We are now on the third day of the media's Justin Combs scholarship watch. Thanks to the fundamentally flawed ‘journalism' by CNN, LA Weekly and the (London) Daily Mail leading the way, the media is on a feeding frenzy dealing with the manufactured story of the son of rap mogul Sean (P Diddy) Combs accepting a football scholarship from UCLA. The idea that taxpayer money is being used to pay for a wealthy celebrity's kid to attend college has been used as the hook to make this a nationally relevant story.

There are two problems with this: First off, the storyline that taxpayer money is funding the scholarship is not true. Second, the Combs family is far from alone in the role of the famous, wealthy family who sees one of its offspring earn an athletic scholarship. They are alone in drawing the ire of the media, fueled by imagined ‘taxpayers', after seeing their child reach such an individual achievement. One has to wonder why this family has been deemed to be the test case - and to his credit, Michael Wilbon wondered the same thing yesterday on PTI.

The basic problem with the journalism of this story is the idea that the scholarship that Justin Combs has received is being paid for with taxpayer money, or that his scholarship is taking away financial aid opportunities from low-income students hoping to attend UCLA. The entire basis of this argument is false, and as I found, even a few minutes of research - just a little bit of googling - clearly shows just how Justin's scholarship is being funded.

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The UCLA Women's Golf team is down to the final 18 holes of its season, getting ready to play the final round of the NCAA Championships in Tennessee.

The Bruins finished the third round on Thursday with the same 11-stroke deficit to tournament-leading Alabama that the team faced at the end of the second round. What that obscures is what happened in those 18 holes. UCLA shot +18 as a team on Wednesday, matching Alabama's score but falling from a tie for 2nd place to a tie for 9th. Making up 11 strokes in one day may simply be too much to ask, but the team still has confidence.

"Today was pretty tough," Head Coach Carrie Forsyth said. "The conditions on the back nine made scoring difficult. We did a lot of good things today, and although we are disappointed that we didn't make up ground on the leader, we are still within distance. We are one good round away from accomplishing our goal and are going into tomorrow with a positive attitude and calm confidence."

Looking at yesterday's scores and the leaderboard, it seems that teams that started the day playing the back 9 fared much better than teams that started on the 1st hole, so it may have been a matter of conditions on that part of the course turning difficult as the afternoon went on.

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It is another beautiful Spring Sunday morning in California, and a couple of Bruin teams will be in action. Ryan will have a Baseball open thread up for the 1pm game against Cal in Berkeley. Meanwhile, the Men's Tennis team's NCAA Quarterfinal match against Ohio State is already in progress. The Bruins lead the match 1-0 after taking the doubles point. Live scoring and video streams for the match are available.

Wrapping up yesterday's Bruin action, the Women's Tennis team advanced to a national semifinal match against Southern Cal by beating Cal, 4-1 in the quarterfinal round in Athens, GA. While the Men's Golf team slipped a touch from their 2nd place start to Saturday, their 3rd place finish in the Bowling Green regional was good enough to win advancement to the NCAA Championships for the 10th straight year. And while these teams will be continuing their seasons for the next few days or weeks, Softball saw their season end yesterday afternoon at Easton Stadium, falling 2-1 to Florida State in the NCAA Regional.

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Last week, tasser10 and gbruin began to look at the post-spring practice state of the UCLA Football team, by looking at the depth chart at linebacker/DB, and the guys in the trenches - the offensive and defensive lines. Today, we'll take a look at the running backs and the receivers.

As both tasser and gbruin noted, Coach Mora has already called this exercise pointless, saying injuries and ongoing competition make the current depth chart "fluid as water" and already obsolete. While it makes the inevitable springtime football obsession talk - including these posts - pretty meaningless over the long haul, that really is the best approach. We want to see the best players on the field this season, and the opener against Rice is still more than 3 months away. A lot will happen between now and then. So consider this post more of a midterm grade or a progress report. There is still plenty of time for players to shine, or get passed up by those who do. In short, read the following at your own risk.

RUNNING BACKS

Before spring ball began, AHMB looked at the Bruin running backs that were returning from the 2011 squad. With the coaching change and the resulting shift in offensive philosophy, the depth chart - and even the usage of many of our offensive skill players was an open question. We didn't come up with a formal depth chart at Running Back or at Fullback - or receiver for that matter. But, there were some thoughts on how players stood up, with the rough conception of a depth chart as follows:

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While many of us are celebrating Mother's Day with our loved ones (and a happy Mother's Day to all the mom's of BN), some Bruin Student-Athletes are doing their mother's proud today on the athletic field.

After defeating Eastern Kentucky 4-0 in a first round NCAA Tournament match at the LA Tennis Center, the Men's Tennis team is back in action this afternoon against the University of San Diego. The match begins at 1pm at the LATC, with live stats available after the match begins here. The winner advances to the NCAA Team Championships, starting next weekend in Athens, GA.

The Bruin Track and Field teams are about to start day 2 of the Pac-12 championships in Eugene. UCLA finished day 1 leading a tight men's field (1. UCLA, 45 pts; 2. Oregon, 44 pts; 3. Arizona, 43 pts; 4. Washington, 41 pts.), while on the women's side, Ida Storm led the way with a hammer throw result good enough to earn all-conference honors. The team finished 7th on the scoreboard after the first day. Live scoring for day 2 of the conference championships is available here.

GO BRUINS!

Video via YouTube.com/UCLA

While the Bruins finished their Spring Practices on Saturday evening at the Rose Bowl, there is still plenty coming out of the weekend for the state of UCLA Football.

While the offense performed very well during the Spring Game, and the quarterbacks particularly were putting up numbers that we have not seen in years from a UCLA QB, the quality of the defenses on the field at particular times was an unknown factor in Brehaut and Hundley's successes. Both Jon Gold and Peter Yoon noted the state of the Bruin defense - and the guys that got picked on a bit - in their respective post-scrimmage reports. Gold on the Defensive Line:

The defensive line was a bit Jekyl and Hyde, alternating great push with bad push back. Datone Jones and Cassius Marsh looked stout, and Donovan Carter had a good sack, but overall, not what you'd want up front.

And Yoon with the DB's:

The UCLA defense is playing quite short-handed because of injuries, especially in the secondary and linebacker corps. Three long touchdown passes went in the direction of walk-on cornerback Erick Zumwalt, a freshman generously listed at 5 feet 10, who was forced into duty because of the lack of depth in the secondary.

Also, the defense was playing a vanilla coverage to not give away much in the line of schemes and strategy on such a public stage.

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Coach Mora's post-practice media session (YouTube.com/UCLA)

Thursday afternoon saw the Bruins practicing on Spaulding Field for the last time this spring. With the Spring Game set for Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl, yesterday's session was not a particularly intensive session. As Jon Gold noted in his post-practice report, the team practices in shells rather than full gear, while the scout team saw more action than usual.

In the major news coming out of the session, Coach Mora confirmed that he will not name a starting quarterback at the end of the Spring practices.

"I'm going to announce our starting quarterback on Aug. 16, after two weeks of summer camp," Mora said. "We're planning on having real intense scrimmages on the 15th and the 16th and right after that, it is go time."

... "Noel and talked about it the last couple days and we decided that is the best thing to do," Mora said.

Announcing the starting quarterback on the 16th of August gives him - along with his teammates and the coaches - two weeks to prepare for the season-opening trip to Houston to take on Rice. The decision to push back the decision is likely going to help Prince and Hundley to some degree in their efforts to win the competition - Prince by allowing him to put his recent shoulder injury behind him, and Hundley simply by having more practices available for him to hone his game and catch up to Brehaut and Prince - whether they be the official practices in August, or unofficial passing drills and games with his teammates throughout the next couple of months - which he had started to do in the past couple of weeks.

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Jim Mora After UCLA Spring Practice #12 (via UCLA)

The big development from yesterday's practice came from the post-game media session with Coach Mora. On Friday, gbruin noted that Isaiah Bowens suffered a knee injury during Thursday's practice, when he was hit by a teammate's helmet. Hopes were that further medical examination would find no severe damage, but the news was not good.

UCLA linebacker Isaiah Bowens tore his ACL on Thursday in practice and will undergo surgery in the next couple of weeks, coach Jim Mora said Saturday.

... Bowens suffered the injury during a play late in team drills Thursday. He crumpled to the ground after taking a helmet to his knee and then hobbled off the field.

"I couldn't even watch the video of it," Mora said. "He took a shot on that thing."

In our preview leading into spring ball, we saw Isaiah in more of a depth role than as a key playmaker in the coming season, but particularly with the shift to a 3-4 base D, a role of value to this team. Having taken a non-injury redshirt during his 2009 freshman season, he will lose a year of eligibility as he misses this one, and after his knee heals and he completes the needed rehab, Isaiah will be able to return in 2013 as a redshirt senior. Best wishes to him for an uneventful operation and a smooth rehabilitation.

While Bowens and Librado Barocio have suffered season-ending injuries, Kevin Prince has been working through a sore shoulder over the past couple of weeks.

The injury is not thought to be serious, but Prince was severely limited Saturday, taking only about a half-dozen reps in live team drills while Brett Hundley and Richard Brehaut each got about two dozen.

"His shoulder is a little bit dinged up, but he's fine," Mazzone said. "That's why I backed off on him a little bit."

While Mazzone noted that the soreness has been present over the last few practices, it only led to him being limited in practice on Saturday. Practice reports - from yesterday as well as throughout the Spring - have painted Kevin as the #3 man in the 3-way race at QB. He has never really led the competition during these sessions, but this injury certainly hasn't helped his case to earn the starting job.

The sore shoulder has clearly hampered his performance. Over the last week, Prince appears to have fallen behind in the quarterback competition because of a series of bad throws and interceptions. He has lost velocity and accuracy on his throws and has been throwing with an awkward shotput type of motion.

While Prince keeps falling behind in the 3 men QB competition this spring, Brett Hundley keeps moving forward. Let's get to that exciting development after the jump.

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The twelth session of this year's spring football practice - and of the Jim Mora era in Westwood - is going to begin at 1pm this afternoon at Spaulding Field. If you're lucky enough to be in Westwood today, you can make your way over and take in some UCLA football action (practices, as always, are open to the public). With the Spring Game just one week away, this is one of the last chances to see the team before the fall.

If anyone is heading out to Spaulding, please fire away with your thoughts on what you have seen, whether it be a few words while you are at the field or after getting home or to the dorms later this afternoon. For the rest of us, fire away with your thoughts on UCLA football, position battles you're looking at now with five practices under our belts, what you're hoping to see by the end of spring, etc.

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The first round of this year's NFL Draft is going to be starting shortly, at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT. There won't be any Bruins getting a call tonight, but there is plenty for football fans - whether you prefer the college game or the pros - to take interest in.

The very top of the draft is set: The Colts will take Andrew Luck with the #1 overall pick, while the Washington Redskins have, as expected, announced that they will select Robert Griffin III with the #2 pick. The Cleveland Browns have just swapped picks with the Minnesota Vikings, and are expected to take Alabama running back Trent Richardson with the #3 pick.

The draft is being televised live on ESPN and streamed on ESPN3. There is plenty of online coverage as well: SBNation's draft coverage can be found here, while CNNSI.com has several of their writers giving analysis and ESPN's draft tracker is also live. Don't forget to keep an eye on the SBN blog for your favorite NFL team, or teams taking players of your interest and/or making crazy trades throughout the evening.

Coach Mora's post-practice media session (via UCLA's YouTube channel)

The Bruins returned to Spaulding Field on Tuesday afternoon for the tenth session of Spring Football. With the fourth of five weeks of practices beginning, the coaching staff should be able to start on their analysis of how the early depth chart will look as the team heads toward fall camp - which players can be expected to see a significant role in the fall. Of course, the competition at quarterback is the one garnering most of the attention.

After a couple of weeks that saw all of the QB's in camp get roughly equal time, the coaches have focused the crucial reps on the guys with a real shot of being under center when the Bruins take the field on August 29th against Rice, in a competition which has not seen any of the trio take a meaningful advantage.

Prince, Brehaut and Hundley received the majority of the reps in 11-on-11 team drills during Tuesday's practice. Brehaut had the better day, though most of his work came against second- and third-team defenders.

... "After 30 years, it's a gut feeling," Mazzone said. "You know when a starting quarterback walks onto the field or runs into a huddle. That's what I'm waiting to see, one of these guys grab it and start running with it."

While the QB's are in the highest-profile fight for a starting role, there is a strong competition brewing in the trenches opposite Brehaut, Hundley and Prince. In his post-practice media session, Coach Mora had plenty of praise for the D-line - the depth and level of talent of the players, but also with the coaching of neophyte D-line coach Angus McClure. Even with Ellis McCarthy a few months from donning the blue and gold, he sees 8 players who he can see being competitive this fall, with a couple of guys that can legitimately should be able to play at the next level. Tuesday's unofficial D-line depth chart, per Chris Foster:

The first team has had Datone Jones and Cassius Marsh at defensive ends and Brandon Willis at nose tackle. They are being pushed by Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Kevin McReynolds, Seali'i Epenesa, Iuta Tepa and Donovan Carter

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Ralph Irvin wrapping up the scrimmage (via UCLA's YouTube Channel)

The Bruins wrapped up the third week of spring practice by running what Coach Mora earlier in the week termed a modified scrimmage. Yesterday's session was shorter than the normal practices that the team has gone through so far in the spring, with the higher intensity envisioned by the coaching staff and subtraction of drills (for non-injured players) in favor of running plays in particular game situations throughout the afternoon leading them to narrow down the number of plays run.

Going by how the session unfolded and the debriefing that Mora gave to the media after the scrimmage (video here), the goal was as much seeing that the players were able to play at the pace and with the determination that the coaches are demanding than in seeing how well the players were performing. Not saying that the individual performances from "Separation Saturday" are not going to be important when the initial depth charts come out at the end of the spring, but that until Mora and the coaches study today's film, the takeaway is the effort of the players, and how well they have bought in.

The quarterbacks drew plenty of attention on Saturday, for good reason given the unanswered questions at the position. The battle has narrowed, if just slightly with TJ Milweard seeing fewer reps in recent days, and Jerry Neuheisel slightly behind the Brehaut/Hundley/Prince trio. Miguel Melendez filled in for Jon Gold, and shared a few thoughts on the Daily News blog.

Brett Hundley picked up some rhythm as the scrimmage progressed, connecting with Shaquelle Evans for a touchdown after tripping for a loss. Jerry Neuheisel looked sharp at times connecting several times with Johnathan Franklin and Malcom Jones.

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Coach Mora's post-practice media session (via UCLA's YouTube channel)

Thursday's practice marked the halfway point of Coach Mora's first spring practice in charge of UCLA Football. After two and a half weeks, the tone of the practices are moving away from setting the quick pace and tempo which the team has lacked in recent years. I suppose one question arising from that is whether the early work has had the right effect on the team, or whether - despite the available roster giving Mora more players than he ever dreamed of having in the NFL - he and his staff are concerned with keeping enough players healthy through the next couple of weeks.

News on the injury front keeps coming in, as yet another Bruin has seen his season end on Spaulding Field before it can even begin. During Tuesday's practice, Librado Barocio went down with a knee injury. After yesterday's practice, Coach Mora shared the bad news.

UCLA reserve cornerback Librado Barocio has a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will be out indefinitely, coach Jim Mora said Thursday.

Barocio, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound sophomore walk-on, injured his knee Tuesday during practice when his planted his foot during a coverage drill. He tried to get up and walk it off, but immediately slumped back to the ground. He will have surgery to repair the knee as soon as the swelling goes down.

I don't know what it is - bad luck, a poor quality practice surface, or that a few years from now we will find out that Spaulding was built on top of a native american burial ground - but the field had claimed its share of victims. While Librado may not be as critical to the team as Ben Olson and Pat Cowen were in the year they went down, he has been an exceptionally hard worker and positive influence on his teammates, as Jon Gold noted in his post-practice piece.

Aside from that unfortunate news, the story from Thursday was a bit mixed.

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The Seventh session of this year's Spring Football Practice - and of the Jim Mora era in Westwood - is going to begin shortly, at 3:45pm on Spaulding Field. With the team heading into the third week of practices, the team is nearing the halfway point of Spring Practice.

As we have done with the first six sessions, we are putting up an open thread. If anyone is heading out to Spaulding, please fire away with your thoughts on what you have seen, whether it'd be a few words while you are at the field or after getting home or to the dorms later this afternoon.

Today is the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier and helping to usher in a more enlightened era of fairness in America. Major League Baseball is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day for the 9th time, with on-field ceremonies before today's games while all players and coaches are wearing Jackie's no. 42 in his honor.

April 15 was dedicated as Jackie Robinson Day in 2004, to honor the anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His number has been retired league-wide since 1997, but starting in 2009, Major League Baseball has requested that all on-field personnel don that special jersey for one day.

... "When Jackie Robinson took the field in Brooklyn 65 years ago, he transcended the sport he loved and helped change our country in the most powerful way imaginable," Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig said.

"It is a privilege for Major League Baseball to celebrate Jackie's enduring legacy each year, and we are proud that every April 15th, our young fans around the world have an opportunity to learn everything that the No. 42 stands for -- courage, grace and determination."

And we are proud that we can claim Jackie as one of our own not just as an American icon, but as a UCLA Bruin. But no matter how you claim his spirit, Jackie's day has not gotten old for the players, as Juan Pierre told MLB.com.

"It's still one of my favorite days on the calendar of the baseball year," Pierre said. "Just the person he was, man. It's the reason we still celebrate him -- not because of what he did on the baseball field, because of the kind of man he was. I still get excited every [year] and get geared up for it."

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Coach Mora's post-practice media session (via ESPNLA)

Tuesday afternoon saw the Bruins return to practice at Spaulding Field, and the first live tackling of the year. Coach Mora noted a little bit of tentativeness early on with the return of physical practice action, while on the sidelines, there was some star power. Future Bruin QB Devin Fuller's uncle - aka Sinbad - was at practice, as was Keyshawn Johnson. Trojan though he is, this was not Keyshawn's first appearance at a UCLA practice in recent years, and as Jon Gold noted in his wrapup is close with Coach Yarber,

The Quarterbacks continued to see a pretty even workload in practice, seeming to be doing a solid job, at least in terms of being early in the spring.

... Brett Hundley has looked better every day, but is still a little tentative. Richard Brehaut was behind on a handful of throws, as was Kevin Prince. Jerry Neuheisel is throwing the ball really well.

After practice, Coach Mora touched on the overall framework that he and Coach Mazzone have envisioned for the QB's this spring. At this point in the process, letting all of the QB's get a good number of reps, though as he put it "competitive reps" - the drills most approximating game conditions - have been focused on the returning quarterbacks. The coaches are looking to narrow down the reps further starting either next week or in the week after, concentrating on the QB's likely to play a role this season.

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The fourth session of this year's Spring Football Practice - and of the Jim Mora era in Westwood - is going to begin shortly, at 3:45pm on Spaulding Field.

As we have done with the first three sessions, with practices starting up and the interest in how Coach Mora and staff is shaking up the program, we are putting up an open thread. If anyone is heading out to Spaulding, please fire away with your thoughts on what you have seen, whether it be a few words while you are at the field or after getting home or to the dorms later this afternoon.

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Coach Mora's post-practice presser. (via UCLA's YouTube Channel)

Yesterday saw the second round of UCLA Football's Spring Practice, and befitting the early stage of these sessions and of the regime of Jim Mora, there is not much concrete to take away re where players stand on the depth chart. However, the attitude in practice seems to have taken a more aggressive and focused turn as compared to the past few years, as told by Jon Gold in his post-practice report.

If two days are any indication, the attitude of the UCLA football team is changing, from the top on down. There have been more dives, more dust-ups and scrums than I can remember at any spring practice in three years, and it doesn't appear that the players are getting coaxed into it.

As well, he notes the relative youth of the new assistants and their willingness to get involved in drills with their players.

The open competition at Quarterback has grabbed much of the print media's attention over the first couple of days. While looking at the longer run, it is safe to say that not everybody on the field is going to have a strong shot at being under center in the Thursday night opener at Rice on August 30th - Mike Fafaul and Jerry Neuheisel are the longest of shots, while the true freshman TJ Milweard has to grasp the speed of the college game as well as learn the offense - Coach Mora and Noel Mazzone do want an open competition for the spot. Unlike last fall's "open competition" between Kevin Prince and Richard Brehaut, the coaches have given all of the QB's a fair number of reps at this early stage, and hope to keep it that way at least through the first couple weeks of practice. In terms of which player is participating in which order, the key to date is not the perception of where he is going to shake out by the end of summer, but simply getting information on what they can do.

"I grabbed [Prince] and threw him in there first because he was our starting quarterback, but it's a wide-open deal," Mazzone said. "After that, I just kind of turned around. They learned real quick that I turn around and the guy I see first I put in next. So they're all right there behind me."

... [Mora] never has seen any of these quarterbacks play live before this week and would like to build a database of information before he even starts to try and make any kind of decisions.

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The second session of this year's Spring Football Practice - and of the Jim Mora era in Westwood - is going to begin shortly, with a scheduled starting time of 3:45pm. With practices starting up and the interest in how Coach Mora and staff is shaking up the program, it seems like a good time for a Spring Practice open thread. Anyone heading out to Spaulding, please fire away with your thoughts on what you have seen, whether it be a few words while you are at the field or after getting home or to the dorms later tonight.

GO BRUINS!

Coach Mora talking with the media after Tuesday's practice - via UCLA's YouTube Channel

It has been just over 3 months since we last saw the UCLA Football team in action, falling to Illinois at a converted baseball park on New Year's Eve. Now, after the winter of our discontent and a change in the program's on-field leadership, the team returned to the practice field for the first time yesterday afternoon. This was the first of fifteen practice sessions which will run over the next five weeks, concluding with the Spring Game at the Rose Bowl on May 5th.

It seemed that the key objective of yesterday's practice was to get the players used to the pace of practice - the tempo - that Coach Mora and his staff demand from their players. There were drills to be sure (though not as many individual drills as in past years), but as important was getting the team used to being active during the entirety of practice, of exerting full effort during activities, drills and conditioning, but also working between drills and running from station to station. It is a positive effort to maximize the limited time that his players are on the practice field - a consideration that he did not have to worry about during his NFL coaching career - but also getting the players used to working in hurry-up situations in the normal course of business as well as simply one way to effect culture change among the players and inside the program. Peter Yoon got reactions from Richard Brehaut and Kevin Prince on the change in attitude.

"He's big time into tempo," quarterback Kevin Prince said of Mora. "He wants practice firing on all cylinders and sprinting to the next drill and no laziness whatsoever. He's really focused on creating and different attitude and a different mentality here at UCLA so I think today was a step forward in that direction. Obviously we have a long way to go but things are going to change."

... "I loved it," quarterback Richard Brehaut said. "Everything is different. The coaches are different, the offense is different the tempo is different. Like everyone says, we're trying to change the culture around here and we started that process today."

According to BN'ers who were at practice as well as Jon Gold, all of the quarterbacks got reps on Tuesday. There was not any specifically intense drills or workouts for the signal callers, but they were constantly active. As Yoon put it in his ESPNLA spring practice article:

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The first session of this year's Spring Football Practice - and of the Jim Mora era in Westwood - is about to begin. With these practices starting up, and ongoing through the next few weeks, it seems like a good time for a Spring Practice open thread. Anyone heading out to Spaulding, please fire away with your thoughts on what you have seen, whether it be a few words while you are at the field or after getting home or to the dorms later tonight.

GO BRUINS!

We are continuing with our Bruins Nation 2012 spring football previews. We have had several installments so far which have looked at a program overview and Coach Mora and coordinators, position coaches here and here, and the defensive scheme. We have also looked at specific units on the field, including the defensive line, linebackers, special teams, defensive backs, offensive line and running backs.

Today, we are looking at the receivers, a group that will look different from what we saw last fall in scheme as well as in personnel. The wide receivers are being coached by Eric Yarber, coming to UCLA after 2 years coaching receivers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Earlier in his career, he coached at ASU, Oregon State and Washington.

The passing game is going to be quite different this coming season that what we have seen the last couple of seasons. While the Pistol having been locked away (for good) would be enough for many Bruins, Coach Mazzone's offense in particular will give our receivers plenty to do - and give even the lower portions of the depth chart some looks throughout the year.

A look at the guys lining up on the outside this spring after the jump.

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After a pair of victories on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, the Bruins go for the series sweep this afternoon against Utah. With normal Sunday starter Zack Weiss still dealing with shoulder soreness, the Bruins will send Grant Watson to the mound this afternoon, hoping to put last Monday's disastrous performance against Washington State behind him. The Utes counter with Tony Vocca, a righthanded junior transfer making his 3rd start for Utah - in 27 innings pitched this season, he has a 6.26 era and has allowed nearly 2 baserunners to reach per inning.

UCLA radio is not making the trip to Utah, but the Utes do offer a free online radio feed. Like always, there is GameTracker to follow along with and for all your game updates, thoughts, stats and other goodies, Ryan's UCLA baseball Twitter has it all. This is your Utah Sunday game open thread so share updates as well as your thoughts and reactions here.

The Bruins and Utes will be starting up game 2 of this weekend's series in Salt Lake City in a few minutes. Utah fans might like to forget that last night's series opener ever happened, as the 6th-ranked UCLA squad did not provide a very hospitable welcome to the Pac-12, scoring in 7 different innings - including a four run 3rd and a five run 8th - while Adam Plutko and Zack Ortiz combined on a 5-hit shutout to give the Bruins a 16-0 victory.

Nick Vander Tuig will start this afternoon for the Bruins, coming off of a performance last weekend against WSU that was not among his best, but was enough to hold the Cougars back long enough for the UCLA bats to catch fire in a 12-3 win at JRS. Utah will send Brock Duke to the mound, a Junior righthander who despite being the Saturday starter, has been the Utes best pitcher to date (2-0, 2.43 era in 29 innings).

UCLA radio is not making the trip to Utah, but the Utes do offer a free online radio feed. Like always, there is GameTracker to follow along with and for all your game updates, thoughts, stats and other goodies, Ryan's UCLA baseball Twitter has it all. This is your Utah Saturday game open thread so share updates as well as your thoughts and reactions here.

With spring break giving the Bruins a week without midweek action, UCLA Baseball is back in action this afternoon with the first road trip of the conference season. The trip to Salt Lake City also serves as the team's first real experience with the newly expanded Pac-12 Conference - with Colorado not currently fielding a Baseball team, this series with Utah will be the only opportunity to welcome the newcomers.

UCLA enters the weekend tied for 1st place in the Pac-12 with a 4-2 record in conference play, and ranked 6th in the nation with a 17-5 overall record. Last weekend, the Bruins took 2 out of 3 games to win the series against Washington State - the second straight series win at JRS in opening Pac-12 play. Utah is tied for 6th in the Pac-12 with a 3-3 conference record, but is just 6-17 overall. Adam Plutko will take the mound for UCLA, coming off of a win last Friday night against Wazzu (6ip, 2er, 10k's) while Utah will use Joe Pond, a Junior righthander who strikes a lot of guys out, but as Ryan noted in his series preview, allows plenty of batters to reach base.

UCLA radio is not making the trip to Utah, but the Utes do offer a free online radio feed. You can also get the game updates, notes, observations and all the other goodies from Ryan's UCLA baseball twitter. This is your Utah series opener open thread so share updates as well as your thoughts and reactions here.

One half of the Final Four participants have been now been set, and this afternoon we get to watch the last two teams earn their trip to New Orleans. Yesterday, we were fortunate enough to watch a pair of great games to kick off the elite eight, including Louisville's epic comeback win over Florida as well as Ohio State's toppling of 1-seed Syracuse. Let's hope that today's contestants are as compelling.

There are two games being played today. Kentucky and Baylor will start play shortly in Atlanta, with the winner facing Ohio State in the National Semifinal. ESPN's extensive preview of the game is here, while Stewart Mandel's preview of both games is here - he sees Kentucky winning pretty decisively. The late game looks to be a closer affair, with the continuing absence of Kendall Marshall for UNC going up against the tendency of Kansas to fall short under Bill Self. ESPN.com College Basketball blog's preview is here.

Today's schedule is below. Both of today's games are being televised on CBS, and streamed online via MMOD ($3.99 for the remainder of the tournament).

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The Tournament is really getting down to crunch time. After last night's games we are down to the final Elite Eight teams. There was a good bit of drama yesterday - notably the first overtime game of this year's Tournament, the near-massive upset of UNC by the University of Ohio - but also NC State coming close to effecting Kansas's traditional departure from March Madness.

There are a pair of games being contested today, with Rick Pitino's Louisville squad taking on BN's 'favorite' team from Tallahassee for a Final Four spot against the winner of tomorrow's UNC/Kansas game. In the nightcap, the Chalk gets their revenge, with Syracuse playing Ohio State for the right to take on the Kentucky/Baylor winner in the National Semifinals

Today's schedule is below. Both of today's games are being televised on CBS, and streamed online via MMOD ($3.99 for the remainder of the tournament).

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Week 2 of the NCAA Tournament is just about to begin, with Syracuse and Wisconsin starting off the Sweet 16 in Boston. After the flood of upsets last Friday, the weekend saw most of the favorites win to advance to this round. It is especially true of today's matchups, where the only under-seeded team that won in the round of 32 to play today was 6th seeded Cincinnati, having beaten 3-seed Florida State.

While there is no prospect of the epic upsets that we saw early in the tournament, I would expect the lower-seeded team to win at least one or two of tonight's games. Syracuse is pretty vulnerable for a 1-seed, and is roughly a 3-3.5 point favorite over Wisconsin, while Florida has looked rather strong against its tourney competition so far, and is just a 1-2 point underdog to Marquette.

Today's schedule is below. All of the games are being televised, on either CBS or TBS, and streamed online via MMOD ($3.99 for the remainder of the tournament).

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