Thanks again for all the feedback to my notes on depth chart. Please keep them coming. I will get back the defensive side of the ball in a few days (if not sooner). Let's start this Monday by catching up with a little news and notes around the Bruin Nation.

Looks like the Bruin Olympic contingent has come together and once again the Blue and Gold will have an awesome representation in the World's center stage. From the official site:

Looking to add to its rich Olympic history yet again in 2008, UCLA will send a total of 36 athletes and coaches to this summer's Olympic Games, which will be held Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China. Of the 36 Bruins traveling to Beijing, 31 are athletes (27 former, 3 current, 1 incoming), and five are coaches.

UCLA was one of the nation's most successful universities at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, ranking No. 1 among all universities in number of different medalists (19) and number of Olympians (57 representing the United States and 13 foreign countries). Of the 19 medals UCLA took home in 2004, eight were gold, eight were bronze and three were silver. If UCLA were a country, it would have placed 14th overall in the medal count.

A majority of UCLA's 2008 contingent will be representing the United States (28). Seven other countries will also be represented by Bruins, including Australia (1), Bahamas (1), Belize (1), Canada (2), Korea (1), Poland (1) and Singapore (1). A large number of the UCLA athletes and coaches will be competing in the areas of women's track & field (7) and softball (6). Other sports represented by Bruins include: men's soccer (4), women's soccer (3), women's water polo (3), men's water polo (2), men's track & field (2), men's tennis (2), women's swimming (2), women's beach volleyball (2), men's indoor volleyball (1), men's rowing (1) and women's gymnastics (1).

Good luck to all our men and women in Beijing. You can read rest of the details on our Bruin Olympians here.

Switching gear back to football Achilles posted the grim opinion on our OL. Ted Miller from WWL's Pac-10 blog has put together a ranking of the Pac-10 OL units which ranked UCLA's as the worst in the Pac-10. Nothing surprising there. As I have said already let's hope the combination of Chow's scheme, Palcic's coaching, and Neuheisel's relentless enthusiasm will inspire our patchwork unit to emerge as a serviceable one. But right now the odds are stacked against us.

Yet there was good news re OL from Dohn:

I'm told UCLA center Jake Dean's MRI on his injured foot came back fine and that he is expected to be ready for training camp, which begins Aug. 5. He is still suffering from plantar's fasciitis, but should be fine.

That's good to know. But still as we have seen with Roll, it's hard to stay healthy with a nasty injury such as plantar's fasciitis. Also Dohn noted that LB Josh Edwards is in a walking boot, but should be ready for camp and that Harwell looks and feels ready:

I spoke to UCLA defensive tackle Brigham Harwell last week for a few minutes before one of the workout sessions, and he is in incredible physical shape. He also said he feels healthy for the first time in years (he had ankle and knee injuries throughout his career) and plans on dominating the middle of the line of scrimmage.

Here is to Brigham finishing his senior season just like Hickman and Davis.

Staying with football, Kevin Pearson from the Press Enterprise submitted his ballot for the Pac-10 football season. He has UCLA finishing 5th.

We will end this roundup with a little hoops. Malcolm Lee, one of our incoming Ben Ball warriors recently led the U-18 US Team to a silver medal at FIBA:

UCLA freshman-to-be Malcolm Lee scored 13 points, but the U.S. fell to Argentina, 77-64, Friday night in the championship game of the FIBA U-18 Americas Championship. The U.S., now 33-2 all time in this tournament, will still advance to next year's U-19 world championships by virtue of finishing in the top three.
"It seemed like everything we tried to do to stop them, they had a counter for it," Lee said. "At the end of the first half they'd go into the post and we'd help and they kicked it out and would shoot a three. Then in the second half we backed it off a little bit and the posts basically went one-on-one ... They ran their plays, they are really well coached and the best team won tonight."

I am sure the experience Lee earned from playing in this squad will get him even more prepared for this coming season. Can't wait to see this kid and rest of his freshmen classmates in Westwood.

GO BRUINS.