SB Nation User Blog: dokein

Holiday "leaning" towards coming back

dokein — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:15:31 -0000

From Dohn:

"I talked to UCLA freshman guard Jrue Holiday after the game, and he said right now he is leaning toward coming back."

With Holiday back our team will be MUCH better. He's been a little shaky at times this year but his potential is tremendous, and we will definitely benefit from his presence. I would say he has better athletic potential and better court vision than Collison (not that Collison wasn't great for us).

At the half: OSU-21 USC-0

dokein — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:37:48 -0000

Of course USC has incredible football players, so when their team fails to show up there is nobody to blame except the coach / culture.

At this point, OSU is 5-6 for 3rd down conversions, with 110 yards passing (10-14) and 110 yards rushing at an average 4.6 yards / attempt. USC's defensive line is not playing well, OSU's offensive line is on fire, and Jacquizz Rodgers has 117 yards rushing! In contrast, USC has only 41 yards passing and 34 yards rushing, and 2-6 for 3rd down conversions.

Pretty incredible! More updates to follow.

Ditch Day at practice.

dokein — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:31:34 -0000

Today was ditch day, a tradition in which the football teams runs off the field after stretching.

According to B. Dohn,

The coaching staff, including head coach Rick Neuheisel, were clearly not pleased to be blind-sided by the senior-led effort to ditch practice.

What do you all think about the subject?

Personally, I am not so happy. On one hand, it is tradition. On the other hand, we only have 15 NCAA allowed spring practices and an extremely raw offensive line.

Although one practice may not seem like much, at this level football games are usually not won by much either--sometimes a split second can make the difference between whether your quarterback completes a successful pass, or whether he gets injured and throws an interception.

Secondly, at this point in the year when we are learning a new offense, it is important for the seniors to show leadership by working very hard. We CANNOT have any more "3 game seasons", and the football team should not foster an environment of being "OK" with a ~0.500 season.

The recruits and high school coaches that were there took the time to travel to practice. They also understand where UCLA was last season, and I don't think this type of attitude reflects well on our team.

It is tradition, and I understand this. However, when I was in middle school, I got a C because I didn't do the homework (back when homework was a large portion of ones grade). Therefore, my parents didn't give me a Christmas present.

For us, we had a bad year last year. We have a difficult schedule and a VERY raw team next year. I am probably being a too cynical, but I cannot help but feel that KD has fostered an environment of mediocrity. Ask yourself this--if our basketball team went ~0.500, would they ditch a day of practice?

Dohn: NOT SO FAST ON LOVE edit: NO SO FAST ON COLLISON EITHER

dokein — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:54:08 -0000

Brian Dohn just spoke to Kevin Love's mom:

I just got off the phone with Kevin Love's mother and she was adamant no decision was yet made, and was disappointed about reports she called "false" that her son already told UCLA coach Ben Howland he was leaving.

Update: Brian Dohn also just spoke to Darren Collison:

I just got off the phone with Darren Collison, who said the report he was leaving early for the NBA draft "is not true. I haven't even talked to my parents yet." I posted a small EAPoe comment earlier based on the idea that LA Times wouldn't risk their reputation by reporting something so big without confirmation, but now I realize that LA Times doesn't have a reputation to risk.

Obviously if Kevin Love stays, the implications will be huge.

If Collison stays, the implications will be huge. Expanding this will result in filler text to meet the minimum character requirement.

University of California, Los Angeles | University of California, Los Angeles | University of California, Los Angeles | University of California, Los Angeles |

Memphis reserve guard Andre Allen suspended for Final Four!

dokein — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:47:49 -0000

According to the AP: (emphasis mine)

Memphis senior reserve guard Andre Allen has been suspended for violating team rules, leaving him out of the Final Four.

Allen played in 37 games this season, averaging 3.3 points and 14.1 minutes.

"We'll be fine," coach John Calipari told The Commercial Appeal.

According to WREG-TV in Memphis, Andre Allen failed a drug test:

News Channel 3's Glenn Carver and Richard Ransom are both in San Antonio and learned four Tigers players were randomly drug tested. Allen reportedly failed his test.

Although he is only a backup PG, his removal could mean either (a) Rose will be forced to play all 40 min or (b) a even worse backup guard will be forced to play. Secondarily, this means that the bench depth at point will be much lower for Memphis, giving us an opportunity to get Rose into foul trouble (although unlikely).

However, he was an important player in the previous two years, according to Commercial Appeal, a local Memphis news source

Over the past three seasons, Allen has been a key contributor in NCAA Tournament games. During the 2007 postseason, he averaged 21.7 minutes and was often playing point guard in late-game situations. In 2006, he was the Tigers' de facto point guard, even though he came off the bench during that team's Elite Eight run.

Previously, Allen was in trouble in 2005 for soliciting prostitution, though the case was dismissed.

In any case this doesn't change our preparation at all, and it doesn't change Memphis's preparation at all. However, I just want to point out how fortunate we are to have well-adjusted and mature players.

Mbah a Moute injury update

dokein — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:21:07 -0000

From Jill Painter of Inside UCLA

Brian Dohn is reporting that Luc Richard Mbah a Moute's left ankle injury is not as bad as originally feared. Mbah a Moute is standing at midcourt, watching the Bruins go through pre-game warmups. Mbah a Moute isn't playing today, but UCLA believes that if he's not ready for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he would probably be ready for the second game of the tournament. Mbah a Moute said that the boot he's wearing and crutches he's using are just precautionary.

The way it is written, I presume that it comes from UCLA staff and is not based on Mbah a Moute's own assessment of his injury; players can often be overoptimistic, especially someone who is a tough defensive leader. I think we should keep Mbah a Moute to limited time in the first tournament game against the 16th seed, just to make sure his injury doesn't get reaggravated.

(just filling up space here)

The other positive news is that Keefe has stepped up both yesterday and today, and was critical in our 18-5 advantage in offensive rebounds (which was in turn critical for winning the game).

So with a stronger backcourt, and with Mbah a Moute back in, we should make a solid run into the tournament. I wish Stanford and the other Pac-10 teams (even USC) the best of luck driving deep into the tournament.

//Note to Nestor: Feel free to incorporate into a larger post-game post and delete this diary. There's not much analysis here; only a copy-paste update.

"UW coach Romar surprised by attention given Morris' play"

dokein — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:10:39 -0000

Bumped. Also UCngLA has compiled a list of all the email addresses you may want to send a message to re this incident. GO BRUINS. -N

From the Seattle Times:

SEATTLE — Washington coach Lorenzo Romar is surprised by all the attention being given to Tim Morris' pass off Alfred Aboya's face in the closing seconds of Washington upset of UCLA.

Romar said Tuesday that it is unfortunate the play is getting as much negative press as it is and has overshadowed the Huskies win over the Bruins.

Everybody should see this picture; as mbx's frame-by-frame analysis clearly shows, Romar is either a moral chasm and/or legally retarded:

Click on the image to enlarge. -N

Since legally retarded people are generally not head coaches, only option 1 remains. This is a great picture by mbx, and it should be sent to McCabe, Howland, and Romar, and the press.

It is clear that the ENTIRE throwing motion begins and ends while Aboya's feet are on the floor. Therefore, we have to wonder how a Pac-10 official (McCabe) can say with a straight face, "[...] he jumps to the right and the ball hits him in the face. [...]"

And just for completeness' sake, I would just like to add that nobody--not McCabe, not Romar, not anybody on the UW team--would ever do that to someone as scary looking as Aboya in any place without 50 cameras and thousands of eyewitnesses.

Update Since this diary's conception, the contents of the Seattle article have significantly changed. The above quotes, including the title, are from the original article. The following is from the changed article.

"I am surprised,'' said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. "One national columnist went as far as to say that Morris should have his scholarship revoked, and legendary UCLA coach John Wooden told the Los Angeles Times that he would have immediately benched Morris."

The outpouring of opinion caused Romar to take a few minutes of out of usual meeting with the media Tuesday to defend Morris for a second straight day, and Morris to explain what happened on the play in detail for the first time.

Morris said he simply was trying to bail his team out of a bad situation as he was attempting to inbounds the ball in front of the UCLA bench with the five-second count nearing. The Huskies led by five at the time.

"It was honestly just a reaction,'' said the 6-foot-4 senior. "We ran a play where guys are curling off and none of them were open and (UCLA) coach (Ben) Howland was in the way so I couldn't throw deep and I just reacted. He (Aboya) was so close I just kind of turned. I didn't mean to (hit him in the face). I didn't want to turn the ball over. He was so close. He's a big guy (6-9, 245) so I couldn't throw it off his knee and if I threw it at his torso he would have caught it. So it was just a reaction.''

As Morris noted, Howland was standing near Morris with his arms upraised, apparently trying to implore his players to raise their arms.

"He was definitely in the way,'' Morris said. "That's why I couldn't hit (teammate) Quincy (Pondexter) because he was definitely open.''

As Tydides says in the comments section, that whining completely invalidates his one apology to Aboya.

What Romar needs to understand, is that it is under pressure that one's true character comes out. Nobody is a dirty player when their team is up by 30, or when they're 2 years old.

Let's keep up the pressure!

T shirt idea

dokein — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:23:35 -0000

I realize that DumpDorrell.com already has a campaign going off, and it is very hopefully going to be successful with the media and in accomplishing the goal of getting KD fired. I'll definitely join in.

That being said, there is something about the slogan that is not altogether greatly appealing to me. I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I wouldn't mind wearing a t-shirt that had four large letters:

"F.U.K.D."

KD stands for Karl Dorrell, obviously. FU I am not sure is necessary to explain.

That being said, two separate slogans might detract more than help the campaign. And I do like the irrefutability of the cold solid fact: #4.

Another thing is to start a petition that requires a ucla or ucla alumni email to sign. While this may not garner as many signatures as a normal participation, it may help attract media attention because it is signed by ucla students / alumni only.

I don't know, this diary is a bit stupid and rambling but I am just deflated about the state of our program. Even if someone had no previous football experience (watching or playing), I would guess that playing Madden 2007 on an xbox for two days would teach you to make better calls and adjustments.