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I believe BN has previously mentioned Neu's visit to Iraq but this is a new column out today in the LAT about his trip. No snarkiness, no nastiness about Neu or UCLA, just a good story and a good read.

about 4 hours ago Barnes2JJ comment 0 comments 0 recs

E.J. Woods Looking To Go Where He Really Belongs

by Nestor on Jul 3, 2009 5:17 AM PDT in Football Comment 4 comments

We have known for a while that E.J. Woods have been looking to transfer out of UCLA's football program. Apparently he has made it official:

UCLA announced today that safety E.J. Woods is no longer part of the team.

Woods, a 19-year-old from Encino Crespi High, said in a telephone interview today that he will transfer to Santa Monica College, enrolling this afternoon, with intentions to be there through December before attempting to enroll in another four-year university in the Pac-10 to play football next season.

Woods said he will not try to rejoin the UCLA football team.

"I wouldn’t come back [to UCLA]," Woods said. "I’m definitely going to try to come back to the Pac-10. I’m going to work extremely hard this year in junior college to get better physically, get better mentally and just to mature a little bit, and then go back to a four-year, finish my time there and then go to the NFL. That’s the plan."

And guess where he wants to go when he is ready to come back to a 4 year school:

When asked which Pac-10 schools he was considering, the only one he mentioned was USC. When asked why he was interested in the Trojans, he said their defensive style of play suited him better.

"I’m more in-the-box, coming off the edge, playing like … Troy Polamalu." Polamalu is a former Trojan and current Pittsburgh Steelers safety.

Uh huh. Sure E.J. Of course there is this part of the story:

Currently, Woods is facing six charges of battery and sexual battery stemming from three incidents at off-campus apartments between October and January, said a spokesman in the the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. Woods' pre-trial hearing will be held on July 31, the spokesman added.

Well now that E.J. has let the cat out of the bag and professed his desire to be a Trojie, it's just a matter of time those charges will get dismissed or "resolved." And when he is ready to come back he will be able to seamlessly fit in with the Pom Pom's band of merry (alleged) criminals from cross town.

It was pretty clear after the news broke of E.J. getting in trouble with the law he was not going to get any kind of special treatment from Neuheisel's program at UCLA. If he is looking for coddling of football players who gets in off-field trouble, he will fit in perfectly with Pom Pom's program in South Central.

I guess this works out well for everyone. We are getting rid of someone who never fit in with the culture of UCLA, while U$C* gets someone who will fit in perfectly with the reputation of the most scandalous athletic program in the recent history of college sports. Good luck E.J. but no one here will miss you.

GO BRUINS.

4 comments | 0 recs

Candid Camera: Bruin Alums (King) Ed & Charles O'Bannon With Kris Johnson

by Nestor on Jul 3, 2009 4:00 AM PDT in Basketball Comment 1 comment

tasser10 fanshotted this already. Still this is worthy of frontpage love. Looks like Eddie O and Chuck were back together for a hilarious (and kind of awkward) interview by their former team-mate anoter Bruin alum - Kris Johnson - for a website called Jerseychaser.com:

*NEW* Ed and Charles O'Bannon Interview! Speak on Lil' Wayne... (via JerseyChaser106)

Eamonn Brennan from Yahoo.com's hoops blog - the Dagger - spotted this clip with the following observation:

Nothing makes an interview more awkward than a Lil Wayne lyric. Of course, Charles is still playing basketball in Japan, so he didn't much appreciate Wayne's "leaving you missing like the O'Bannons" -- which, admittedly, is a great lyric -- but Ed's reaction is priceless. "I really don't care. Come buy a car from me." I kind of want to go buy a car from now. Don't you?

Now I don't know about you. When I was watching that clip with Kris asking the questions, I kept thinking about him waving towels from the bench. Only those who went to school during the mid 90s and got to follow the careers of these kids at UCLA, will get that reference. Again, as I have always said I really hope Coach Howland and his staff make every effort to keep Ed, Charles, Kris and others who have continued to show their loyalty to UCLA (can't really miss Ed's polo) close to our program. Funny interview and again rushed back lot of incredible memories from the glorious 90s.

GO BRUINS.

1 comment | 0 recs |

Mediocrity Not Good Enough For UCLA, Art Venegas Let Go

by ryebreadraz on Jul 2, 2009 6:32 PM PDT in Other Sports Comment 9 comments

via www.trackshark.com

View full size photo uploaded July 2, 2009

In a somewhat bittersweet piece of news, it was announced today that the head coach of UCLA's men's track and field program, Art Venegas, will not be retained.

One of the nation's premier throws coaches, Venegas led the Bruins to one Pac-10 team championship and two West Region team titles during his decade as the Bruin head coach. In 2009, the Bruins placed fifth at the Pac-10 championships and seventh at the West Regional. They did not score a point at the NCAA championships last month. His contract expired on June 30.

Now, I admire our athletic department's pursuit of excellence. At UCLA, merely being adequate isn't good enough and a move like this makes that clear. On the other side, Venegas is a man who has been with the program for 27 years, the last 10 as head coach. He is also one of the nicest men you will ever meet. He is a truly a great human being, but his job was to compete for national championships and he was no longer doing that. Because of that, I believe the athletic department did the right thing here.

"We appreciate everything Art has done for the program during his 28 years as both an assistant and head coach," said Toth. "But we felt a change in leadership was necessary for the program at this time.

"Art is the preeminent throws coach in the nation. We extended an offer to him to remain on the staff to coach our throwers, but he declined."

Venegas joined the UCLA staff for the 1982 season and served as an assistant coach for 16 years before to becoming head coach prior to the 2000 season. For most of his tenure in Westwood, he coached both the men and women throwers, producing numerous Pac-10 and NCAA champions, as well as Olympians.

While I'd have like Venegas to have stayed on and coach the throwers, I can't blame him in any way for not. At the end of the day though, he just wasn't getting it done and it was time to move on. That doesn't mean I won't hope for the best for Venegas. A man who has devoted so much to the program, the sport and the university, all while being a great man is someone I will be rooting for in the future. We'll miss you Art.

9 comments | 0 recs

Football To Visit The NYC Area...in 2016

UCLA and Rutgers have agreed to a two-year, home-and-home football series, the UCLA Athletic Department announced on Thursday.

The Bruins will open the 2016 season on Thursday, Sept. 1 at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights will travel to the Rose Bowl to open the 2017 season on Saturday, Sept. 2.

"We feel this will be an exciting West Coast-East Coast matchup. Rutgers is one of the top programs in the Big East Conference," said UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero. "The game will give our alumni in that area a chance to see the Bruins in person and should provide us with some outstanding East Coast exposure."

These two games will be the first meetings between the Bruins and the Scarlet Knights.

1 day ago ryebreadraz comment 3 comments 0 recs

Spaulding Roundup: New Commit For UCLA & Other Football Notes

by Nestor on Jul 2, 2009 5:27 AM PDT in Football Comment 9 comments

We have some football related news and notes to pass on before the start of the long 4th of July weekend. I am sure many will be taking a long weekend in the coming days. I will be doing the same. Although I will try to stop by every day,my blogging will be sporadic. Let's get to our roundup.

Looks like Neuheisel and his staff as reeled in another solid commitment on the football recruiting trail. This time the commit comes from out of state. Allen Trieu, Scout.com's Midwestern recruiting analyst reports (HT BruinFaithful)

The UCLA Bruins have been directing a great deal of recruiting attention toward the Midwest this recruiting season, and tonight those efforts paid off with a commitment. Rick Neuheisel corralled one of the top 20 players in the state of Michigan Wednesday in Orchard Lake (Mich) St. Mary’s safety Earnest Thomas.

Orchard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary’s safety Earnest Thomas had accumulated 16 offers and had been fielding strong interest from a number others programs, but decided Wednesday evening to cut his recruitment short by making a PAC 10 pledge.

"I committed to UCLA," Thomas said in a text to Scout.com moments ago.

Despite the distance from home, the 6’2" 190 lb. is extremely comfortable with southern California. The three-star prospect sited his familiarity with area thanks to his father having coached there and the family members that still call it home.

Great news. Earnest has an impressive offer sheet which includes school such as Michigan, Missouri, Penn State and West Virginia. Here are the highlights via the Tube:

Earnest Thomas III Orchard Lake St. Mary's Football Highlights (via moneymanIII)

He looks fast. He also seems to have a bit of nasty streak. I like that a lot. Welcome to Westwood Earnest. With him UCLA now has 5 commits for the 2010 class.

Speaking football the single-game tickets are now on sale on the official site:

Single-game tickets for the 2009 football season go on sale Wednesday, July 1. Fans wishing to purchase tickets can call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/UCLA-WIN or purchase them online at www.uclabruins.com and go to the Tickets page.

2009 opponents at the Rose Bowl include San Diego State on Sept. 5, Kansas State on Sept. 19, Oregon on Oct. 10, California on Oct. 17, Washington on Nov. 7 and Arizona State on Nov. 21.

September 5 can't get here first enough. Well right now we are in the baseball season. If you are in the San Diego area might want to consider dropping by at the Padres game for the opening pitch:

UCLA alumnus Troy Aikman will be throwing out the first pitch at this afternoon's Padres home game at PetCo Park in San Diego. Aikman is a part-owner of the team.

Aikman seems to be everywhere these days. Doesn't he?

GO BRUINS.

9 comments | 0 recs |

The Point Program For The Renovated Pauley "Seating Plan"

by Nestor on Jul 2, 2009 5:08 AM PDT Comment 18 comments

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

So here are the criterias for the "Bruin Priority Point Program":

1. CONSECUTIVE YEARS OF SEASON TICKET PURCHASE IN MEN ’S BASKETBALL

25 points awarded for every year of consecutive season ticket purchase in men’s basketball

2. CONSECUTIVE YEARS AS AN ATHLETIC ANNUAL FUND DONOR (Athletic Fund/Wooden Athletic Fund)

20 points awarded for every year of consecutive annual donor status for Wooden Athletic Fund

3. CUMULATIVE LIFETIME GIVING TO UCLA ATHLETICS

1 point awarded for every $100 given lifetime to UCLA Athletics (includes all giving to the Wooden Athletic Fund, Athletic Capital Campaign projects, Athletic Endowed Scholarships, Olympic Sports annual giving, etc)

4. ALUMNI OF UCLA

100 points awarded for UCLA alumni as defined by the UCLA Alumni Association (one-time assignment)

5. STUDENT-ATHLETE ALUMNI

100 points awarded for UCLA former student-athletes who achieved letter-winner status at least once (one-time assignment)

6. CAMPUS GIVING OF $100,000 AND MORE

1 point awarded for every $1,000 given lifetime to UCLA for donors who have given $100,000 or more for non-athletic purposes

7. CAMPAIGN OF CHAMPIONS CONTRIBUTIONS

5 points awarded for every $100 pledged (in writing) or given to the Campaign of Champions by December 31, 2009

3 points awarded for every $100 pledged (in writing) or given to the Campaign of Champions between January 1, 2010 and April 30, 2010

1 point awarded for every $100 pledged (in writing) or given to the Campaign of Champions between May 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011

Lot more details on the Campaign of Champions website.

Please use this thread to provide your feedback. If you are going to criticize please provide them in a well thought out manner instead of just ranting. If you think the plan is fair and equitable it would be great to heart that POV as well. It will be very interesting to hear all the takes so that we can move this conversation in a positive way.

GO BRUINS.

UPDATE (N): Brian Dohn has a story on this point program in the Daily News. Looks like UCLA devised this system after studying model from other schools:

UCLA also studied numerous point-system models, including those of Louisville, Arizona, Duke, Connecticut and Virginia, to determine how to structure its point system.

"We looked at all the different models to come up with a plan that really suits UCLA," senior associate athletic director Ross Bjork said. "We feel that we've achieved that."

The early comments in this thread seems positive. Would like to get more feedback on this. GO BRUINS.

18 comments | 0 recs

Darren Collison Interview With Some Cool Quotes About UCLA

by Achilles on Jul 1, 2009 2:38 PM PDT in Basketball Comment 5 comments

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

Browse more photos »

This is going to be a tough one to blog from a formatting point of view.

For those of you who don't read it, The Sporting News is available as a free, daily email. It's really a good read, like getting a really good daily newspaper delivered. I've been getting it for a while and have actually seen some UCLA stuff in it in the past.

But it's hard to "blog" because it doesn't really have links to the individual stories -- it's just one big file. And as far as I can tell, you can't "grab" anything in it and use it to post into a blog like Bruins Nation.

But today's interview with Darren Collison was just too good not to share. So, I had to save it as a pdf as if I was going to print it out (this is a feature of the email) and then I was able to use Acrobat to copy and paste.

I know that one of the customs of blogging is that you can use copy from another site provided you link over and give them credit. In this case, I can't really link to the article, but I can link to today's copy of The Sporting News and then I'll post some highlights. I trust that all these props for what is really a worthwhile daily read cover me on the quid quo pro of blogging etiquette.

Now, without any further ado or apologies for my overall Internet lameness, here is some of the Darren Collison interview from The Sporting News. Click over to read the rest and the rest of the issue.

Darren Collison returned to UCLA for his senior season intent on leading his team to a national championship. The Bruins came up short in that quest, but Collison’s speed and shooting skills as a point guard persuaded the Hornets to pick him with the 21st pick in the first round of last Thursday’s draft. Collison told Sporting News Today’s Bill Eichenberger and other media members that he is looking forward to learning the finer points of point-guard play from All-Star teammate Chris Paul.

Q: Any second thoughts about returning to UCLA for your senior season?

A: If you understood the emotion when you’re sitting in this chair right now, you’d understand that it doesn’t matter what anybody says about my past. I did what I had to do at UCLA. It was a project I was trying to build, and unfortunately we didn’t win the national championship last year.

<snip>

Q: Being a four-year player, what assets do you bring to the Hornets?

A: Maturity. UCLA is not just any school. It’s a high-profile school. Being there for four years … I think I can come in and produce right away.

Q: What about your ability to play defense? Is that a strength?

A: Yeah, you can speak to the other guys at UCLA, they will tell you the same thing. Coach (Ben) Howland, he gets you ready for the future. Defensively, he doesn’t play. Every day he emphasizes defense.

Click over and read the rest. This was a posting pain in the neck, so I don't know if I'll be doing it again.

LOL.

5 comments | 2 recs |

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