On "Boilerplate" Ben Ball Team Effort

by Nestor on Jan 6, 2008 11:01 AM PST in Basketball

Ben Ball warriors had a professional cynic like Ray Ratto impressed following the win at Maples. After yesterday afternoon, Ratto is now a believer of our Ben Ball warriors:

"But we'll see them again," Christopher said, in an earnest attempt to seem unawed, "and we'll be more prepared."

Prepared, though, wasn't really the problem. It never really is with the Bruins, who did Saturday what they typically do - double down on the block, pressure the ball, force the other team to run its offense higher and ultimately to frustrate them by inducing quicker and poorer shots. These were all admissions Braun made without much prompting after the game, knowing as he did that everyone in the Pavilion saw who the better team was and would be in no mood for excuses.

"We got it down to two points," Braun said with an almost clinical detachment borne of respect for what had just been done to his team, "but then they came back by getting points on transition, and we rushed a couple of shots, and they get it back to six right away."

He didn't even make much of a squawk about the intentional foul called on Christopher that allowed Josh Shipp a four-point play that made it an 11-point game with 5:49 left. Good reason for Braun to hold his yap, too, because 1) it was, in fact, an intentional foul, and 2) the inevitability of the result was dawning on him, and on the crowd as a whole.

Indeed, the crowd was more neutral than most Cal crowds are when the Bruins come to town. Maybe it was the 13-2 run that the Bruins assembled to begin the game, or maybe it was the 70-foot drive-and-tomahawk slam by Westbrook over Jamal Boykin that made it 18-9, or maybe it was the way Cal's best players (Christopher, Hardin and Anderson) combined to miss 20 of 30 shots while UCLA'S three best ... well, actually, UCLA's three best are really six best. Love had 19 points and 14 rebounds; Collison, 14 and five assists; Shipp 13 despite a bad shooting night; and that doesn't even get to Mbah a Moute or Aboya or Westbrook.

No, this was pretty boilerplate stuff, even more so than UCLA's 76-67 win over Stanford two nights earlier. In a conference that looks very much like everyone will beat each other up, there is UCLA above and beyond them all. Undeterred, to use a favorite Braunism, by the field.

That's fun to read.

But we have to keep in mind that we have a long way to go. Everything we gained during the Bay Area trip could be lost by one slip against the talented Washington schools this upcoming week at Pauley.

The Huskies will be fired up and give us their best following their brutal loss against the ultra disciplined Washington State. While the Cougs will come out on Saturday looking to give us their version of a Ben Ball root canal (mixing in steady defensive ferocity with offensive execution/clutch shots).

I just hope our guys build on the total team effort this week and give us the same kind of "boilerplate" effort they gave in the Bay Area.

GO BRUINS.

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coupla three things

The local media double standard is beginning to PISS ME OFF.
We get pom pom and $C football crammed down our media gullets all Fall long every stinkin' game is on TV of some sort, all the local articles - esp the Times, sound like putative groupies out for a toss behind the bleachers or a backstage pass.

Then, we get to Bruin Basketball (ahem, see the banners in the rafters pen-wielding nimrods? How bout 2 final 4s in a row? Anything) and what do we get? Haggish wags like Diane Pucin taking potshots at winning road efforts (read her snide "column" about the Stanford win as a prime example), and almost NO TV coverage - unless you live in an area where FSN PrimeTicket is available (not in San Diego without a stupid Dish -) as if Bruin basketball was not ready for mainstream cable? What do we get instead? Kings -effing hockey and Arizona v. Oregon on FSN West.

Howland and his team are humming, the tickets are hot and hard to find, but you gotta dig to find favorable coverage of that in the media, let alone decent airing of the games in real time.
Hell, at this point, I'd even take Mike Walden and his late night Channel 5 (KTLA-Los Angeles for you youngins) Bruin rebroadcasts over this virtually non-existent airings of one of the resurgent best college basketball programs ever.

One more reason to hate the Rupert Murdoch ( it owns "Direct TV" and FoxSports IIRC) media empire.

Go Bruins. Start the Countdown to March AND Skippy's first Spring Practice.

The Mad Bruin

by lostnacfgop on Jan 6, 2008 12:15 PM PST reply actions

Lost, lost, lost - how many times must I say it?

You will have far fewer ulcers. Your blood pressure will go down to a nice level.

If you saw a skunk sitting peacefully by the side of your driveway, would you pick it up, lift it's tail and take a look? No, you wouldn't, because you would expect a very bad odor which would make you made immediately, and which would stay with you all day.

That's the way it is with the fishwrap. There is nothing in it that you can't get elsewhere, and without the stink.

Vote with your wallet. Cancel your subscription to the fishwrap. It's just a trOJan organ, as you point out. Do you want to pay for an organ that is so closely associated with a freakin' condom? Cancel your subscription. Do it - it's better for everyone.

by Fox 71 on Jan 6, 2008 12:36 PM PST reply actions

Fox Fox fox (sorta ahead of ya)

Canceled my subscrip to the "wrap" years ago (when they closed up their SD bureau in the mid 90's in fact). Still, I do get my dose online, esp during the Fall-Winter. Maybe I need a better firewall or something like that, or just more self-control? Crap, if I had the latter I'd probably also be less inclined to check in on Timmeh Russert every odd weekend or so, too - speakin' of lowering my BP.

The Mad Bruin

by lostnacfgop on Jan 6, 2008 1:32 PM PST up reply actions