Let's Go ...

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2006 6:08 AM PST in Basketball

Almost 13 hours to go. I am going to start this game day post pretty much the same way I have been starting the whole season - by going to Brian Dohn. Dohn as usual has a great game day report up. Here is Dohn on one of rules Coach Howland has instituted to minimize game day distractions - NO TV for the Bruins:

Bank on that television being off even when Bradley and Memphis battle in the first regional semifinal today. No watching television before games is a rule instituted by UCLA coach Ben Howland, and it's one senior wing Cedric Bozeman wholeheartedly endorses because of past experience.

"My freshman year I think we lost a little focus early," said Bozeman, a freshman on UCLA's 2002 Sweet 16 squad. "We had a TV on in the locker room, and we saw Duke go down, and we thought, 'Oh, man, this could be our chance to take it.' "

No. 2 seed UCLA hasn't reached the Elite Eight in nine years, getting blown out by an average of 18 points in their last four Sweet 16 games. Bruins coach Ben Howland has rebuilt his third program, but is looking for his first Elite Eight appearance after dropping Sweet 16 games in 2002 and 2003 while at Pittsburgh.

And minimizing distractions is a crucial part to a team keeping its focus, and something the Bruins have tried to do entering tonight's Sweet 16 showdown with No. 3 seed Gonzaga at Oakland Arena.

I sure hope these guys are not getting any TV till this Saturday night. Elsewhere Morrison based articles are everywhere. Here is another article about Morrison from Steve Dilbeck of the Daily News, and here is Steve Springer from the Times talking about how the Bruins are going to stop Morrison and his sidekicks (who are apparently pretty damn good). Yeap ... it sure seems like spotlight today is going to be on the Zags. As I wrote earlier this week the pressure is going to be on the Zags tonight (and looky here Plashcke agrees - he must be reading BN - but whatever he is still not welcome on the Bruin bandwagon. It's a little late for BP to join our party).

Make no mistake here. This is a bigger game for the Zags than it is for us. CBS's Dennis Dodd agrees with our narrative saying Zags Cinderalla Act is getting a bit stale:

There is a tipping point when the meter runs out on the whole Cinderella thing.

What was once inspirational is now underachieving if Gonzaga doesn't get to the Final Four. At least. It hasn't been to the Sweet 16 in five years. It's been seven years since the miracle run to the Elite Eight in 1999.

[...]

[W]hile a loss to second-seeded UCLA wouldn't be a disgrace, it would be a huge setback in Zagland.

Yeap, those guys have a lot to lose. As for us? No pressure. Sure this is the first time we have been back in Steve-16 since 02. But so what. We are going to come back again and come back with a better team. This team has already exceeded all of our expectations and at this point we have nothing to lose. While on the other side this is it for the Zags - it's unclear given UCLA's reemergence as an elite national player they are going to get their dibs on elite players like Morrison any more. So the pressure is on Few and co. to finally cash (which means at least a Final-4) after being ESPN's little darlings for so long. They have to win.

Now that is out of the way. I want this game. I want it bad.

All we have to do is come out play strong, fundamental, inside-the-jersey defense we have been playing this whole season - specially the last few weeks, and everything is going to turn out all right. We are going to be all right because we have karma on our side. We have had it on our side the whole season:

AP Photo

Again good luck to all of you trying to get something done at work the whole day. Here are more gameday stories courtesy of BBR. One thing you can do is post in this thread where all of you (especially those who are not lucky enough to be in Oakland) are watching the game today? If you are living out in the East Coast or Midwest or Southwest or Northwest - wherever - tell us where are you going to be watching the games with the local alumni clubs or with friends. Like I said above this is going to be our party. Let's GO. GO BRUINS.

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Yee-haw

I am in Dallas, Texas, and because the Texas game is on at the same time as the UCLA game, I will be going to a sports bar with 2 or 3 fellow Texas alums (granted, they are more hardcore about Texas, since they went there for undergrad)...and if we either lose because of the refs or win the game, I won't be getting any sleep tonight, either.

GO BRUINS. HOOK 'EM HORNS.

by uclawarren on Mar 23, 2006 7:30 AM PST reply actions

Pressure

I think there will be as much pressure on us to win as there will be on them. The Zags have never really gone deep in tournament play since their emergence on the national spotlight many years ago. This is their chance to show that this Zag squad is different from the ones of the recent past. For us, this game is a battle for West Coast supremacy. We want to prove that we are the big dawgs out West, not Gonzaga. We want to show recruits that we are the best in the West, no ifs, ands, or buts. Not only that, we want to prove that Gonzaga has not changed. We have to show the nation why Gonzaga is a mid-major team. And frankly, it would be nice to shut up all those annoying Zag fans who think they're the best out West. I can't imagine the trash talk Bruin fans would have to endure for the next year if Gonzaga beats a Howland-coached UCLA squad. We have been exorcising our sports demons in football and basketball all season long and tonight we can put to rest the curse of the Steve 16. BEAT GONZAGA!!! GO BRUINS!!!

by bruinzete on Mar 23, 2006 7:33 AM PST reply actions

Trash talk from Zags fans

would look just as silly trash talking from meaningless AL east teams like Orioles, Blue Jays who gets off on beating the Big Bad Yankees. Who cares.

They have to win this game. Look the article I just linked from CBS. There is a nationwide consensus developing that the pressure is on the Zags. Their Cinderall skit shit is getting old. Its time for them to do something.

For us we are going to be fine no matter what happens tonight. That said I want this fucking win ... badly. GO BRUINS.

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2006 7:38 AM PST up reply actions

Pressure

I'm not sure that there is much external pressure on this team. However, I am curious as to whether Ben Howland feels pressure. Granted, no one will know the answer to this except for Ben Howland, but since he has never gotten to an Elite 8 before, I wonder if he feels like this is something he HAS to do (even if he is going to have more opportunities in the future).

Of course, considering all the articles I have read about him that say how much it kills him every time his team loses, I'm pretty sure that he is putting some pressure on himself anyway.

GO BRUINS. HOOK 'EM HORNS.

by uclawarren on Mar 23, 2006 7:40 AM PST up reply actions

Howland loves pressure ...

He thrives on it. I am sure he was throwing up before UCLA took on Wagner or Albany back in December.

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2006 7:45 AM PST up reply actions

Scheduling

Few flat out ripped Howland for his scheduleing, calling him out for being "the best schedule maker in the history of mankind." What up with that? This guy is bitter. Everyone keeps talking about the schedule this season but come on, we've played Memphis and WVa, and it's not UCLA's fault that the Pac-10 was down at the top.

by chaphill1 on Mar 23, 2006 8:15 AM PST reply actions

Pac-10 was never down

It was severely under-rated by a clueless national media. Pac-10 has done as well as any other power conference during this tournament (Washington will give UConn a good game and perhaps even win).

So never buy into the notion Pac-10 was down.

As for Few - it seems like he may have been needling Howland a bit. It may have been a joke - but IMHO it makes him a look a littly silly - well perhaps even bitter as you suggested.

GO BRUINS.

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2006 8:22 AM PST up reply actions

Scheduling

As far as at UCLA, supposedly the scheduling is done by Dan Guerrero, not Ben Howland. I did some research into the last 2 years for Ben Howland at Pitt, and his out of conference schedule is pretty weak. The best team he played each year was Ohio St, which was an ok team in those years.

However, what Few failed to mention was that Howland was playing in the Big East, so his games were much tougher than the games in the WCC. Teams that play in the WCC have to schedule tougher out-of-conference teams because they don't have tough in-conference competition. Teams that play in any of the power conferences don't really need to schedule tough teams out-of-conference because they have to play tough games sometimes twice a week during the regular season.

GO BRUINS. HOOK 'EM HORNS.

by uclawarren on Mar 23, 2006 8:46 AM PST up reply actions

"Supposedly"

DG may arrange the scheduling in publica ... but Coach Howland has a lot of input and say in it. DG is not making scheduling decisions on his own in a vacumm. Howland is in control of this program.

This is not a Dorrell like program where an inexperienced, clueless coach is leading the show.

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2006 8:48 AM PST up reply actions

It's up to Howland

At Gonzaga, the AD may have a say in who the Bulldogs get to play. But at UCLA, Howland decides what school he wants to play and when. Guerrero just signs on the dotted line with the AD of the other school. If you guys noticed, UCLA has been playing a lot more schools from the East since Howland has been here. Howland even made it clear himself that he prefers to play mid-major schools from the East coast with winning records than local schools from Southern California who would be lucky to get 10 wins in a season. We're not playing the likes of UCR and UCI anymore but more of Albany and Wagner. We play nobodies with winning records, thus our high RPI rating. So for Few to say that Howland doesn't have a say in who UCLA decides to play, Few is either just joking around or clueless. If he is clueless, I would like to see the defensive strategy he has in store for one of our star players, Josh Shipp. I guess it is quite possible that the news of Shipp's decision to not play this year have yet travel to the boonies of eastern Washington.

by bruinzete on Mar 23, 2006 9:16 AM PST up reply actions

Perception of Pac 10

With the exception of UCLA and Washington, the Pac 10 was pretty mediocre this year. If you look at non-conference games at the start of the season, most teams from the Pac 10 did not fare well. Stanford losing to no-name schools. Arizona dropping their fair share of non-conference games. As a result of that, our conference ranking slipped. Hell, in the RPI, the Pac 10 was ranked 7th overall, behind the five other major conferences and the Missouri Valley. Howland even addressed this issue himself. He criticized other Pac 10 coaches for their poor scheduling.

However, just because the Pac 10 sucked early on in the year does not mean they will suck come tournament time. Like the investment saying goes: past performances do not guarantee future results. The Pac 10 really sucked back in November and December. But that is not the case now as we have two teams in the Sweet Sixteen and Arizona gave #1 seed Villanova a run for their money before falling short on the road in front of a hostile crowd. The big, bad Big 10 which was rated as the best conference in the nation by the RPI has no team remaining in the tournament after starting out with 4, the same number as the ACC and the Pac 10. The Big East started out with 8 teams, have 4 remaining, and could be left with 0 by the time Saturday is here.

The Pac 10 started the season slow but is now going full speed. What would be nice is having a UCLA-Washington matchup for the national championship, which is possible at this point in time. Can you imagine the head scratching going on? How can a conference with the 7th best ranking produce the two teams playing for the national title?

by bruinzete on Mar 23, 2006 9:01 AM PST up reply actions

Where I'm watching

At the Fox Sports Grill at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County with a bunch of friends. My UCLA friends all have finals, we'll be watching together Saturday if we get to the Elite 8.

by bruinmike88 on Mar 23, 2006 11:34 AM PST reply actions