Last night I stayed up till 1 a.m. (here in the East). I'm in a bowl pool, and so I had an interest in the late game, plus I wanted to watch SNL with Jimmy Fallon, and after the volleyball championship, I had way too much adrenaline to go to sleep.

In the pool I was the only one who picked the University of Louisiana Lafayette over San Diego State, and it was more because I lived in Louisiana for a number of years and have a soft spot for the Ragin Cajuns than because I had any special insights into the game. SDState was favored.

Before the season ULL was ranked 120 of 121 teams in D-I. At 12:57 EST, their kicker--who had missed a point after and had another one blocked--kicked a 50-yard field goal and the Cajuns won 32-30. Wish I could have been on Bourbon Street last night.

So their first year coach--I don't even know his name--took them from the garbage heap to a bowl game, only the second in their history, and to their first win. Afterwards the obligatory ESPN babe asked him what he did to turn the team around. He said, I let them know that they could win. I wanted them to go into every game knowing that they could.

We're not talking Pac-12 here, and we're not talking about a program that's been inconsistent but important since the days of Jackie Robinson. But enough excuses. ULL has to recruit against one of the game's true powerhouses, LSU. It's one of a half-dozen universities in the UL system, which is similar to California's state college setup. And yet there they were, playing with energy and enthusiasm and fighting down to the last four seconds.

If they can do it, why can't we?

When the Dolphins lost to the Eagles Sunday, they must have set some kind of record. They played two quarterbacks, Matt Moore and JP Losman, who were UCLA recruits but finished their careers elsewhere. No wonder Tony Sparano got fired. But surely it wasn't his fault to have those guys on his bench. For the record, Moore had been playing pretty well for the last month with a ball-control offense, but after he got KO'd by the Eagles, JP came in and looked appropriately awful.

In other news here in Philly, Bruin Ben Francisco, one of the best-liked players in the Phillies clubhouse, was traded to Toronto for a minor league reliever rather than getting arbitration. Benny Fresh, as he was known, famously beat the Cardinals in game 3 of last fall's playoffs with a 3-run pinch-hit homer. Had the rest of the team played as well, they might have gotten a WS ring. Good luck to Ben in the Great White North. That leaves the Phils with one Bruin, Chase Utley, who isn't going anywhere.

The women's volleyball team, in Mike Sealy's second year as coach, has made it to the Final Four.

After dropping the first set, the Bruins came back to sweep the last three. Rachael Kidder once again led the Bruins with more than 20 kills. The win sends the team to San Antonio next week, and the ever-improving Bruins have to be given a good shot at the title.

I didn't follow the statistics closely, but I'm sure between BN and the UCLA site, we'll have them soon. Congratulations to the Bruins for a great weekend far from home.

Chase Utley may be the best-known Bruin playing for the Phillies, and he played his usual steady game tonight, but Ben Francisco hit a three-run homer that was decisive in the Phillies' 3-2 win over the Cardinals tonight.

We're lucky here in Philly to have these two Bruins.  Ben's had an up-and-down year, starting, then platooning, and finally pinch-hitting.  Tonight, he pinch-hit for Cole Hamels (another SoCal guy), who pitched six shutout innings.  The Cards walked Carlos Ruiz to get to Ben, who was swinging the bats in the on-deck circle, and he came up with two on base and hit one into the Phillies' bullpen.

Hope our two Bruins can bring some World Series bling to Broad Street.

ESPN has two intriguing posts tonight.  Suddenly the Bruin season looks a bit brighter.

The first is that Abdel-Gaddy, the Washington guard, is out for the season.  The Huskies are still loaded at guard, but that's one less matchup to worry about.

The other is that Gary Franklin, Jr., Tyler Lamb's Mater Dei teammate and a highly recruited point guard last year, is transferring from Cal.  Anybody know if that's good news for the Bruins?  It seems like quite a coincidence, or is the right word serendipity?

ESPN is now reporting that the five prospective Pac-whatever members have been convinced to stay, that Texas will receive the largest share of revenues and have the ability to set up its own network as well.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott confirmed Monday that Texas has turned down an invitation to leave the Big 12 and join his conference.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Scott confirms that Texas has rejected the Pac-10's offer. [...]

Based on a TV deal in the works that could pay upwards of $25 million per year, Texas leaned toward staying in a 10-team Big 12 for the foreseeable future, Orangebloods.com reported, citing sources familiar with negotiations.

Texas stands to earn between $20 million and $25 million annually in television revenue in the reworked deal, including money from its own network, according to Orangebloods.com.

The Longhorns network figures to generate between $3 million and $5 million, according to the Orangebloods.com report. Because the Big 12 has unequal revenue sharing, the deal will mean more money for Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma, who all would receive at least $20 million annually from the new deal.

"Everybody is feeling much more confident the Big 12 is going to survive," a person with direct knowledge of discussions told The Associated Press. "Everybody's going to be making more money."

I say good riddance.

Do we want anyone else?  Utah?  How would a Pac-11 work out?  No round-robin, no playoff, but maybe a little more pride?

I'm watching Eric Byrnes, UCLA all-time baseball player, on ESPN First Take, talking about his leaving the MLB and playing slow-pitch softball and golf.

For those of you who are in other time zones, First Take repeats, so you should be able to catch it in two hours,  For those of you on the West Coast, that'd be at 9:30 a.m.

ESPN First Take is on ESPN 2.  Eric's still got that laid-back California style that masks the intensity with which he played.  It was fun seeing him.

UPDATE (N): Here is the segment. Thanks to maccabita in the comment thread for the pointer:

GO BRUINS

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

The US men's soccer team lost to the Netherlands 2-1 in Amsterdam today, but Bruin alum Carlos Bocanegra scored the only goal for the US on a pretty header.  On the downside, Bruin Jonathan Bornstein gave up a penalty in the first half that resulted in the Dutchmen's first goal. Otherwise, Jon played his usual tough defense and attacked the left right side from his position as left right back.  In addition to his goal, Carlos was solid in the central defense. Here are the highlights:

In the meantime, Lauren Cheney continued her assault on women's world soccer by scoring the winning goal, her fourth in the four-match Algarve Cup, to give the US a 3-2 victory over Germany.  This may be considered Abby Wambach's team, but Lauren's emerging as the team's scorer.  The Algarve Cup is the second-biggest tournament in women's soccer, behind only the women's World Cup.

The New York Times reported today that Sidney Wicks is among eight members elected to the 2010 class of the National Collegiate Basketball hall of Fame.  He's in pretty good company, including one I love--Jerry West--and two I don't particularly like, David Thompson and Christian Laettner.  Sidney was one of my favorite Bruins, a point forward before that position existed, a great defender (take that, Ardis Gilmore!), and a reliable last-second shot taker.  One of the greatest games I ever saw was a UCLA against the world exhibition in which Sidney matched Dr J shot for shot and move for move.  Congrats to Si Wicks.

The Times also reported that Lauren Cheney's goal helped lead the U.S. soccer team to a 2-0 win over Iceland in the Algarve Cup in Portugal, one of the most important tournaments in women's international soccer.  Lauren was a star for four years at UCLA, and I look forward to a long and successful international career from her.

Bruin sophomore Ryan Stoffers turned surprisingly conservative on Final Jeopardy last night and finished second to a kid from Wash U in St. Louis. 

After a horrendous start, Ryan made his move on a couple of categories, including film, and took the lead for a while (not counting his $5,200 deficit from the first night).  He missed two Daily Doubles, but bet conservatively and so was right in the mix at the end.

Final Jeopardy was Kings in the Bible, or something like that, and I guess Ryan decided to make sure he finished no worse than second, because he bet without the aggression that had marked his earlier appearances.  As it turned out, he got it right and the kid from Wash U didn't, leaving Ryan less than $2,000 short.

Anyway, congratulations to Ryan for a great run, for representing UCLA like a champion, and for entertaining us for a couple of weeks in a pretty bleak winter.

With no UCLA hoops tonight, we still have a Bruin to root for.  Ryan Stoffers came from behind to win his semifinal, and now he'll be in the finals tonight and tomorrow, with a shot at becoming the second Bruin in three years to win the event.  His opponents are from Minnesota and Washington U. of St. Louis, three Ivy candidates haveing fallen by the wayside.

Ryan won despite the fact that one of his opponents, from Missouri, characterized by a Alex Trebek as a groupie because Cameron Crowe is her role model, was able to run a category on rock band names, including a daily double.  Ryan came back with a tougher daily double and then was the only contestant to get the Final Jeopardy question.  (A quote including "in harm's way" was the answer; the correct question was "John Paul Jones.")

So good luck again to Ryan, and Go Bruins!  Win one for the Fox!

Ryan Stauffers takes his shot again tonight, on nine days rest (though I think they tape these five at a time).  The first two finalists are from Wash U of St. Louis and the U. of Minnesota.  I think all the Ivies are gone, but I don't remember who Ryan's competitors wil be.

This time, obviously, I don't know the outcome, but we don't have much to root for this winter, and besides, here on the East Coast, we couldn't get outside if we wanted to.  

Good luck, Ryan!  Go Bruins! 

The NY Times reported this morning that Ed O'Bannon and his legal team have been granted the right to look through NCAA documents pertaining to the amount of money the organization makes from the sweat of the unpaid athletes.  While Ed O appears mainly to address the notion of using his image and that of others in promotional films after they've long since graduated, the suit opens up a pretty big can of worms, including some antitrust issues.

I'm not an attorney, so I welcome comments from the many members of the Bar who frequent these posts.  It's interesting that Bruins always seem to be out front when it comes to issues like these, following in the footsteps of their role models.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/sports/ncaabasketball/09ncaa.html?ref=sports

(Hope the link works.  I'm an amateur at this.)

Hey, West Coasters--and even Mountain States people.  Still time to catch a kid named Ryan Stauffers (sp?), who's wearing the blue and gold in Jeopardy's annual college contest.  I won't tell you how it turned out (I'm on the other side of the country, so I saw it); suffice to say he did a lot better than Ragovic on his best night.

A Bruin won this competition a couple of years ago--when it was at $C, no less.  Tune into Jeopardy tonight and give an eight-clap to the best university--academic and athletic--in the country.

Anyone who's read my occasional posts and comments knows that I'm obsessed with the notion that UCLA has the top combination of athletics and academics anywhere.  We're still ahead of the tree in total championships, and Duck is still a long way from our 11 hoops titles.

So here's one:  UCLA is the top-rated school in the US News rankings of major universities to win a bowl game.

Furd lost.  Northwestern lost.  Cal (ranked slightly above us despite their more lenient athletic admission policies) lost.  That leaves UCLA at #24 as the top ranked team to win a bowl game.

Here are the rankings.  http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings

We were once as high as 13.  Let's hope the current budget crisis doesn't cost us.  The UC flagships remain tops among state universities.  I'd like to see us stay there.  And keep winning bowls.  And championships. 

I know SoCal has taken a hit in the baseball postseason, with the Angels and the boys in blue going out, but for Bruins, there are two bright spots:  Chase Utley and Ben Francisco.  Both are starting tonight for the Phillies, so if everyone in Bruins Nation can forgive the Phils for knocking off the Dodgers,  I hope you'll root for the Bruins in red.
Chase has become a Philadelphia favorite--he and his wife are active in the community, especially in animal rescue, and Ben came over from Cleveland with Cliff Lee.

Just watched the finish of the K State game at Louisiana-Lafayette on ESPN-360.  I lived in Louisiana for a while, and I knew the campus as USL, but by any name the Rajin' Cajuns aren't exactly a big-time football program.  Against K State they looked to be quicker, faster, and sharper.  I don't know whether K State is the doormat of the Big 12, but if they play like they did tonight, I can't see them winning many conference games.

For us, that translates into this:  we'd better not go into next week's game with the kind of smugness we saw from Tennessee today.  We're going to be big favorites, I guess, probably at least the 9 Tennessee was given over us.  K State looked vulnerable to the run, which would be great for the Bruins, because it would give us a chance to return to the possession game we enjoyed against SDSU.  I don't think Prince will see the kind of presuure he saw today, and maybe next week they'll call it if he gets a helmet hit to the head.

By the way, is there another geezer out there who remembers whether it was Tommy Prothro or Pepper Rodgers who vowed never to play again in Knoxville after the zebras stole a game from him?  I think it was Prothro, but I don't have the energy to look it up, and I don't remember.

Anyway, this good be a better season than we expected, or maybe still expect, but as Ben Roethlisberger said after the Steelers' win the other night, let's take it a game at a time and see where it leads us.

Go Bruins!