I have read this column by Eamonn Brennan each week with the assumption that UCLA would break into his "Bottom 10" at some point. Well, the wait is over. Brennan must read BN because he darn near hits the nail right on the head with such quips as:

A 14-11 overall record in a bad Pac-12 might be enough to keep, say, Craig Robinson safe, but the folks in Westwood rightfully expect much more, and it's been no surprise to see fans vocally abandon their once-loved coach as this disaster of a season wears on.

For those who care to read more, enjoy this.

The Sugar Bowl was a great game. It's a shame it wasn't ultimately decided by the players on the field.

Yep, those Shi**ty Pac-12 Rejects that we know and love conspired to determine the outcome of the Sugar Bowl in favor of the up-and-rising Michigan Wolverines. For those who missed it, here is the replay of a play made by VT Hokie Danny Coale in the first overtime of a game that ended regulation tied at 20.

This was ruled a "catch" by the side judge (which IMO was actually a ballsy - but correct - call) and VT took the lead as fans marveled at the reception. But everything has to be reviewed, especially by SPTRs who must get "their fair share of air." More after el jumpolio . . .

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I was born in 1971 and was obviously too young to have experienced the Watergate scandal first hand, but thanks to the History Channel I have learned the basic facts. For those who want a refresher on those events, click here. For those who couldn't care less, in 1972 five men were arrested at 2:30am while trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Evidence builds, nationally televised hearings ensue, and yadda yadda yadda, President Nixon resigns in shame in August of 2004. Nixon did not devise this plot, but he eventually learned of it and was doomed to historical damnation for attempting to cover it up. Something that began fairly innocuously eventually brought the most powerful man in the world to his knees.

As the hearings progressed, Nixon's henchmen began to fall on their swords to protect the President, but the facts eventually led all the way to the top, and the nation would not stand for this betrayal. The relevance of this after the jump.

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How many times must ESPN show the gamecocks getting the winning hit against us in last year's NCAA Baseball Championships?  The 'cocks deserve kudos though as they won the title last year with the old bats, and then repeated this year with the new bats.  I watched parts of the Series and I have to say that those guys (as they did against us last year) never seem to hit the ball all that hard . . . yet, their fundamentals were nearly flawless as they continually dropped bunts, moved runners over, hit cut-off men and just flat-out executed.  Congrats to them and their coach, Ray Tanner.

After two rounds at the NCAA Men's Golf Championship hosted by Oklahoma State, the #2 ranked UCLA men's golf team sits one stroke behind #4 Georgia Tech.  The final round will be played Thursday, with the top 8 finishers moving on to match play elimination.  The tournament was modified after UCLA won the 2008 title to include match play elimination after three rounds (unlike the ladies game).  Two bruins are also in the hunt for the individual crown as well.

http://www.ncaa.com/content/division-i-mens-team-leaderboard

The #2-ranked UCLA Lady Bruins ended Day 1 of the 2011 NCAA Women's Golf Championships with a 2-shot lead (+2; 289) over 5th-ranked Virginia (+4; 291) and a 3-shot lead over 4th-ranked Purdue (+5; 292).  #1 $UC finished the first day tied four 14th (+14; 302), while paired with UCLA and 3rd-ranked Alabama (+13; 301).

For the Bruins, Tiffany Lua came in at -1, Glory Yang at -2, and Lee Lopez at +1.  6th-ranked Stephanie Kono endured a disappointing +3 or UCLA's Day 1 lead would have been even greater.  The second round kicks off in Bryan, Texas Thursday.

GO BRUINS!!!  TITLE 107 AWAITS!

For those of us in mourning, alas, there is positive news from the Pac-10 Tourney and DukeTV (ESPN).  It is reported that $UC Coach Kevin O'Neill was suspended by Pat Haden for the rest of the Pac-10 Tourney for getting into a verbal altercation . . . allegedly . . . with a booster from "The Standard."

It's my pleasure to be there bearer of bad news:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/news/story?id=6206993

Yeah, I know that sounds so "Zuckerbergian", and I really mean no malice to Boise State and the beautiful state of Idaho, but are you kidding me?  I saw bits and pieces of Boise's latest massacre of Louisiana Tech (I believe) on ESPN's Tuesday Night Special, and it really made me realize how far from good our football program really is.

The kids that play for Chris Peterson/sen are not five-star athletes, and Boise is seldom their first choice, but they play with heart, discipline, spirit, and (dare I say) Wooden-like, relentless execution.  I saw a tight-end run a skinny post and the QB read the defense and had the time to make a 12 yard pass, that resulted in a 35-yard TD.  Instead of waiving his arms around like a circus baffoon, the guy dropped the ball, gave some high fives, and everyone set up for an extra point attempt.  This was no dream . . . it really happened.

I'm jealous of Boise State.

Okay, I saw this story and I thought it had to be a joke . . . but after reading this, and since Timmeh signed an 8th grader a few year's back (who shockingly changed his mind in 10th grade), there is an eerie truth to this abomination.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=4888515

 Football players cannot be recruited until Sept 1 of their junior year, but the 13-year old from the Northeast plans to take an "unofficial" and meet Lame-o in California.  If this isn't a code or rule violation, its certainly an ethical violation.  Lame should be charged with strict liability statutory recruiting, the kid's dad should be charged with child abuse, and $UC-loving sportswriters should be be-handed.  Cheers to the end of the LA Football Monopoly . . . GO BRUINS!

According to Wikipedia, "parity" (in sports) is achieved when all participating teams enjoy roughly equivalent levels of talent. In such a league, the "best" team is not significantly better than the "worst" team.  In theory, this leads to more competitive contests where the winner cannot be easily predicted in advance.  All the wikies need to do is simply embed the Pac-10 men's basketball standings as an insert to exemplify this concept.  This begs the obvious question:  "What does this mean for the good guys in one of their worst seasons in modern recorded history?" 

This morning's Sagarin ratings only have two Pac-10 teams in the top 64 (Cal is 31st and ASU is 42nd, and we have beaten them both even though we are ranked 144th ahead of only the Beavers at 178th).  See Jeff Sagarin NCAA basketball ratings for a nice chuckle.  Anyhoo, I bring this up because it is becoming evermore likely that the Pac-10 may only get one seed to the Big Dance . . . and, of course, that boils down to whomever is fortunate enough to win the Pac-10 . . . err . . . Pac-9 SUC-less Tourney.  Yes, even our guys can get into the Show despite losing the rest of their games this year if they can beat three other also-rans in the Small Dance.  

Should UCLA be that team, we'd likely get a 13 seed and have the joy of facing North Carolina in Charlotte or something, but most of us would clearly take that over nothing.  We aren't getting Title #12 anytime soon, but I still want to see UCLA in my brackets come March.  So if the Small Dance is going to determine our fate, how does SUC's absence therefrom this season play into our hands?  Has the Pac-10 released the 2010 seeding adjustments to account for a 9-team field?  If they simply put a hole where SUC would have been seeded, giving some lucky team like us a first round buy, does that mean we only need to beat two other equally crummy teams to punch our ticket this year?  Or, does the buy go to the top seed . . . and, if so, how does that affect the play-in games for the teams seeded 7-10?  And if SUC is only of those teams, does their would-be opponent get the buy?

Needless to say, if UCLA had to pick a year to take a sabbatical, this year was the one to do it.  And should the heavens part and the devine light leads our guys to the promise land, would you really want to be Carolina?

After the third round of the 2008 NCAA Men's Golf Championships being hosted by Purdue University, the #3-ranked UCLA men's golf team has a three stroke lead at 888 (+24) over both Clemson and #1-ranked SUC and a five stroke lead over Furd going into tomorrow's final round.  The current leader board can be seen here. 

UCLA is being led by Kevin Chappell, who is leading the entire field by four strokes (-6) over the nearest competitor, Clemson's Kyle Stanley and Washington's Nick Taylor (each at -2).  Kevin is the fourth ranked player in the country this year, and it would be great to see him win the individual NCAA title while leading the bruins to NCAA Title #103!  The UCLA women's team finished second behind SUC so these guys have added motivation to get this done.  GO BRUINS!!!

Check out the following drivel that was spewed this morning by yet another UCLA-basher, Pat Forde.

Just in the past week, Pauley Pavilion seemingly became Homer Central: the atrocious foul call against Stanford's Lawrence Hill (2) on Thursday night while snuffing a Darren Collison shot with 2.5 seconds left; and the egregious non-call on UCLA's mugging of Cal forward Ryan Anderson (3) in the corner two days later. That, of course, was followed by the non-call on the over-the-backboard shot by UCLA's Josh Shipp (4) -- which at least was close, as opposed to the other two. All I can say is are you kidding me? The assklown also notes that UCLA is "vulnerable" as we have lost in the first round of the Pac-10 Tourney "three of the last four years."

This garbage can be peroused at your leisure here.

What will Furdee say when we win Banner #12? GO BRUINS (1964)! GO BRUINS (1965)! GO BRUINS (1967)! GO BRUINS (1968)! GO BRUINS (1969)! GO BRUINS (1970)! GO BRUINS (1971)! GO BRUINS (1972)! GO BRUINS (1973)! GO BRUINS (1975)! GO BRUINS (1995)! GO BRUINS (2008)!

From the diaries. GO BRUINS. -N

For those of you concerned with SUC's attempt to co-occupy the Rose Bowl any time soon, here is a link to the canned e-mail that the UCLA Athletic's Department sent to us as season ticket holders.  Take it for what its worth.  It includes an official statement from Gan Guerrero, who is obviously concerned with our continued patronage:

STATEMENT FROM DAN GUERRERO

This statement is to clarify UCLA's position regarding the possibility of USC becoming a temporary secondary tenant at the Rose Bowl.

First, there is no agreement in place. At the request of USC, UCLA permitted USC to have preliminary discussions with the Rose Bowl regarding the possibility of temporary usage while it continues to negotiate with the Coliseum Commission. This is where the matter presently stands.

Any possible agreement would be for one year and subject to approval by UCLA. No long-term arrangement between USC and the Rose Bowl would even be considered by UCLA. Our position as the primary tenant is protected by our long-term lease, which runs through 2023.

Any temporary usage by USC at the Rose Bowl would have to be non-impactful on UCLA, our football program and our fans. Any such arrangement would have to ensure that the integrity of the UCLA football experience for our team and fans would not be compromised in any way. The Rose Bowl is UCLA's home venue and the occupancy of any additional tenant on a temporary basis, if approved by UCLA, must be clearly secondary to that concept.

I feel that it is in the best interest of college football in Southern California for each institution to have its own home stadium and I remain hopeful that USC and the Coliseum Commission can reach a satisfactory accord.

And here is the link to the email.

BEAT SC!!!

Well, as many of you are aware by now our twelfth-ranked women's tennis team upset #5 Northwestern, #4 Florida and beat #1 Stanford for the first time since 1998 (and in the process ended Furd's quest for a 4-peat as NCAA Champions), only to lose to #3 Georgia Tech (in Georgia) in the finals.  This was truly a valiant effort, and an amazing run, by a gutsy group of great Bruin atheletes that made us all very proud . . . but the quest for #101 continues.

After 36 of 72 holes, UCLA's #8-ranked women's golf squad is doing exceptionally well through the first half of the NCAA finals, sitting in second place only 7 holes behind the leader (and I believe the defending champion) #1 Duke.  They had a terrific second round, and with 36 holes remaining it is entirely possible that #101 is within their collective reach.  

Men's golf seeks a similar fate next week . . . and despite what certain "journalists" in the OC think, these championships count.

IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!
IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!
IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!
IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!
IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!
IT IS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!!!

Great news from our women's tennis team. As Charnaw says, it's always great to be a Bruin. -M

Okay, so the baseball team is in a late season swoon (and the softball team bowed out early unexplicably). . . but let's hear it for the 12th ranked lady Bruins tennis squad that upset highly ranked Northwestern yesterday and just nipped our new nemesis, #4 Florida (4-3) to advance to the Final Four in a hostile environment in Athens, Georgia.  

After winning the doubles round to take a much-needed 1-0 lead going to singles, we went up 3-0 on the strength of some great perfomances by Yasmin Shnack at #3 (6-4, 6-1), and Elizabeth Lumpkin at #6 (6-2, 6-4).  As you might suspect, the gators did not bow down and stormed back with tough wins at #1, #2 and #4. The 3-3 match hinged at #5, where unranked Alex McGoodwin squared off against 58th-ranked Csilla Borsanyi of UF.  However, there's a reason why they play the games, and the mismatch on paper was not reflected on the court where McGoodwin's gutsy effort and strong serve overwhelmed her opponent who fell 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)!  

We next face the winner of the #1 seed Stanford - #9 seed Miami match Monday for the right to play in the finals. In case you are wondering, we lost to Furd twice this year during regular season conference play by a 4-3 score each time, so we definitively have a shot against the Cardinal(especially on a neutral court). 

Update [2007-5-21 21:11:18 by charnaw]:#12 UCLA has just knocked out #1 Stanford (which was 24-1 going in) and will be playing for #101 tomorrow!!! Like yesterday, the Bruins jumped ahead 1-0 in doubles, but unlike yesterday, we were heavy underdogs in each singles match.

At #1, Riza Zalameda (ranked #15) was annihilated by #8 ranked Theresa Logar of Stanford 6-2, 6-2, bringing the teams to a 1-1 tie. The deadlock was short-lived as #56 Yasmin Schnack of UCLA blasted #14 Celia Durkin in an epic upset 6-2, 6-4 at singles #3.

We went up 3-1 at singles #2 with another upset . . . this time #40 Tracy Lin nipped Stanford's #17 Anne Yelsey 6-4, 6-4. We had all the momentum, but we still had singles #4, #5 and #6 to go. Furd had beaten us twice this year by 4-3 scores, so it was clear this would go to the wire . . . and it did.

Unranked Alex McGoodwin, one of the stars against fourth-seed UF yesterday, lost a tough 3-set match to 20th-ranked Jessica Nguyen of Stanford, bringing the Cardinal within 1 at 3-2. It appeared that the winner of singles #4 would decide this thing, as it was the only evenly-matched pairing between UCLA's Ashley Joelson (ranked #107) and Furd's Whihtney (sic) Deason (ranked #96).

As the afternoon sun began to set and the lights came on, Ashley dropped the first set in a tiebreaker, and things looked bleak because unranked Elizabeth Lumpkin dropped her first set in pairing #6 too. However, BOTH bruins stormed back to win their respective second sets . . . and Joelson polished off Deason 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the upset, 4-2!!!

WE PLAY #3 Georgia Tech for #101 tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kudos to men's and women's golf as well (each will be playing in their respective NCAA finals in upcoming weeks)!!!

ITS ALWAYS GREAT TO BE A BRUIN!

We in Bruin Nation cannot get jacked up enough to welcome Kevin Love to campus this Fall.  However, according to reports on all the wires, Karl Dorrel is going to give us more to love than Kevin Love, as he has just received a verbal commitment from Glenn Love, a 6'4" 205# safety from Chandler, Arizona.  Accordaing to various reports, Glenn Love was offered at most of the Pac-10 schools (excluding SUC), but chose UCLA over ASU, Zona and Michigan.  He was apparantly injured in his junior season and was flying under the radar of some of the upper echelon programs in the country.  As for his senior season, Glenn Love made over 100 tackles, had 10 picks, 3 fumble recoveries, and even blocked 2 field goals, leading Chandler to the Arizona State Championship. But that isn't all!  In the championship game he had 10 tackles, 2 picks, blocked a field goal and recoverd a fumble.  He may be the next in a long line of awesome UCLA safeties from the days of Easley and Turner through Matt Darby and Matt Ware and will potentially shore up an already great UCLA defense.  Im no fan of Karl's, but he has recruited some pretty decent skill players this year, and there will be two Loves to love at UCLA for hopefully the next four years to come!  GO BRUINS!!!!!!

According to Scout.com, UCLA has offered Luke Babbit (Class of 2008) . . . he looks like a Love-type, and is a 5-star rated guy.

I accidentally found a good article regarding the latest on Singler, and some great info on Jerime as well.  The article is two weeks old, but I was jonesing for some b-ball news!!!

http://www.martinirepublic.com/item/kyle-singler-still-leaning-toward-duke/

GO BRUINS!

Former bruin Chase Utley just ended a 35-game hitting streak.  After going 0 for 5 on Friday he sat out Saturday's game . . . then came up in the 9th as a pinch hitter and singled!  

http://uclabruins.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/utley_chase00.html

http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=12&p=8&c=1&nid=2676403

It seems implicit in this article that Howland passed on LRMAM's twin brother but got him in the door at BH's old stomping grounds at UCSB.  But, with Luc's emergence as Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, why (other than scholarship number issues) would BH let him go?

http://ucsbgauchos.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042706aaa.html