Thursday Roundup & Notes

by Nestor on Jun 7, 2007 4:38 AM PDT in News

We haven't done the roundup thing this week. Let's get back to it starting with a little baseball news. Post season awards keep coming in for the baseball team. This time its freshman Gabe Cohen who was named to the Freshman All American team:

UCLA freshman outfielder Gabe Cohen has earned Freshman All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball, the baseball newspaper announced Wednesday. Cohen joins three other Pac-10 freshman on the All-America team.

Cohen has registered a .348 batting average with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, 34 runs and a .556 slugging percentage as a freshman this season. The Woodland Hills, Calif., resident captured Pac-10 Co-Newcomer of the Year honors and earned a selection on the All-Pac-10 team at the conclusion of the regular season.

Cohen has played in 54 of the Bruins' 59 games, has made 49 starts (all in right field), and has started in each of UCLA's last 41 games. His 10 home runs are the most by a freshman at UCLA since Wes Whisler belted 18 round-trippers his freshman season. In Cohen's first collegiate start (Feb. 4 vs. Winthrop), he finished 3-for-4 with a grand slam home run and a career-best five RBI.

Congrats to Gabe. Let's hope he and his team-mates can keep the momentum going by getting couple of wins in the OC this weekend.

Switching over to football Dohn had an interesting note on Bruin safety Chris Horton:

I ran into Bruins free safety Chris Horton on campus and he said he was all set to graduate and would walk later this month during the ceremony. The fifth-year senior said he was in the process of choosing classes for the fall, but said ballroom dancing wouldn't be one of them. however, he will be taking a yoga class.

Chris will need all that meditation to keep himself calm and composed, if his head coach keep coming up with the same results of last four years.

Lastly speaking of next year. The TV schedule for Dorrell's crew is out. Take a look:

Three of UCLA's 2007 football games are on the list of Fox Sports Net's or its sublicensee's early selections of Pac-10 Conference contests.

The Sept. 1 opener at Stanford will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Net. FSN will also televise UCLA's game on Oct. 27 at Washington State, beginning at 3:30 p.m.

UCLA's home opener against BYU will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by Versus. FSN has sublicensed five Pac-10 games to Versus, which is available in over 70 million U.S. television homes.

That brings to eight the number of UCLA games that have been pre-selected for television.

ABC will televise the Oct. 6 home game against Notre Dame as part of its Saturday night package. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. The Bruins' game at Arizona on Nov. 3 will kickoff at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised by ABC.

The season finale against USC at the Coliseum on Dec. 1 will be televised nationally by ABC. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m.

UCLA's Sept. 15 game at Utah will be televised by Versus as part of that network's agreement with the Mountain West Conference, beginning at 3:00 p.m. MT/2:00 p.m. PT.

If you are wondering WTF is "Versus" you are not alone. Apparently "Versus" is now what used to be the OLN: Outdoors Life Network. I am pretty sure the Comcast Digital package we have in our area (Mid Atlantic Region) carried the OLN network. So we probably have that channel in our package. I will have to check. But needless to say it sounds a little silly and no doubt will hurt MWC from appearing as a legit conference. JazzyUte over at Block U (our colleague covering the Utes) is not happy about it.

From my perspective again it doesn't really matter what channels I am watching our football team on. I couldn't care if Dorrell's team was playing on Lifetime network. None of it is going to matter until he lives up to our expectations and show us he is a legit coach. Until he does that I am not going to worry about what TV network I am watching UCLA football games on.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

Promotional announcement...

Be sure to catch U$C trOJan football all year long on Court TV.

by Class of 86 on Jun 7, 2007 8:27 AM PDT reply actions

It's rare when I actually LOL

But I did with your promotional announcement.

by Fox 71 on Jun 7, 2007 10:54 AM PDT up reply actions

I LOL'ed

until the thought of Nancy Grace: sideline reporter entered my mind. Don't know if that would quite be worth it.

by bruinhoo on Jun 7, 2007 2:13 PM PDT up reply actions

I'd rather see her do sideline reporting...

... for ACC men's lacrosse games. Would serve her right.

WHY NOT US? WHY NOT NOW?

by Meriones on Jun 7, 2007 3:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Ohhh

I hadn't thought of that angle... My bad.

by Class of 86 on Jun 7, 2007 4:01 PM PDT up reply actions

Versus...

If you think it doesn't matter what channel you're watching it on, ask the NHL. You remember the NHL, right? They are on Versus and NO ONE watches. The good news is that the UCLA game will be on and pretty easy to get anywhere at a bar which will have it's cable tier or DTV. And Versus is fine from a production standpoint... but no one knows what a VERSUS is and no one without already built-in desire to watch UCLA or the opponent will ever find the game. With ND on NBC every Saturday and USC on ABC every Saturday, and the SEC on CBS... this is yet another way we get pushed off into the lower mid-tier. SHAME ON THE PAC-10... They really drop the ball when it comes to distribution, marketing and protecting the league. Of course it would help a bunch if UCLA wasn't 7-6 every year.

by greatgymnasticsschool on Jun 7, 2007 9:47 AM PDT reply actions

Versus availability

Versus is available through Cox Cable but only if you have Digital (ie, a cable box.) I don't blame the Utes for being pissed off.

by Trulybruin on Jun 7, 2007 12:05 PM PDT reply actions

Versus

I think Pac-10 TV deal sucks. However, I think it is unfair to rail on our conference for our game being on "Versus." The blame for that should be on MWC. I don't believe Pac-10 has anything to do with it.

If you are going to be pissed off about us not getting enough national exposure, blame KD. He has made UCLA football an afterthought.

by bluestreet on Jun 7, 2007 12:16 PM PDT up reply actions

My comment

was directed towards Mr. Gymnastics.

by bluestreet on Jun 7, 2007 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions

not really....

I believe the Pac-10 has a deal where they can put 5 games on Versus

by lil eg not cs on Jun 7, 2007 2:14 PM PDT up reply actions

All right then

In that case screw the Pac-10 commish!

by bluestreet on Jun 7, 2007 2:46 PM PDT up reply actions

Versus is good for San Diego, as least

As a graduate of ... another Los Angeles area school, who now lives in San Diego, I was actually happy to hear that one of our games was bumped to Versus from FSN. I think you guys are in the same boat as us, where if a UCLA game overlaps with a Kings game, the Kings contract with FSN trumps, and the Kings game gets put on FSN, and the UCLA game would get bumped to FSN2 (insert justified complaining about the PAC-10 TV deal here).

That's probably not a big deal in L.A. and the surrounding area, but for those of us in San Diego, FSN2 simply isn't offered by the cable companies, as they don't want to pay for it. It being on versus at least means that San Diegans will have access to it, if there's Kings overlap, when they wouldn't otherwise. I suspect the situation might be similar for other Fox Sports West areas that aren't right around L.A.

There may be less people stumbling onto the game on accident, but there are also UCLA fans in some areas who are at lease guaranteed the option of seeing the game at home, when they might not have been otherwise.

by Boy Howdy on Jun 7, 2007 1:17 PM PDT up reply actions

Whoa, does Charter Communications have it?

I have no clue myself.

WHY NOT US? WHY NOT NOW?

by Meriones on Jun 7, 2007 2:13 PM PDT reply actions

Very true

I probably wasn't clear enough about the availability... if you are in say, Jacksonville Florida and want to watch a UCLA game, you have a much easier / better chance of getting it on VS than Fox Sports... Yes it's probably on a digital tier but that isn't too expensive and will be at any decent bar if you don't want to foot for it.

And the VS deal is with the Pac 10, not mountain west... but that it seems like it should be part of a mountain west deal is telling.

And all we need to do is win to get real coverage.

by greatgymnasticsschool on Jun 7, 2007 4:10 PM PDT reply actions

Either Win or be Notre Dame to

get lots of TV time.

by Fox 71 on Jun 7, 2007 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Versus versus ESPN

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about Versus today. Some excerpts:

"Versus was known as the Outdoor Life Network. It televises the Tour de France, the world's most prestigious urine-testing competition. It televises the Louis Vuitton Cup, which is either a yacht race or a competition among airport baggage handlers. Versus has the American rights to America's Cup coverage.

Versus also televises NHL hockey, bullriding, lacrosse, fishing and hunting. The Versus series "Holy @#%*!" is not a religious program but rather a roundup of "snowmobile crashes, rodeo wrecks, bungee-jumping disasters and skydiving mishaps.
Stanford football highlights could be added to that mix, depending.

Versus is also the TV home of the Premier Darts League."

"If you still want to complain about your team being relegated to a lesser network, Cal fans, go beat Tennessee, then start making some noise."

by BruinLuv on Jun 7, 2007 8:57 PM PDT reply actions

another side effect

I would be this will make us even less likely to have any highlights and coverage on ESPN, which is how most of the country sees west coast teams... er, the west coast team.