Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Photo Credit: Bruin805

I am only posting here by request as I don't think my thoughts are all that original or exceptional. And pardon the length, but this is what I posted to my Boston-centric blog this morning.

It’s a bittersweet morning for me, being a UCLA alum and longtime Bruins sports fan. On the one hand, losing Coach Wooden is a terribly sad moment. And to see the outpouring of love for Coach is a bit overwhelming. But on the other hand, there is also sweetness because today gives us a chance to celebrate a great life. A rich life. One of the most "full" lives imaginable. Coach may have passed on last night, and the world will be a worse place without him, but he gave so much while he was here and remembering and honoring that contribution is what today is about for me.

Full disclosure, I didn’t grow up a UCLA hoops fan. In fact, growing up in Santa Monica and being a contrarian, I actually rooted against UCLA, and specifically UCLA basketball. But I eventually warmed to UCLA and after attending school there, Bruin Basketball became a tier one rooting interest for me, right alongside the Red Sox and Celtics. And if you know me, you know how seriously I treat my "tier one" teams.

So I am familiar with all Coach Wooden did for UCLA. I know all the numbers. I have seen the championship banners. I have heard all the testimonials. All of this stuff has been well covered so I won’t regurgitate any of it this morning. But I think all that stuff barely scratches the surface of why Wooden was so special. Yes, his resume will never be duplicated. But the reason I am sad this morning has nothing to do with the fact that Wooden once won everything in sight. Instead, it’s because the world has lost a man who was so caring, so gentle, so honorable and so diligent in his pursuit of being a great person.

I never met Coach and it sounds like this makes me among a very small minority of UCLA fans but I do have one anecdote that I would like to share.

Continue reading this post »

Official release:

LOS ANGELES - UCLA men's basketball head coach Ben Howland announced today that 6-foot-10-inch sophomore center J'mison Morgan will not be returning next season. Morgan, from Dallas and South Oak Cliff High School will transfer to play his final years at another school.

Morgan will leave UCLA immediately and hasn't made a decision as to where he will transfer.

"I feel that it is in the best interest of this program and for J'mison Morgan that he no longer be a part of this team," Howland said. "We are supportive of him and his future in whatever direction he decides to go."

There has been much discussion of late of what this basketball season will do to the Athletic Department's effort to raise funds for the Paully renovation. Count me in the corner of those who think it will have a particularly chilling effect as I don't think donors/season ticket holders will be thrilled with a capital call while the team is limping aorund. 

But perhaps more importantly, think for a moment what this season has done to the Athletic Department's income statement. I'll give you a hint .....the numbers are pretty bad.

I went back and pulled some attendance figures. The first column is Ave Attendance, the second is # of home games and the third is the total gate on the season. Right now, the Bruins are running a tick above 8K, but given recent draws and the Oregon dates, I am fading that to 8K on the nose.

9440 16 151040 (2000)
8765 15 131475 (2001)
10021 15 150315 (2002)
8348 15 125220 (2003)
9332 15 139980 (2004)
9213 15 138195 (2005)
8895 17 151215 (2006)
10428 16 166848 (2007)
10580 18 190440 (2008)
9843 18 177174 (2009)
8000 16 128000 (2010)

What you see is that we have taken out the 2003 lows for average attendance and the total gate is down more than 60K from 2008. There are some NBA owners freaking out about attendance being down 5 percent. Well, UCLA is down more than 20 percent! And what is the damage? Hard to say for certain as you can make all kinds of assumptions about pricing (tiering, group discounts, students ....etc) but I think $25 a ticket is a fair assumption especially when you consider CTOs pimpish cut. So let's see here .... 60K x $25 is $1.5M in unrealized income. I realize the number could be less, but it also could me MUCH more and I haven't factored parking and concessions.

So the next time you think Howland has security for life, remember this .....basketball is supposed to pay a lot of bills and right now, it probably isn't paying as many as it was in 2008, or what it could if the program were more succesful. And what does $1.5M buy these days? Well, at 25K a shot, it buys 60 scholorships which is not insignificant. And if you don't believe me, go ask Dan Guerrero.

Good news this morning ……Billy Wagner has found a sucker and the Sox can now breathe a giant sigh of relief.  Thank you, Atlanta Braves.

Whew ……..that could have been a disaster!

It seems the Braves have a crush on Wagner, given the fact that they decided to pay him $7 million and forfeit a first round pick in next June’s amateur draft. I guess they figured that they were going to get picks back when Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano leave this off-season so the forfeiture is not a big deal. Plus, Wagner grades out as a competent, albeit old, replacement.

Boy was I wrong about this one. I didn’t think there was anyone out there willing to pay Wagner this kind of money and certainly not the tight-fisted Braves. Four million yes. Five million, maybe. Seven million with a vesting option ……no way. Such a deal sounded outrageous to me in August but I guess it now seems reasonable after Milwaukee forked over eight million for Trevor Hoffman.

Anyways, Wagner is now out of the picture and so is the possibility that he would accept arbitration and get “put” back to the Sox for something in the neighborhood of eight million bucks. Such an outcome would have been a minor fiscal disaster and a gross misallocation of RS National treasure.

Putting a bow on Billy Wagner …… the Sox got fourteen innings and two draft picks while forking over  $3.5 million and AAAA player Chris Carter. $3.5 million is a healthy amount but Wagner did help and the picks are nice. I call it a small win for Theo.

So what do the Sox do now? Well, they have Papelbon under control for two more years. Bard is obviously in the mix. Oki is arbitration eligible and the Sox will obviously bring him back, perhaps on a two year deal. Ram Ram and Delco are still sitting out there, trying to figure out ways to put more men on base. Dustin Richardson, a lefty, looks like he is in line for a spot. Saito is gone. Hunter Jones is gone. You see where I am going here? The Sox need to bring in another guy and perhaps two if Delco is trade-bait or release-bait.

A couple of names …..Gonzalez and Soriano. Gonzo gives you a second lefty out there and one who can crush lefties. And Soriano against right-handers is like a Polar Bear against a seal. I also like Justin Duchshcerer out there as a seventh inning guy who could start if depth is needed.  These guys will all be pricey ($4M/yr) and two of them have health issues, but I don’t think this is the place where you suddenly get cheap.  And please Theo ……no “high ceiling” re-treads  …… that means no JJ Putz!