Saturday News & Notes

by Nestor on Jul 7, 2007 6:17 AM PDT in News Comment 15 comments

I will start the weekend notes with couple of items o Ben Ball. Bruce Pascoe from the Arizona Daily Star published a post-draft Pac-10 outlook. Here is his top-5:

1. UCLA
Who's gone: Guard Aaron Afflalo (early).
Comment: Keeping Darren Collison around ensures the Bruins will be considered the team to beat. Josh Shipp is the injury plagued Jawann McClellan of this team but the inside looks much tougher with freshman Kevin Love.

2. Washington State.
Who's gone: Wing Ivory Clark
Comment: Was last season a fluke? I don't think so. This is a smart, fundamentally sound team that is clearly better than the sum of its parts. Cougars will have to deal with being a major target, however.

3. Stanford.
Who's gone: Nobody.
Comment: Is Trent Johnson the right man for this job? We'll find out next season. He has virtually everybody back, including rising stars Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, plus the Cardinal kept the Lopez twins around. They should be contenders.

4. Arizona.
Who's gone: Wing Marcus Williams (early), guard Mustafa Shakur, forward Ivan Radenovic.
Comment: Talent level could justify a higher prediction but Wildcats haven't played up to their talent level in a while. This should be a better team chemistry-wise but that was the company line last season, too.

5. Oregon.
Who's gone: Guard Aaron Brooks, backup post Adam Zahn.
Comment: Brooks' departure drops the Ducks two or three notches. They have everybody else back, though.

The gap closers didn't make his cut but if you want to find out where he is predicting them to finish, you will have to check out rest of the list.

Staying with Ben Ball here is another note on Jrueeeeeeeee Holiday. Check out Frank Burlison's post. He compares Jrue Holiday to Dwayne Wade. Nice.

Pivoting to football Dohn shared his pick for the Pac-10 football season, which will be announced on July 16th at the Pac-10 media day. He is expecting Dorrell to finish second in the conference. Not good enough in our book. But at least Dohn is not picking him to finish 4th or 5th with an 8 win season. So its progress.

On the other hand In The Bleachers, a pretty good blog dedicated to college football has high (but reasonable from our pov) for expectations for Karl Dorell this upcoming season:

UCLA - So how can I call UCLA a surprise...well when you are in a conference with USC and Cal, it will be no cakewalk to get a BCS bid. The Bruins return 21 of 22 starters from a team that held USC to 9 points and Notre Dame to a low output. That was USC's lowest output in a long time. Ben Olson will be back at quarterback as he beat out Patrick Cowan in spring ball. So the Bruins have two quarterbacks with starting experience under their belts. In their favor they have Notre Dame, Cal, Oregon, and BYU all at home and have to travel far to play USC. Even if they do lose a conference game, they can keep themselves in the BCS running with a clean slate the rest of the way. We all know that offense wins games but defense wins championships. UCLA definitely has the defense if the Bruins play the way they did against USC and forget about giving up 44 points to Florida State in the Emerald Bowl.

Sounds reasonable to us.

Bruins have the talent. The question is will they play up to the level of their talent or will they choke away victories by playing not to lose?

Dump Dorrell posted another interesting shot of a TrOJan:

Convicts, cheats, thugs, academics rejects, and they literally come in all shapes and sizes I guess.

GO BRUINS.

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Oh man

That picture of the bloated TrOJie is going to make me work out extra hard today.

Great post. Although I could not be more excited and optimistic about our Ben Ball team, I think Stanford has the opportunity to be great in basketball next season.

And, as to football, the remark about our defense is timely, too. If our defense had been just a tiny bit better (or just not so horrible) during that ill-fated Miami game, there is no question in my mind we would have won, phantom fumble or not. It is sad to see our Matador-style defense at work back then. How in the world did people forget how to tackle?? I mean, seriously, it's a pretty easy fundamental skill, if you've ever played a game of football at any level.

That clip of the Miami game shows our guys trying to arm-tackle, again and again. It would make me pull out my hair (if I had any).

I'm a big, big fan of stifling defenses, especially when the head coach thinks the T-formation on offense is a fresh, new idea.

by Barnes2JJ on Jul 7, 2007 7:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Picture

(Cue Nelson Muntz): HA HA!

by Tydides on Jul 7, 2007 8:46 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

lol!

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw that picture.

by WoodenLegend on Jul 7, 2007 9:14 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

There's plenty of them chugging along

If you happen to drive by East LA neighborhoods for whatever reasons, you will certainly see many of these " creatures " with that T shirts on. Undoubtably, they don't go to that school but the idea that they want to wear that school color, and not knowing, or perhaps choose consciously not to know, that their own physique would denigrate further the school that color represents boggles my mind.

by Htse005 on Jul 7, 2007 9:07 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Chrissie Zartman--Feelgood Story

In case anyone missed it, there is a nice story on SI about a former UCLA All-American volleyball player. Despite being 8 inches shorter than the average woman player, she has earned a place for herself on the pro beach volleyball tour.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/the_bonus/07/05/zartman.avp.bonvissuto/index.html

According to the article, she is also known for volunteering to help young girls at the youth clinics at every tour stop. Seems she inspires many teens because they see that they don't need to grow to be 6 footers to have a chance in beach volleyball.

As usual, another Bruin representing UCLA with class and excellence.

BTW, she's quite easy on the eyes too. I found her UCLA player bio while searching for more pictures of her.

http://uclabruins.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/zartman_chrissie00.html

by WoodenLegend on Jul 7, 2007 9:12 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Went to my old high school

Bishop Montgomery in Torrance, CA.

by bruinbabe2000 on Jul 7, 2007 9:30 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

great story

class all the way.

by DumpDorrell on Jul 7, 2007 9:53 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Photo was probably taken in Burbank

At the Kwik-E-Mart. 7-11 turned 12 of their stores into Kwik-E-Marts for the Simpsons movie. One is in Burbank, another is on Sepulveda and Venice. I can tell from the position of the Comic Book Guy that this is in Burbank, as I went to the Venice and Sepulveda one on the 4th (I'm a huge Simpsons fan).

Needless to say, I could go by the Venice and Sepulveda one and pose with my UCLA baby T. I'm no model, but I think I just might win when the competition looks like that. Might swing a couple of fans in our direction too.

by bruinbabe2000 on Jul 7, 2007 9:35 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Nice

I'll make sure to drop in and order squishy from Napu when I'm in town ;-)

by godblesstyus95 on Jul 7, 2007 9:45 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Actually, it's Apu

And some of the Indian clerks actually had that as their name (overall, 7-11 said that the response from their Indian employees was very positive).

I had to get a Squishee (surlpee) when I went in (I've never had to stand in line outside a 7-11 before). I totally forgot how much sugar is in those things, and I was flying high by the time I got to my folks' house.

by bruinbabe2000 on Jul 7, 2007 9:52 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

In my youth

it was my good fortune to represent 7-Eleven (and Southland Corporation) in lots of lawsuits (generally premises liability.) Let me put it this way -- by and large my clients (the franchisees) had Bruin characteristics and the plaintiffs suing my clients had a lot of trOJan characteristics. Lots of thug plaintiffs.

We and the Simpsons can kid the Quickee Mart people, but these guys and their employees were hard working entrepreneurial types who did not wake up one morning and have dad say, "Tad, here's a million bucks and a factory - go to it."

We won most of these cases because the franchisees and their employees were good clients.

(And I sure know a lot of them who can do a GREAT Apu impression.)

One digression - I repped a 7-Eleven franchisee who was sued because the shooter in a drive-by shooting drove through the 7-Eleven parking lot in order to get to the auto parts store next door to shoot his victim. Fellow BN lawyers - not even I could lose that one. (In fact, I got out when the other side wouldn't answer rogs asking what it was they thought that we had done wrong. The judge didn't think a whole lot of the case. And the shooter? He was caught within the hour, confessed, got 24 years for murder, was out in 8 (i.e., at age 26) and is now back on the street living near justsc. Ahh, what a great justice system.)

by Fox 71 on Jul 7, 2007 10:59 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh that was you at the Kwik-E-Mart...

Funny I spent 20 minutes of my 4th of July doing the same thing. Oh in case you didn't hear, they got more Buzz cola to purchase as well as some other souvenirs. I'm such a dork, but I love it anyway.

by isodore on Jul 7, 2007 2:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I need to go back before I move

I drove by there again today, and they still had a line. They are making money hand over fist. I bought the straws, I think the Krusty O's are the most popular and they were out that day.

I never thought I would take pictures inside a 7-11, but there I was.

by bruinbabe2000 on Jul 7, 2007 9:49 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Arizona Daily Star link

The comments thread following the rankings: Seriously the funniest stuff I have read in weeks.

Select tidbits include:

Jordan Hill > Kevin Love
"The rest of the NCAA" was bad this past season.
UCLA/Howland does not know how to run/does not know how to run an offense.
Looking toward 08-09, "[Brandon] Jennings simply outclasses Holiday. Holiday is a thug". Though to be fair, an Arizona fan should be able to pick out a thug basketball player fairly well.

by bruinhoo on Jul 7, 2007 10:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs