Long time lurker, first time poster...albeit I did comment on a post once...anyways on to my question which I think has been overshadowed because of the AI rumors: What is the status of the Zach Randolph to Memphis trade? Is Dunleavy or Memphis having second thoughts? I also read that Miami wanted to use Memphis' cap space to acquire Carlos Boozer. Link Here. Will that impact the potential to unload Randolph? Thanks in advance and I apologize if this has already been answered.

Peace

...they've become very average.

Looks like Xavier's Sean Miller is going to opt to stay in Xavier rather than taking the head coaching position at the "standard" of the Pac-10. Xavier is a good program, but I'm sure the MSM guys will be puzzled over how Miller could choose to stay at Xavier over the "rich tradition" at Arizona. We'll see who they go after next.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4045199

Matt Mosley over at the WWL designated former Bruin standout as the "Newcomer to Watch" for the Washington Redskins this year

Newcomer to watch

If you watched the Hall of Fame Game, you kept seeing No. 48 come across your screen. In the first few minutes of the game, seventh-round rookie Chris Horton fielded an onside kick and sacked Colts quarterback Jim Sorgi. He's a safety out of UCLA, but Horton will probably make his biggest impact on special teams.

Cerrato said that Horton has been showing up on film ever since the beginning of camp. "He's constantly around the ball," he said.

Its tough for 7th rounders to make a team, but performing on special teams and showing up on film is a great way to impress the coaches. Here's hoping that Horton makes the team and is a contributor to an up and coming Redskins' team.

Bumped. A cool story that deserves more attention. GO BRUINS. -N

Darius Savage is another fine UCLA athlete who has become successful in different sports. The WWL wrote a nice article about him describing his hectic schedule

There were times during his first spring as a UCLA student when Darius Savage's hectic schedule overwhelmed him. A member of both the football and track and field teams for the Bruins, Savage would spend many of his days darting between two practices: first enduring a couple hours under the hot Southern California sun in full pads at spring football practice, then throwing a discus and shot put around for a few more hours at outdoor track practice. Oh, and there was that little matter of completing all his school work at one of the more demanding universities in America.

Bob Palcic supports Savage's ambitions in both football and track and field.

"I think things have changed across the country not only at the collegiate level, but at the high school level," says Bob Palcic, Savage's offensive line coach at UCLA who also coached Ogden. "We've become so one-sport specific. Coaches always want kids to focus on one sport year-round, and I'm certainly not for that. I always encourage [young] kids to play more than one sport. I hear Darius has a chance at [eventually] making it to the Olympics as a shot putter. I don't want to stand in the way of that."

-emphasis added

They also list past UCLA athletes who excelled in more than one sport.

At UCLA, Savage is simply the latest in a long line of gifted multisport athletes. The names of past Bruins who shined in more than one sport reads like a who's who of legendary multisport athletes: Jackie Robinson, who in 1940 became UCLA's first four-sport letterwinner as a member of the baseball, basketball, football and track and field teams; James Owens in the '70s, a 1976 Olympian in the high hurdles and a future NFL running back; Jackie-Joyner Kersee in the '80s, who in addition to her track and field exploits scored over 1,000 points for the Bruins' basketball team; and Jonathan Ogden in the '90s, a sure-fire NFL Hall of Fame offensive lineman who like Savage also threw the shot put and discus. One could make the argument that UCLA is the historical epicenter for two-sport athletes.

 

The rest of the article talks in length about the coming end of the 2-sport athlete in college and is all in all a good read. There is also a short blurb of one of my favorite Bruins of all time and his struggles as a 2-sport athlete.

Another recent UCLA athlete who managed to ably balance two sports was Danny Farmer. The all-time receiving yardage leader in UCLA gridiron history, Farmer also won two national championships as a member of the men's volleyball team. An L.A. native, Farmer followed in the footsteps of his father George -- the last Bruin to play three sports (football, basketball and track) in the same school year back in the late '60s. Truth be told, though, Danny had wanted to go somewhere else and carve out a different path than his father. But in the end, Danny's determination to play both football and volleyball at the collegiate level raised too many red flags among coaches at other schools, so UCLA became his only option.

Go Bruins.

Some of you may know that a large portion of Norm Chow's salary is being paid by the Tennessee Titans right now. He had two years left on his deal when the Titans fired him and so we have Norm Chow at a reasonable price. However, when the contract expires, Norm Chow is probably going to want the same amount of money he's been receiving, cost of living and expenses and all that.

Therefore, is it possible to start a fundraising venture now, so that we aren't scrambling later to try and keep Norm Chow?

We could send it as a donation to the UCLA athletic dept. on the condition that they use the money to re-sign Norm Chow. I don't know if it would work and by no means am I volunteering to spearhead this project. But maybe we could try and figure this out for the long-term success of the Bruins.

Peace

HE HATE ME

I was just thinking about the game and I realized something. The critics that claim UCLA offense does not exist, really are not watching UCLA basketball. Sure the 18 points in the first half was abominable, definitely, not pretty to watch, but it was also an aberration. Stanford played great defense in that half. But in the second half UCLA exploded for 45 points and in the OT scored 14 points in the last 3 minutes of the OT period. Stanford and UCLA both went cold for the first 2 minutes of the OT period, but Stanford stayed cold. UCLA scored 14 points in about 3 minutes. That is not a team that lacks offense or doesn't have any offense. It was a tough win and we pulled it out.

Note: I believe that Collison was not fouled on that last play in the 2nd half and if any Stanford fan reads this, you were hosed on that call. However, blown calls are a part of sports and it is what it is. Personally, I felt both teams were hosed on a lot of calls throughout the night. It was a shame that the refs made the call, but its a part of the game.

Here's to hoping we hang up banner #12 this year.

Peace

Was bored and looking up random B-Dizzle videos on YouTube and I came across this gem. Instantly reminded me of RW throwing it down on that cat from Cal.

The similarity between the two videos kinda scary eh?

Have a Good Night...Peace

Go Bruins!

As pointed out before, Ben Howland is a recruiting machine. He got a verbal from one of the top recruits in the 2010 class, Kendall Williams.

(I just posted the portion of the article dealing with Kendall, because you need ESPN Insider to view the whole article. If this is not allowed, I apologize and plead ignorance.)

After securing the No. 1 2008 class in ESPN's recruiting rankings, Ben Howland and his staff have tapped into the Class of 2010 to nab one of the top five prospects on the West Coast. Kendall Williams, a 6-2 point guard prospect out of Los Osos High in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., chose the Bruins over Duke, Washington and a host of other schools.

Williams is an elite prospect with a tremendous upside due to his lengthy frame and broad shoulders. He plays with savvy and skill (great pull-up) well beyond his years and reveals confidence that is rarely seen in a player his age. At this juncture, he is more of a combo-guard (has a knack to score) than a true point, but he has demonstrated enough clever playmaking ability to warrant that point guard label.

Williams's commitment comes in the aftermath of UCLA signing its elite 2008 class (Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson, Malcolm Lee and Drew Gordon) that is chock full of perimeter talent and toughness.

By the time Williams arrives in Westwood, the aforementioned prospects will be entering their junior campaigns. Thus, the likelihood of Williams coming in and starting would be a remarkable achievement, unless of course the abovementioned trio develops enough to opt out of their final two years for the NBA. At this juncture, I only foresee Holiday making the jump, though Anderson and Lee have significant upsides as well.

We can only speculate what the Bruins roster will look like a few years from now, but one thing is for sure -- Howland has taken two teams to the Final Four with above-average talent. With the top-rated 2008 class due to arrive in Westwood next season and the addition of Williams in a few years, Howland is building a program that should achieve the "dynasty" label sooner rather than later.

A lot could change in 2 years, but it shows that Ben Howland is already off to a great start for the 2010 class. Go Bruins.

in light of the great news that RN was hired, we will need to be patient with RN. I know BN wasn't really partial to guys like Bruce Davis and Trey Brown, but losing guys like that are going to hurt the program. We are going to be losing a lot of leadership on both sides of the ball and a lot of experience as well. While we were excited this year for returning 20 seniors, we need to realize that we are now losing those 20 seniors.

This isn't to say that no one will step up next year, but there is no miracle coach who can salvage Dorrell's influence on our program in 1 or probably even 2 years. RN will be great for this program, but we need to be patient. It's going to take a while and we can't begin to grumble if and when we struggle next year.

Now I'm starting to ramble to get to 200 words, but I'm just glad we got the right guy. All the ESPN "experts" were saying it was the right move and I believe that this move instantly legitimizes the program and will put us back in the National picture.

Peace

ESPN's SportsNation asks whether the UCLA job is the best job available, Good Call or Bad Call?

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3124&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2

When I checked it was about 56% Bad Call. I think it shows how far UCLA has fallen off the National Picture and how imperative it is we hire a coach who can change our National Image and put UCLA where it belongs. Personally, I am intrigued to see what Mike Leach could do with the talent at UCLA. RN would bring credibility to our program as well. Also, to all the people pushing for Norm Chow, or the hiring of any coach without any experience, we're UCLA. We should not be experimenting new coaches, we should be hiring them. Leave the development of coaches to the Texas Tech, Tulsa, BYU, and the Hawaii's of the NCAA. Remember, we're UCLA, we should be front runners the National Picture, not bringing up the rear. However, that is where the UCLA program is now. A lot of the "experts" are picking UCLA to lose to BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. That should show how far UCLA has fallen off from the National Picture.

Also, I want to reiterate, I wish and hope Karl Dorrell becomes a great coach down the line and uses his time at UCLA as a learning experience.

Go Bruins.

If we find a way to lose this game, and after watching the OSU game I think it is feasible that it could happen, KD will reach a new low in his tenure. This is the game that should be circled on all the Bruins' calendars to avenge what happened in last year's game. All the players should remember what happened last year and they should relish in the fact that they can take advantage of a really bad team and win in a convincing fashion at the Rose Bowl. I want to see a win where we're basically running up the score, because we have no choice...kind of like the 4th quarter of the OSU game, except for the entire game instead of just one quarter. There will be no reason for this team to come out flat like they did against Utah and OSU.

But the depressing part is that they probably will come out overlooking this team and looking ahead to the Cal game. It is feasible that we lose this game and give the Fighting Irish their first win of the year. At that point this program, under KD, which has seen a lot of lows will reach a new one.

I've only been on this site for about a week and I don't know if this has been brought up yet, but here goes.

A theory on why UCLA is struggling defensively. While many pundits were harping on the 10 returning starters from the "D" that held SuC to 9 points...that one player we lost was a huge loss for the "D." Losing Hickman, who saw the majority of the double-teams, means that Bruce Davis is the one seeing the double-teams. The rest of the D-Line can't compensate on pass plays. They're solid on the run, especially up the middle with Brigham Harwell, Kevin Brown and/or Jess Ward, but they can not get upfield on pass plays, even in obvious pass situations. At the U-Dub game, there was some pressure, but for the majority of the night Jake Locker was able to stay upright, make the throws AND if he could have completed them, UCLA might be 2-2 right now. There was one sack in the game and it was a coverage sack. Ideally, we should be able to get a decent upfield rush with only our front 4, but as the season progresses we might have to blitz more to create pressure and it will create more chances for big plays if the blitz gets picked up. I think it is feasible to rush only the front 4 and blitz only to keep teams honest. But as teams focus on stopping Bruce Davis, someone, anyone has to step up on that line and make teams pay for doubling down on Bruce Davis.