The Detroit Pistons traded Arron Afflalo and Walter Sharpe to the Denver Nuggets for a bag of chips today. As a Lakers fan I'm a bit disappointed to see Afflalo is going to be playing on a hated rival. Is Joe Dumars giving the Nuggets a contender? First Chauncey Billups for Iverson, now Afflalo and a stiff for a future second round pick. I was hoping Afflalo would get some PT with Stuckey traded away but I guess Detroit is committed to turning over the team, starting with the 2008-2009 opening day starting back court.

The Trojan Men's Golf team came painfully short of winning the 2008 NCAA Men's title. Ugh, 2 strokes!? Anyways I salute them on another great season.

Making things worse those asses from across town are whooping up the individual and team titles. Piling on yet another meaningless title to their total of 103 insignificant NCAA plaques. I HATE LOSING TO UCLA. The only thing worse than UCLA are traitors like OJ Mayo. He recruited himself and took money. What an asshole!

I was reading on scout.com that Malcom Lee has really come into his own. I'm not sure how to take these comments(see below) but it looks good in print:(free story)

Malcolm Lee, the 6-4 junior point guard from Riverside (Calif.) North, gets a slight edge as the top West Coast player in attendance. His length, quickness and deep range make him a very exciting prospect at the next level. Lee has the ball-handling ability to play the one, but his shot is getting good enough that he may play significant minutes at the two. As an illustration of just how much we think of Lee as a prospect, we think he's a better prospect at the same age than Arron Afflalo.

And Afflalo just took UCLA to back-to-back Final Fours, was the Pac-10 POY and a consensus First Team All-American. Of course, Lee has a long way to go before he's the player that Afflalo is today. But, as a prospect, Lee has better physical traits and skills than Afflalo did as a high school junior.

I'm starting to worry about AA's draft status. It's become fashionable just to say 'He's a possible 2nd round pick' and we all know that is bullshit. AA is a top collegiate defender and has a very competitive mindset. I suspect Utah at #25 may be his destination.

Earlier today I went to the UCLA ticketexchange to buy tickets for tomorrow's game. To my shock and amazement I saw 2 tickets available in section 212B row 2 seats 5 & 6 for only $43 each! I scrambled to log in and buy them. I filled out my credit card information, checking everything closely to make sure it was right. I hit submit.

"Incorrect Billing Address"

So I check it.....and it's correct.....so I submit it again.

"Last 3 on back of card are incorrect"

I go back to the form and realize that hadn't populated when I went back in my browser.

So I try a different card. But by the time I entered all that information someone else had bought the tickets because ticketexchange doesn't hold them for two minutes like normal ticketmaster purchases. To make things worse I had the same problem buying the other tickets too.

So I called ticketmaster and they told me the bank rejected it and it wasn't the billing address. I got paid today so I wondered what was up with my bank.

So I called my bank and they said my balance was easily more than enough to cover the purchase. So they sent me to atm/fraud protection. 10 minutes on hold. The lady tells me she can't hear me and to call back. 10 more minutes on hold. This guy tells me that when the 3 digit number on the back of the card was entered incorrectly it shuts down my card. He's turned my card back on now....

I'm left asking myself 'What the hell happend the first time when it said billing address incorrect?'.

To sum up this stupid story, I need 2 tickets for tomorrows game against Oregon St. Please email me at alcor805@yahoo.com if you can help.

Thanks

I was reading the Sean Salisbury article on joesportsfan.com when I came across this gem:

Stupid Quotes From Jay Bilas

"I don't think that the players in this game, are ever going to play in a bigger game than Duke - North Carolina.  There may be games with more on the line, such as the Final 4 or the National Championship...you are judged as a player by how you play in this rivalry." - Jay Bilas insinuating that a Duke-North Carolina game is "bigger" than the National Championship for the players.
_

"Throw out the RPI, that doesn't mean anything to me. Look at the RPI Top 50 wins." - Jay Bilas, comparing the tournament resumes of Bradley and Seton Hall

To clarify: RPI means nothing, but the record versus the teams who have high RPI's is extremely important.  Makes perfect sense.
_

"You also have to watch out for Wichita State and Seton Hall.  If Seton Hall were to beat Wichita State, that would be a seed upset." - Jay Bilas on the 2006 Tournament game between #10 seed Seton Hall and #7 seed Wichita St.

That was the latest lesson in Jay Bilas' class entitled "7 is a lower number than 10".
__

bilas"Minneapolis is the nightmare region of this year's NCAA Tournament...Villanova goes into the tournament with some uncertainty...Nevada (is) a very dangerous team...and Boston College (is) a real threat to reach the Final Four because they're an angry team...down at the bottom of the bracket, teams like Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Florida (are) more than capable of reaching the Final Four...but you've got to watch out for the upset minded teams: teams like Wisconsin Milwaukee (and) Northern Iowa - a Giant Killer...and I'll give you a sleeper, Georgetown a sleeper to reach the Elite Eight and possibly the Final Four." - Jay Bilas during one segment on the Sunday Sportscenter

For those keeping score, in the Minneapolis region Bilas wanted to keep an eye on the following teams - Villanova, Nevada, Boston College, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Florida, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Northern Iowa and Georgetown.  In other words, pretty much everyone

Back in the old days Jim Healy would have humiliated idiots like Jay Bilas.

I noticed a great story on Collison on CBS Sportsline.

'Collison warming UCLA hearts these days, not bench' by Gary Parrish

 At times, it was difficult. Darren Collison, without hesitation, will acknowledge this now, how tough things became last season when, for more minutes than not, the obviously talented UCLA point guard found himself on the bench, watching, observing, yearning for playing time that never quite came in the bundles he would've liked.

 Sure, the Bruins were winning.

That was nice.

Sure, Jordan Farmar was a future pro.

That was understood.

But beyond those details, the facts were simple. Collison was a gifted basketball player good enough to start for most teams, and when this is abundantly clear to everybody you know and everybody who knows you, it can be hard to remain patient and focused on the greater good without wondering whether things are going correctly, whether the plan is going as planned.

 To wonder is natural.

So Collison wondered.

"It was frustrating because I think everybody thinks when they are a high school star that they are going to start in college their first year," Collison said.

"So that was the frustrating part, not getting a starting position. But at the end of the day, I learned a lot, and I just decided to work harder and harder because I knew eventually success would come my way."

Eventually is now.

Nestor,
I'd like to propose a moritorium on all UCLA football discussion on the main page of BN this week. Diaries are fine, but I feel sick about todays game. I don't want to look at a picture of Dorrell or think about his bad coaching this week. I'm sure we can find some news about basketball that would be much more entertaining. Even if it's a blurb about Lorenzo Mata changing his brand of socks or Ben Howland losing weight(which he has). I just can't take any more football this season because it's just not going anywhere.

If you are going to the Rose Bowl again this season. Please wear black as a sign of protest against Dorrell as coach.

With the current state of UCLA football, I can't justify spending another penny or devoting anymore attention to it this season.

I am disgusted by definition.

I counted 4 today because Svoboda didn't have a play call sent in on time(Including all 3 in the second half). I saw Cowan signal the sidelines to hurry up with the call, at least 8-10 times today. We called time out on a short yardage play, only to commit a false start penalty.

I'm left with the impression Notre Dame would only be the 3rd or 4th best team in the Pac-10. And we lost to them. FUCK!

I was anticipating a scathing article from Simers this morning. Attacking Dorrell for giving up with 4+ minutes on the clock and punting the ball away. He eluded to it in his Sunday column.

But when I opened the paper today I found an article on horse racing. I hate his articles on Horse Racing. They make me want to go back to bed in the morning.

Anyway, if you skip down 22 'mini' paragraphs into his column you'll find this afterthought:

AS FOR Karl Dorrell and whether UCLA opted to finally surrender to Oregon on Saturday, he said his plan called for the Bruins to remain aggressive to the very end. I believed him after listening to his explanation, and worry now I'm the one who is surrendering.

I take this as T.J. backing off. He hears more than he prints and he probably knows where Dorrell stands with the Alumni and Administration.

Perhaps BN does represent the opinion of most Bruins fans. Or maybe Simers just has pity for him at this point.

If he had written a full page scathing review of KD's coaching skills, some of us might have broken out the torches.

The only concrete fact here is that horse racing articles suck.

I just realized I'd felt this sickening feeling before. It's just like when Walt Hazzard coached the basketball team. Talent underachieves and the top 25 feels like it's a long way away. Soon we'll be hearing quotes from Dorrell that "His food hasn't tasted that good lately."

The analogy further fits in that they were both former stars coming back to try to restore tradition. It's time to bring in a football charlatan like we did with Harrick. You know, a guy who doesn't fit the 'Westwood Yuppie' image.

I thought I'd emphasize the positive conesidering the circumstances.

They put us 1 spot ahead of Notre Dame this week!

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/polls/119

The SportsLine 119 rankings take into account the SportsLine strength of schedule ranking and votes from our staff of writers, editors and producers. All of these elements combine to give you the most authoritative, definitive ranking of all 119 Div. I-A teams in the nation.

I'm looking at the TV listings for San Diego and I hope they're wrong but it appears FSN West isn't showing todays game down here. This is bullshit.

The new look road jerseys went on sale today.

Poll

Would You Buy One?

76%

Yes

23 votes

23%

No

7 votes

30 votes | Poll has closed

The Times had an interesting article on the UCLA Basketball reunion that took place over the weekend.

Attending a UCLA basketball reunion Saturday night at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport were players from just about every era from the 1950s on, plus current Coach Ben Howland and former coaches John Wooden, Jim Harrick, Gary Cunningham, Walt Hazzard, Steve Lavin and former assistant coach Denny Crum.

Singled out for special recognition were players from Wooden's first three teams -- 1948-49, 1949-50 and 1950-51.

If you read through the article you'll find some gems like Coach Wooden telling his former players he really 'didn't like them'.

Bruins Nation is full of so much optimism these days. Our beloved basketball team is back where it belongs. Mens vollyball won yet another championship. Baseball had a breakthrough season. Championship number 100 is close. It's a great time to be a Bruin.....except.

Football. What the hell? Why are we so down on our team? They were 10-2 last year. They won their first bowl game in years. We enjoyed miracle comebacks and precision passing of the highest quality. What could Karl Dorrell be lacking in the eyes of Bruin fans?

As far back as I can remember, every football season has crashed and burned in a sea of injuries. Our D-Line was badly injured before the season even started last year. I don't think you could blame Dorrell for that.

Sure you can make unfair comparisons to Coach Howland. But Ben would be the first to admit our basketball team has enormous recruiting advantages compared to football.

I don't remember Terry Donahue being that great. His tenure ended in Hawaii, where he got bombed. Sure he had his moments in the 70's and 80's but we put up with his crappy 3-7-1's and 5-6 seasons. His '88 team was overloaded with talent and they still couldn't stop Washington St. when they were the #1 team in the country.

I don't see how losing to SC's rediculously talented team makes Karl any less of a coach. As a lifelong Bruin fan I can't remember a better SC team. If our only goal in football is to beat SC then I think we should at least be realistic about how we're going to do it. In order for last years Bruins to have beaten that SC team there would have to have been exteniating circumstances. An injury to Reggie Bush and Matt Leinert, plus maybe even a freak snow storm. Their lineman alone were enough to put our team at a massive disadvantage nevermind the glut of weapons SC had. How is this Dorrell's fault? He didn't have the weapons to match up.

Dorrell hasn't had proper time to establish his system. We need to give him another 2 years at least. I know I'm going to be attacked for posting this but I want closure. I can't keep on bashing Dorrell because T.J. Simers made it fashionable. I want to employ the same kind of optimism we have towards baseball. We don't have to win the championship every year to be happy.

I will now assume the duck and cover position. Feel free to disagree.

So Lavo and Beilein have turned down NC State. He would rather hide behind a desk and ramble on with his unfounded opinions then prove himself and restore credability to the Lavin family. After all his dad was a Bay Area basketball legend. Shame on you Lavo this was your big chance.

So I was just looking around yahoo sports when this old story happened again.

Hypothetically. (Assuming Brandon Roy is long gone by pick 27)

Poll

The Lakers Have The 27th Pick. If they picked from the Pac-10; who should they take?

4%

Hassan Adams

3 votes

3%

Mustafa Shakur

2 votes

29%

Jordan Farmar

19 votes

4%

Arron Afflalo

3 votes

58%

Leon Powe

38 votes

65 votes | Poll has closed

Thanks for the newsfeed Nestor16. Unfortunately I think it's cursed....

UCLA sophomore guard Arron Afflalo will hold a press conference next week to announce his intentions with regard to the NBA Draft, two weeks after the Bruins lost in the NCAA title game. I'm now worried. Why would he call a press conference unless he's going to at least attend the NBA pre-draft camp. Where does this leave Jordan? I know I'm biased, but raise your hand if you think Arron would be better on the Lakers than Sasha Vujavic. ^0.

Coach Howland did say he was going to shop Jordan and Arron around to the NBA GMs. Maybe he landed them a ticket to the pre-draft tryouts. If you remember, the McDonalds AA team they played on featured Sebastian Telfaire, Shawn Levingston, Josh Smith, and Dwight Howard. All of them made the jump and stuck. Howard has already signed his first major contract. Telfaire had a 6 million dollar shoe deal before he was even drafted.  

On espn.com of all places. Gene Wojciechowski, formerly of the L.A. Times, praise the Bruins with great hyperbole:

The Bruins don't simply play defense, they roll you in bubble wrap, apply duct tape and send you home in an overnight package. It's about as sexy as Billy Packer in a Speedo, but it works. Gawd, does it work.
He went on to critique LSU's coaching:
As the UCLA lead grew as though it were on Creatine, LSU coach John Brady and his assistants could only lean back in their blue folding chairs and shake their heads. Those Tiger team huddles during timeouts must have been keepers.

Brady: "Uh ..."

I was laughing for most of the first half. I guess I wasn't the only one.

Yahoo sports is all over this. Apparently Aboya's kicking ass and taking names. Unfortunately those names are Mata and Hollins. Still I do like the idea of intense practices. Hopefully Alfred brings it tomorrow. Apparently Howland said Michael Fey is going to play tomorrow. I hope he completes our dream season story. Everybody plays, everybody wins?