look ahead to 2011.  I am putting it down on the record, for me 8-9 wins (including one over USC) is what is needed for me to have faith in CRN going forward. 

Still, I've been looking forward to the upcoming 2011 season for a couple years now.  Our roster for 2011 is shaping up to be solid and stacked at every area but QB (ugh) and maybe OL.  We should have a very good Defensive/Offensive Line, a solid secondary, a very good LB corp, and one of the best set of RB's in the Pac-12.  

Offensive Depth Chart:

QB: Prince/Brehaut/Hundley
RB: Franklin/Jones/James/Coleman
F-B: Barr/Thigpen
WR: Marvray/Rosario/Johnson
WR: Carrol/Embree/Smith
TE: Fauria/Harkey/Pressley
LT: Baca
LG: Ward
C: Maiava
RG: Hasiak
RT: Harris

My comments on this lineup and a look at the Defense are after the jump.

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(was gonna post this as a comment to our Hoops Roundup, but it got quite long)

It's become so much more difficult to really assess our outlook for our Bruins Basketball.  This team is so damned young and there are so many things we'll really only know once the year starts...  

Will J. Smith be in shape and effective Defensively? Will Honeycutt emerge from an ultra-athletic heart guy to a consistent player on Offense?  Will Lee find his role on this team?  Will we find a PG to continue the tradition of Point Guard U at UCLA?  Can we establish any semblance of a Defensive and Offensive identity?

This may be the nature of College Basketball today, where turnover is so high, Freshman and Sophmores dominate the talent landscape and are expected to do so much, and the word Potential hangs over every team.

Still, this makes for an always exciting build up to the season.  UCLA Basketball is my first love, and I'm really looking forward to big steps this season.    Key points after the jump...

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Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

After watching these two games, I've tempered my expectations for the season to be one of continued growth rather than raw breakout.  It's going to be a climb, but there is still much to look forward to as the season progresses.  Below are the things I will be looking for as the season continues, in terms of actual measurable success. 

1. Focus on the run, and lean heavier on Malcolm Jones. 50 carries a game in our Pistol offense is what I’m looking for. Jones needs at least 20 carries a game. Period. He is too good to not be getting more touches. 20 for Franklin, 20 for Jones, and the rest for the QB options/H-backs/reverses/etc. Let our big (and somewhat slow) O-Line do what they do best, bust out of the gates and smash some fools in the mouth.

2. Belliotti said it best – “You don’t practice, you don’t play.” We don’t have a Favre out there who has 20+ years of seasoning under his belt to lean on when practice can’t happen. I understand Brehaut’s lack of mobility in the Pistol is an issue, but Prince is being put in a position to fail. Our kids need quality solid practices to get their timing down and be able to succeed out there on Saturdays. If they’re too banged up to go, it’s unfortunate, but the consequence is the coaches need to turn to the backups who can and will practice.

3. Tackling drills, tackling drills, tackling drills. Wrap the arms first, drive with the shoulders second. This is basic fundamentals that we’re not seeing out there.

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Bumped. As T pointed out on the comments LRMAM's "surprisingly developed knowledge" re. NBA defense is not all that surprising given how he had 2 years to learn under best defensive coach in college hoops. Wonder if that's a factor Jrue Holiday and his advisers will consider. I am not counting on it but I guess one always has to wonder. GO BRUINS. -N

Saw this little piece on espn about how Luc is ranked, by ESPN's NBA columnist John Hollinger, as the third best defensive Power Forward in the NBA this year, runner up only to Garnett and Marcus Camby!  Great to see our Bruins getting love in the NBA, and hopefully this will help Howland's recruiting for years to come!

ESPN's John Hollinger: Defensive Player Rankings

Third team: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Bucks (-4.51)
It's rare for a rookie to crack this list, much less move into the upper tier of the league's frontcourt defenders, but Mbah a Moute was that good. The 6-9 forward from UCLA guarded 2s, 3s and 4s, and with his quickness, long arms and surprisingly developed knowledge, he proved adept no matter the assignment.

An unheralded second-round pick, he's likely to be a regular on this team for years to come.

Interesting tidbit in this report about how NBA great Tony Parker was almost a Bruin! It would've been amazing to have had Tony Parker playing in the Blue and Gold...

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The 6-foot-9 senior forward will sign with UCLA at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Rocklin High School gym.

http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/1386607.html

Rocklin High School's Brendan Lane is expected to lead a parade of high-profile area athletes who will sign NCAA national letters of intent on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-9 senior forward will sign with UCLA at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Rocklin High School gym. Bruins coach Ben Howland also is expected to hold a press conference that afternoon to talk about Lane and his 2009 recruiting class.

At least 11 area baseball players, including Bee Player of the Year Max Stassi of Yuba City and Cody Keefer of Davis, are also expected to sign their official letters on Wednesday. Like Lane, Stassi and Keefer are signing with UCLA.