Michigan State, UNC Getting Hyped As "Greatest Basketball Programs" In UCLA’s Backyard
by Nestor on Nov 11, 2011 5:16 PM PST
in Basketball
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I am sure many of you are watching the incredible spectacle unfolding right now on ESPN as Michigan State and UNC are getting ready to play a hoops game on USS Carl Vinson. The imagery coming from ESPN has been nothing short of breathtaking. The national hype has been relentless. Magic Johnson and James Worthy are the honorary captains of their respective squads.
So how did this game come about? It was the brain child of MSU AD Mark Hollis:
Since taking over as athletic director at Michigan State, Hollis has developed a reputation as a mad scientist for coming up with ideas like the 2003 "Basket Bowl," the game between the Spartans and Kentucky in Detroit's Ford Field that produced the biggest crowd (more than 78,000) ever to watch a basketball game. The beginning of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq prompted Hollis to explore the possibility of combining that kind of spectacle with his desire to honor America's servicemen and women. After Spartans coach Tom Izzo returned from a Nike-sponsored trip to visit American troops in Kuwait, Hollis mentioned his wacky aircraft carrier idea to his coach. Izzo immediately agreed. He then called Williams, who likewise said he would play. "We didn't even know the details," Izzo said. "Where were we playing? Iraq? Lake Michigan? Nobody knew and nobody cared."
Three years ago, while accompanying the Spartans on a trip to Washington, D.C., Hollis took his idea to the Pentagon. The Navy liked it and planned to set up a doubleheader in which North Carolina and Michigan State would each face off against a service academy. The games were going to take place at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Fla., but that plan had to be scratched because that station no longer supports aircraft carriers.
Last year, Hollis hooked up with Mike Whalen, the founder of Morale Entertainment, a foundation that has brought dozens of athletes and coaches into war zones to visit American troops. Whalen agreed to come up with the funding, and shortly thereafter they locked in San Diego as a site. Two months ago, Whalen learned the game would be played aboard the same ship that dumped Bin Laden's body into the ocean. After informing Hollis, Whalen added, "By the way, the President's coming."
That's right President Barack Obama started the festivities in this event by saluting the veterans and also promoting UNC and Michigan State as "two of the greatest basketball programs."
So let me get this right. MSU and UNC are basking in the national spotlight as two of the "greatest" college basketball programs just three hour south of UCLA. All of this is happening in the home town of Bruin legend Bill Walton (and current freshman Norman Powell.Oh and BTW this game is going to be played again next year on Veteran's Day. Want to know who the teams are? Read for it? Arizona Wildcats and UConn Huskies - that's UCLA's Pac-12 rival right in Bruins' backyard.
If you are someone who cares about UCLA athletics, you should be wondering why this happened.
This is the kind of creative scheduling and event organizing that takes a high powered athletic program to whole another level. Michigan State's AD clearly "gets it." Meanwhile, at UCLA we are seeing people backslapping each other for getting to wear cowboy boots, setting up a tough football game in Dallas against Texas.
But hey no worries folks. We are going to have an "exciting" opening night in a dilapidated, out of date, NBA gym which was not good enough for a fourth tier college basketball program from other side of the town. I guess you can consider this as some kind of "pre-game" thread.
GO BRUINS.
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Seriously.
How did we miss out on this? Did we even try? In a year when we don’t even have s stadium it could have been a home game.
DG arranging for UCLA to play in Cowboy stadium is pretty much most hated thing around here but then everyone complains that UCLA is not playing in this event… just saying.. i agree that it should be UCLA playing and yes i agree that DG dropped the ball on this one. But lets not kill him for getting us to play in a pretty major stage too.
What are you talking about?
How is UCLA playing Texas in Cowboy stadium same as UCLA playing a high profile hoops game in San Diego. You can’t see the difference between the two settings?
Exactly
Playing a defacto road game in an NFL stadium (which according to SBN’s resident Texas blogger, and anyone that has actually watched a game there from somewhere other than a suite or $1k/game seat, is a shitty place to actually watch a football game) is slightly different than playing a game 100 miles from campus, on an aircraft carrier to honor our troops.
formerly bruinhoo
Playing in Jerrydome is neither groundbreaking nor a good promotional tool for our University
All it serves to do is give Texas more momentum, both in the year they play and in recruiting, allow Texas out of a return date like all major programs would have demanded for a home game, and fatten DG’s balance sheet, which he will spend about 0% on improving our facilities.
Meanwhile we have an innovative idea taking place right under our noses, where our already high profile basketball program is being upstaged in its own backyard by teams that had to fly thousands of miles to get here. This doesn’t even take into account the good PR you get from honoring the vets on a carrier on Veteran’s Day.
Did you even think about what you wrote before you pressed “post”? You should try it next time.
Ok
Brooklyn Decker is there too. Now I’m really pissed UCLA isn’t in this game!
BTW UNC looks pretty solid
Amazing what can happen when top talent can be convinced to come back when they could have gone as sure fire first round pick.
My fiance is a UNC alum and a die hard Tar Heel basketball fan. I always tell her that clearly Roy Williams has dirt that he will release to the public in order to get guys like Barnes, Hansbrough, etc. to come back.
That or he’s a really, really good coach and his players clearly love playing for him. Who wouldn’t? His offenses are always dynamic.
That is not to say there isn’t something just as exciting about a defensive-minded team.
Could Nike have anything to do with this?
UNC, MSU, UofA, UCONN…all Nike schools.
I always feel like we get left behind because of our Adidas affiliation.
I googled it out of curiosity, and this came up...
http://sneakernews.com/2011/11/10/air-jordan-8-0-nike-zoom-hyperdunk-2011-carrier-classic-pack/
We would never know for sure, but I get the feeling…
2013 is half way booked.
Michigan State is already confirmed. I’m sure Duke or Kansas will be considered before Donut Dan wakes up and realized what happened.
To Be Fair...
All of the coaches playing/committed to playing have been heavily involved with organizations which support the troops. Still, kind of unbelievable considering the game is played in San Diego!!!
To be fair
DG is currently getting fitted for boots and a cowboy hat so he can watch us get destroyed in style down in Dallas.
Dan Guerrero dropping the ball?
And showing how unimaginative and lame Morgan Center is? No, you don’t say.
This guy is such a f**king moron. We willingly sign up for away games in "marquee" venues to get slaughtered but we can’t even get ourselves set up in an event like this, in our own f**king backyard.
Dan, you suck. I honestly, seriously, hate the man. I want to just scream, I’m so frustrated with how backwards and lame our athletics department is.
Seriously, Dan runs Morgan Center like we’re some third-rate garbage school, some small-time player like UCI. We need to send the idiot back to the small-time where idiotic and weak garbage like his "blog" are seen as being cool.
This is UCLA. This is supposed to be the big time. And yet, we have leadership not even worthy of SMCC.
Im kind of curious
about all the complaining about the sports arena. From both people on this blog, and even from Josh Smith, people have been talking about how old and dilapidated it is. And Nestor, you use us playing in the Sports Arena as an example of how DG has dropped the ball. Now, Im not here to defend DG, and maybe its because Ive never been to the sports arena, so i dont know how bad it really is, but I can really think of any other realistic venues. The Forum said no, in Staples Center we would have been at the mercy of the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings. Honda center is nice but it much farther away from campus, which would have been good for me as I live in Orange County, but would have been so much worse for current students. I seem to remember USC offering the Galen Center, but I dont think anyone here would have been any more excited playing there then in the Sports Arena. I guess what Im trying to ask is if there is another realistic venue thats comparably close to campus that didnt shut down our request or had prohibitive scheduling conflicts with professional teams? (Also, i know that the Clippers and Lakers are not actually using the Staples Center right now, but when this was decided everyone was hoping that the NBA season would still be played, and it might even still be saved, so I still dont view Staples Center as a real viable option.)
Previous discussions
We have had discussions on this before. The Forum was gone as an option because we didn’t move on that front on time. If we were organized properly, I think the Forum would have been a viable option for few games. As for Staples, it wasn’t about playing every game there but few ones. I come from the school of though where there is a will there is a way.
I think UCLA is making a dumb move by playing the Trojans in the Sports Arena as a “home” game. Then again, that’s a series UCLA should be sweeping with regularity.
The post above is not about the micro issue about playing in Sports Arena, it’s about the macro issue about how our major revenue programs are marketed and promoted. The effort to date has been stale and poor.
Entertainment Capitol of the World
The entertainment business in LA/Hollywood is full of UCLA alum, yet DG cant tap some of that talent to better promote our programs? To give some creative thought how to leverage UCLA’s natural (location) benefits combined with the fact that WE are the most successful successful and historic basketball program in the country
I think we have knocked this thought around before, but when it slaps you in the face like a big freakin Air Craft Carrier, it tends to make you wonder WTF!!
That should be us playing MSU in front of the President in our own backyard.
This really pisses me off…seems like that has been a common emotion for the truly faithfull lately
by WestlakeVillage Bruin on Nov 11, 2011 7:13 PM PST up reply actions
o ok
I get that this is a macro post, and that my question was a micro issue, but it is something i had been wondering about and this seemed the only logical current post to ask it in.
Also, if our basketball team is as good as i hope it is this year, and USC’s is as bad as it looks like its going to be with all of their injury issues, I would hope we can sweep them, even if both games end up being in a road environment. But also on a plus side, Bruins tend to get up for the games against USC, so hopefully the road like environment wont actually materialize.
don't know if this is a taboo topic or not but...
I don’t have access to FS West but really want to watch tonight…does anyone know of any, um, “other available options” for watching this game?
Doughnut Dan is a giant "in the box thinking" turd...
We pay top dollar for an athletic director, he is highest paid in the pac-12 and top 10 nationally, but receive nothing of value in return. It is like paying $200,000 for a run of the mill Ford Fiesta.
It is painfully obvious that Doughnut Dan needs to go and go quick. He is the #1 problem with U.C.L.A. Athletics.
U.C.L.A. needs to find a leader that is an “out of the box” thinking visionary with a true entreprenurial spirit. Somebody that understands that the real war isn’t fought on the playing fields.
by beanandcheeseburrito on Nov 11, 2011 7:04 PM PST reply actions
I wouldn't switch to Nike...
The company that is putting out the best equipment right now, bar none, is underarmour and, with their quickly expanding shoe line, they are ready for primetime.
With Nike, Oregon will always have an advantage. With an excellent football hire (read: pay Urban 6 years @ $39,000,000) and our current basketball squad, U.C.L.A. could be underarmour’s Oregon.
by beanandcheeseburrito on Nov 11, 2011 7:11 PM PST up reply actions
a perfect example
For weeks I have struggling because while I know we need a new Athletic Director, I’m not clear on what attributes we need in the new athletic director. “Anybody but DG” is probably not the best description for the job posting. Now I know. An athletic director that will act like the CEO of the Athletic Department. An athletic director that can be creative and look for ways UCLA can be positioned as the premier collegiate brand in the west. Someone that can exemplify what has set UCLA apart from other universities, a place that has always been where new ideas are born and succeed. Our new AD has to have a little of Hollis’s mad scientist flair and a swagger that if it was looking like our basketball team was going to have to play in outdated dump next to a #$!*$$ school would say , “hell, let’s get an aircraft carrier to dock off the Santa Monica pier and play a few games there” and then pull it off.
I don’t like that the Carrier Classic is being played in our back yard. I hate that I haven’t seen a creative idea like this out of the Morgan Center in ages and the “The Monopoly is Over” ad doesn’t count as creative, just stupid.
Go Bruins
TRM
Since U.C.L.A. has shown that they will pay top dollar for a A.D.
I would hire a private leader rather than another public administrator.
Major athletics is a business in every sense of the word so you hire an executive… not a paper pusher.
by beanandcheeseburrito on Nov 11, 2011 7:16 PM PST up reply actions
Where have I heard this before...?
They put up a temporary stadium on an aircraft carrier and get national attention. If they can do that, why can’t we do this?:
http://www.bruinsnation.com/2010/11/2/1788755/lets-play-one-game-in-drake
Take a look at that aircraft carrier, then imagine us doing a similar feat at Drake. Perhaps an AD with just a hint of imagination could get it done.
So in retrospect...
Maybe a good thing we didn’t go on national TV & get blown out?
Trying to make the best out of a bad situation…
Not really
I think the intensity level would have been different for that kind of matchup. The night has been an EPIC FAIL from all angle for UCLA hoops.
hoops on an aircraft carrier?
am I the only alum tired of seeing all those taxpayer subsidized army, navy, air force and marines recruitment commercials?
wanting to be able we certainly wished,
... but being allowed to try we didn`t dare
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