The Pollyanna Blog?

by Dodger Hater on Mar 17, 2007 9:16 PM PDT Comment 19 comments

I am not a pessimist. Really, I'm not. But compared to the posters on this blog I am a regular Eeyore!

Other than the D, we stunk--can't even make lay-ups/put backs. I have zero expectations of future tourney success after the way we have played in three of the four last games. This team is not playing well.

I'm amazed at how people here manage to stay so positive about Ben Ball in the midst of such a colossal near-choke job.

If the Bruins were so mentally tough and prepared--as some asserted in the game thread as reason for their victory--they would have won by 10. At least.

It cracks me up that after all the cussing and fussing during the game that now people are happy campers.

Yes, it is good to win, but it is better to win and be good and the Bruins are anything BUT right now.

I am sorry to be so real, but it defies logic that a team can play so poorly and still make its patrons happy. I don't get it.

I know, I am a sad case: not happy when they win, not happier when they lose. Such is the life of a realistic fan.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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I thing your pessimism is misplaced

Indiana is a good team (all the teams in the tournament are good teams.) We played a good team and did not play particularly well, but we still won.

Winning ugly is the mark of a good team. Long Beach State probably looked a lot better scoring all those points, but they gave up 121. The "standard" probably looked really good on offense, too.

But the fact of the matter is that if you play defense the way our team did tonight (and the way it has played just about all the time), then you have a chance in every game. And when team that is coached by someone like Coach Ben, and which has players with heart and character of our guys has a chance, they will win more often than not.

I like our chances a lot to win our next game. I join the others in refusing to talk about winning streaks. We needed six one-game winning streaks and now we need four. But more than that, we need one. If I were a betting man, I would put my bet on Coach Ben.

by Fox 71 on Mar 17, 2007 10:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Um...Wow.

If you think we're a bunch of Pollyanas, you haven't been paying much attention. We're the biggest collection of critical sumbitches on God's Green Earth. But in the NCAA tournament, a win is a win.

If you'd like some truly depressing shit, stroll by during football season. We're a gigantic bag of suicide around these parts. But there's a good reason for that. Our coach is an abortion.

I'm sorry if we don't suck down Drano after a tough tourney game. We have a great coach and a great program.

I guess what I'm saying is..Sucks to your negativity.

by Sweetbreads Bailey on Mar 17, 2007 10:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I mean that in the nicest possible way

Really

by Sweetbreads Bailey on Mar 17, 2007 10:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Jeez

calm down. Did UCLA play good last year against Alabama and Gonzaga? No, but we still got to the National Championship. The measure of a great team is how you respond to difficult times, and we passed that test today.

Wallow in your pessimism all you want, but for the majority of Bruin fans, it's now on to Pitt.

by BruinFanatic1988 on Mar 17, 2007 10:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm different

I have never liked the saying, "It's better to be lucky than good." In my book being good is what it is all about. They don't drill and practice to be lucky, they drill and practice to be good.

I have been around during football season and I find things a bit out of whack. Dorrell can do no good and Ben can do no bad, even though both do good AND bad.

One thing is right, I was wrong about the Pollyanna Blog. It is just right now that it seems like a Pollyanna blog.

by Dodger Hater on Mar 17, 2007 11:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hold on there fella

Comparing Ben to Dorrell is crazy talk. Ben took a program in the shitter and turned it into a perennial national championship contender.

Karl took a solid program and scratched .500 every year, while exhibiting the creativity of a paint by numbers hack.

There is a very good reason why we love Ben and despise Dorrell...One coach is a winner and one coach is a profile in mediocrity.

by Sweetbreads Bailey on Mar 17, 2007 11:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

nicely said!

"creativity of a paint by numbers hack" ... ha!

by DumpDorrell on Mar 18, 2007 4:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Never said I didn't like winning ugly

I love watching the suffocating defense, it's awesome to behold. I have no problem with grinding out a win, but I don't think that we can continue to win in this tournament playing the way we have been playing.

by Dodger Hater on Mar 18, 2007 4:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

you can say that about every team remaining

except maybe Kansas. Every team has nearly lost one of their games. No one has had it easy. Even Kansas had it tough against Kentucky for a good part of the game. Lighten up.

by DumpDorrell on Mar 18, 2007 5:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

You are much more than different

You are dreadfully ill-informed. No one is saying that Coach Dorrell is the anti-christ, and no one is saying that Coach Howland can walk on water, to continue that analogy. But if you can't tell the difference between a Dorrell team and a Howland team, then you really shouldn't expose that ignorance by posting stuff in BN. There are too many people here who will not let that sort of absurd comparison go unchallenged.

I guess I'm one of them. Can you explain your defense of Coach Dorrell? I'll give you up front that he's a former Bruin, which counts for something, and that he's handsome. Now, your turn - please list his accomplishments. Explain please how you would argue that he's entitled to a merit raise for his performance if you were his agent and lobbying for a salary increase. Please go into detail as to why his incessant reliance on cliches is something that should be factored into any merit increase.

And while you're at it, please explain the differences, if you perceive any, between the basketball program under Lavin and that of his predecessor.

If you can't back up your comparisons with facts (or at least fact-based opinions), then my suggestion (and I'm not a moderator, so I can suggest only) is that you simply take a hike.

by Fox 71 on Mar 18, 2007 12:05 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

There is still hope for Dorrell

We may have collectively cried our eyes out after watching Dorrell's football team this year but I seem to recall a 13-9 victory that bought him a lot of good will.

Quite frankly, I was surprised at how ambivalent people were toward Dorrell after that game. There was hope that he had turned a corner and that he might be able to build the kind of program in football that Howland is building in Pauley.

BN may be hostile toward Dorrell and very supportive and loving toward Howland, but it is very well deserved. Dorrell didn't take a nearly destroyed program and win the pac-10 2 years in a row, he took a mediocre program and left it mediocre, only now he installed a boring offense.

BN loves Howland but he deserves it. Dorrell, at best, deserves skepticism and distrust.

by Rhapsode on Mar 18, 2007 12:53 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ha Ha Ha

I was laughing at the recollections of 1995 you just reminded me of. Dickie V picked against UCLA every round after the Missouri game. And that made the Bruins wins even sweeter.

I'll take this win over Mizzu in 95, Iowa St in 97, and Alabama last year. What do these 3 games have in common? They were all 2nd round wins during seasons where we were elite 8 or better.

I hate the Dodgers to by the way.

If you think this was a bad game tonight, smell Lorenzo Mata's fingers tomorrow.

by alcor805 on Mar 17, 2007 11:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

good and bad

Surprised that you would call this the pollyanna blog. We all appreciate BH but nobody is immune from criticism here. But the difference is taht while BH does do some things that make people wince (questionable substitution pattern, maddening timeout usage), his teams win. Dorrell's don't. So BH gets the benefit of the doubt because his teams win. Granted, it isn't always pretty, and sometimes ugly, but UCLA beat several teams last year on the way to the title game that played prettier games, and so what? WINNING matters the most. Nobody can be satisfied with the team's performance last night, especially on offense, but everyone can be satisfied with the results. I mentioned on another post that we are challenged offensively by good defensive teams since we have no reliable low-post scorers and by necessity we either score on the perimeter or pick up garbage points on putbacks. When outside shots aren't falling, we are going to struggle. Simple as that.

Love's presence alone next year should mean a significant improvement in our offense.

by ucladj89 on Mar 18, 2007 7:33 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Not Pretty? Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

I saw the beauty in last night's game.

When I was teaching, I always wished I could reward effort instead of accomplishment.

In this game our effort was outstanding -- and we accomplished a win.

When BH came here, people said we would not tolerate games in the 60's that an LA crowd would only like high scoring run and gun games. BH proved them wrong.

Our Defense is a thing of beauty. Tough and gritty -- it is still pretty. You just have to appreciate it.

They got very few easy shots. In fact, during their "run", they literally threw up some bad shots that went in. Good for them. But our D was sound.

Our poise, composure, tenacity, intensity -- all pretty.

Our offense? Sure, we missed some inside shots that would have allowed us to pull away early -- but we found a way to win.

This was not an ugly win. It was a win.

There are no style points in BB.

Just wins.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Mar 18, 2007 7:44 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I have learned to appreciate D

Last year, I actually enjoyed watching our defensive possessions more than our offensive ones. A lot of that was because we intentionally slowed the game down, but I love seeing the flustered looks on the faces of our opponents. You can just see it in their body language. It happened last night as well. They were taking contested 3s not just because they had to, but because they were getting absolutely nothing out of their regular offense. Typically when those prayers start going up, thats when the game is over, because thats when you give up trying to take good shots. But hey, crazy stuff happens. This is the tournament. Look around, NO ONE is having an easy time right now.

by Tydides on Mar 18, 2007 1:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tenacious D

When I saw UCLA beat Arizona in person at the Pac-10 Tourney last season I realized that it looks better live than on TV.

You can't appreciate how smothering the D is until you can see the whole court and put yourself in the PG's POV. I thought to myself; 'I wouldn't be able to dribble around Farmar or Collison. I can't post it inside because of the quick double team. My best slasher has Afflalo in his jersey. What the hell would I do?'

I loved seeing Mustafa Shakur, Acie Law, and Austin Ainge heaving up 26 footers because they couldn't find another way to score.

The truth is our 1995 team found a way to play this level of defense and we hadn't seen it since until the end of last season.

by alcor805 on Mar 18, 2007 3:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

3 yards and a cloud of dust...

...or 3 dribbles and a sea of hands in your face. It worked for Woody Hayes, and it'll work for BH. It ain't pretty, but NCAA basketball is not for entertainment, it is for sports and for making men out of young boys. If you want entertainment go watch the NBA. They don't play defense and pose after dunking...even when they're down by 30 points.

by tasser10 on Mar 18, 2007 9:47 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

this D got us to the NC game last year

Against Memphis, LSU... etc. So obviously I don't mind to see it again. Those games weren't pretty but they were victories. Pitt's a great team offensively so we are gonna need to lock them down similarly.

Of course, the problem is that this D did not win the NC game last year. I honestly don't know what the hell happened in that game except a thorough ass-kicking on both sides of the ball. The problem is that Indiana game didn't fill me with confidence that, were the 2 teams to play today, the outcome wouldn't be different. But Florida didn't exactly play like champions today (until they wore down Purdue to a nub) so who knows.

by njbruin on Mar 18, 2007 8:18 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the last three words

of the post sum things up beautifully. We all have opinions and all the talking heads have opinions that are better than ours because they're smarter (just kidding.) But your last three words explain why we actually play the games. "So who knows"

by Fox 71 on Mar 18, 2007 8:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs