Bumped. A must read post giving us a disconcerting look at the mindset of Chancellor Gene Block who displays lack of awareness and understanding concerning the state urgency to re-establish his imploding football program. - BN Eds.

Just got back from the "UCLA on the Road" event with Chancellor Block; pretty nice affair with a pretty packed house. I'll give the UCLA Alumni Association credit for knowing how to put its best foot forward. I came away feeling pretty good about the university. The football team? Well, here goes:

The Chancellor's spoke at length about his three themes for UCLA: (1) Thriving, (2) Transformational, and (3) Inspirational. If you were internally LOL'ing about how this was the exact opposite of our football program, well, let's just say I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Act I

During the broad Q&A, I (thought I) was chosen to ask a question but apparently the guy next to me decided it was him and jumped right in. Fortunately, it was related to football. Unfortunately, he took the tactless (IMO) route of asking if we were going to fire Neuheisel. The Chancellor was obviously not interested in answering an uncomfortable question so provided his expected "Hey, did anyone watch the Cal game?", after which the crowd all supportively clapped and cheered. End of answer. FAIL.

Act II

After that disaster, I decided I wasn't going to be a salmon swimming upstream asking football questions to a room of people who were hooting and hollering a victory over a mediocre Cal team, and thought best to wait until the end of the program to approach the Chancellor privately. So after we finished hearing a lot of sunshine talk about how we should proudly display our UCLA pride and did an 8-Clap, I made a beeline for Mr. Block. The play by play (at least as best as I can remember) and my two pennies on it are after the jump.

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This guy was one of my favorite Bruins, and even in the dark KD/Larry Kerry days, he always made big plays (even the ones that got called back for b.s. reasons -- Bush fumble recovery in 2004) , so it was great to see him finally make his debut with the Packers, after working long and hard to get his chance.

There's a great writeup about Spencer in his hometown paper, thought you guys would enjoy the read

http://www.theunion.com/article/20081213/SPORTS/812129935/1054/rss

 

Nation,

Talk about timely television. As we get pumped up for our second straight Final Four (and the dawn of a new dyansty in UCLA basketball), HBO will be airing a special on Coach Wooden's amazing run in creating the first one.

Here's the info, right from the website:

"While the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement and political scandal were consuming the nation, a basketball legacy grew in southern California. Led by coach John Wooden, the UCLA Bruins amassed an unprecedented ten NCAA titles in the 12 seasons from 1964-1975, setting a standard of excellence and consistency in a volatile country.

Capturing the spirit of the era through the comments of former team members, students, commentators and coach Wooden himself, along with archival footage, THE UCLA DYNASTY sheds light on the advent of the college basketball craze. The UCLA juggernaut triggered unprecedented national interest in the sport and the NCAA tournament grew at a pace never before seen.

The 96-year-old Wooden heads a high-profile list of interviewees that includes players Bill Walton, Lucius Allen, Henry Bibby and Elvin Hayes; sports executive Eddie Einhorn; sportscaster Dick Enberg; and actor and former UCLA football star Mark Harmon, as well as other former students, professors, coaches and observers of the sport."

http://www.hbo.com/events/ucla/ucla_dynasty.html

I've only seen the previews (obviously), but it looks like another great HBO program. It's good to know while some egotistical jackasses in the MSM are putting out hit pieces on our coach (I'm talking to you Mr. Dodd), at least one maintstream network is giving our basketball tradition some great publicity.

-Ike

PS: I still can't believe I'm not at 250 words. While I have some space, I guess I'd like to point out that Bill Raftery might be the most annoying announcer in the world. I feel embarassed FOR him when he blurts out his weird sayings. Hopefully I'm at the word limit now.

While I am still reeling from the loss, exposing KD's incompetence on national TV is finally starting to give credence to our message, I found a few in a simple Google search, and I'm sure the word is getting out like wildfire.

From SI On Campus (Free Information): They gave Nestor (via Bruins Nation) an award for "Quote of the Week". Definitely click on the link; the article goes on to make fun of Brady Quinn celebrating with his teammates.  

Quote of the Week II

"Hang in there friends. Our day will come once this dumb, incompetent, stubborn, clueless 'leader' is gone."
--Bruins Nation, a UCLA blog, about Coach Karl Dorrell after the Bruins heartbreaking 20-17 loss to Notre Dame.

And check out the ONLY two letters published from the LA Times:

Karl, channel Pete

October 21, 2006

Karl Dorrell, I have witnessed several times this season at the end of the half the Bruins just sitting on the ball, conservatively running out the half in many instances when you could have tried to put more points on the board. Does the Washington game sound familiar?

You've got to learn to go for the jugular and ask yourself: WWPCD? What would Pete Carroll do?

DENNIS JONES

Arcadia

With the attitude and casualness only the French might appreciate, the Bruins, late in the game but still with a chance, strolled to the line of scrimmage and surrendered to Oregon. Season over. Thanks, coaches.

BILL SINGLEY

Manhattan Beach

And finally, even Yahoo Sports (who already have props in my book for exposing the now "dead' Bushgate story) ripped into Dorrell's great "game management" skills.

BCS hopes in South Bend were preserved, if only for a few weeks. We'd be remiss if we didn't give Bruins coach Karl Dorrell some grief here for poor clock management and Rush Limbaugh-like play calling down the stretch.

I'd be curious to also get some feedback from current students about the mood on campus...

Torn MCL. Crap.

Here's the link:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15200650/

Looks like Coach Howland's recruiting for our Bruins isn't just restricted to the hardwood. Look at what the father of Brian Price (our five-star stud)had to say about going to the game on Saturday:

***