There is a wire service article out there saying Lebron had a benign growth removed from his mouth.  Perhaps that was his foot?

Read it here at the WWL

Maybe I'm too old school, but I still beleive in courtesy and sportsmanship.  I never liked players doing trash talking.  When I was playing pick-up at the Wooden Center, I used to take extra pleasure from beating a trash talker.  LeBron's explanation that he wasn't being a bad sport was wrong.  It was the definition of poor sportsmanship.

How to cover a big story.....

It seems that going to booster functions and not asking questions is the way to get information.  Who knew?  I guess I could have worked at the fishwrap.  Along with many others here, I used to read the Times every day,  Jim Murray was a gift to us.  When I lived overseas, I had a postal subscription for a while.  No longer.  I live in Redskins territory now, and the Post is so bad, that when there isn't enough Redskins news, they sometimes combine the Sports and want-ads.  Really.  But at least they are willing to take the Redskins to taks for their failuresl, and try to hold them accountable to the fans.

There is a very complimentary article in today's Washington Post about Chris Horton.  He was drafted by the Redskins in the last round, and is the only rookie, other than the punter, who is getting significant playing time.  Most if it is on special teams, but the coaching staff is very high on him.  They are giving a lot of credit to the fact that he was coached by DeWayne Walker, who brought over the defensive schemes of the Redskins to UCLA.

Rookie Fits Right In

I don't think it will really surprise most of us, but Doh!n is reporting that Josh will be making the announcement that he is returning to UCLA, in search of the National Championship.

In the same article, as some here had speculated, the paperwork for J'mison Morgan hadn't made it to UCLA, hence the reason for the delay in his official announcement that he'll become a Bruin next year.

Looking at how spring is coming around, the championship "drought" is ended, with the distinct possibility of more banners to come before the school year is out.  It does make one grateful for having been fortunate enough to have attended the finest university out there.  There are schools with fine academics, others with excellent athletics programs, others in spectacular settings, but only one combines the best of everything into one exceptional school.

Let's go Bruins, and get #103! (and more)

I had to watch the game last night on MMOD, which actually worked, amazingly enough, after the debacle of last Thursday.  It was good to see the Bruins come out and play a very tough team, and get the "W".  
Even with the offense not hitting on all cylinders, a team that is fundamentally sound on the defensive side of things can still control a game.
I'm very much looking forward to the game tomorrow.  At least this one be be on TV in the DC area, and not blacked out so CBS can show an east coast team.  
Another "W" will make this a great weekend.  Today is my 6 month wedding anniversary, and my sister just got back the results of her blood work.  A year ago she was given a year to live, with ovarian cancer, and Tuesday she'll have her last chemo session.  Her numbers have all dropped to well within the normal range, and she only has to have blood work done monthly for the next year or so.
On the more mundane side, the house painting is going well, too.  No more walls that look like a smoker had lived in the house for 30 years.

All in all, it's been a good start to the weekend.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings?poll=1

And the Bruins are back up to #2 in both the coaches poll and the sportswriters.  As I have said here before, in basket ball, the polls don't mean a whole lot, however, they can be a judge of relative strengths of programs.  Even saying that, having seen some games by some highly ranked teams, I have to wonder how many voters are just going by what they see on Sports Center and what they read in the box score.  

Still, it's good to see that the Pac-10 in general, and the Bruins in particular, are getting some well deserved recognition.  

And I'm quite happy to say that due to the efforts of the best wife on the planet, I'll be going to see the Cal game on Feb. 22.  These tickets are one of the best Christmas tickets I have ever received.  It'll be nice to get back to LA for a quick visit, and see some basketball, UCLA style.  She has never been to LA, so I'll get to show her some of the sights, and show her my old stomping grounds.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  At least I know that it won't be like what it is in the DC area right now (sub 20's most of the day)

Now that Nick Saban has left the Miami Dolphins for the greener pastures of the University of Alabama, perhaps there might be interest from the Dolphins organization in hiring pom-pom Pete. That might be good for a couple reasons. pom-pom has expressed a desire to coach where he controls all the personnel decisions, and I think he might get that in south Florida. With the very real possibility of NCAA sanctions coming down at usc, he might be willing to move on, and attempt to succeed in the NFL again. The other good thing would be him coaching the Dolphins. He is not a good coach at the NFL level, and that means my wife's team, the Patriots, would have one less team to worry about in the AFC. Overall, I think it's a good fit. In the meantime, if Atlanta does want to take koach (or he is no longer in the job for another reason -[hint hint DG]), we can get a new guy in at the same time as usc, and start from scratch in the local recruiting. If we can get a dynamic personality in who can start getting the 5 star players back to Westwood, we're on the way back to where we should be.

Her is the link to the epsn story on the Bruins 4-0 win over Virginia to advance to tomorrows soccer championship game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2683678

The sen dour support to the Men's team, and hope that they bring home title number 100 tomorrow.

For those of you (like me) who couldn't get out to the Rose Bowl or a bar to see the game, let's hope that the football team comes out, plays well, and brings the Victory Bell back to Westwood.  It's been covered in that ugly red color for far too long.  I recall the first time I saw the bell at Rose Bowl, and how I was clueless about what it was.  there are probably students at UCLA who don't realize that there is a trophy that goes along with the a victory over usc.  Let's give them a lesson in the history of the rivaly.

With basketball starting up we can expect some beat downs on usc, but we need to get the "W" in football.  I have had to put up with the snarky emails from the usc people that I work with, and it's time to end that.  UCLA is an outstanding institution that deserves to have an excellent football team representing it on the field of play.

Go Bruins!  Beat sc!

Here's the link to an si.com blog

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/football/ncaa/2006/10/five-things-we-learned-this-weekend_ 22.html

About 5 minutes into the game, I knew that unless the Bruins changed the game plan drastically, we were going to lose big.  Trying to run with Florida was a big mistake.  All season long, the Bruins had made other teams get out of their game plan, tonight, Florida took us out of ours.  I also have to applaud the terrific "D" put on Arron.  Florida had a good game plan, and executed it well.  Tomorrow, I'll go into work here in Sarasota, and take my lumps from the Florida grads I work with, but I can still look back with satisfaction at a very successful season.  I look forward to next year.