Bruin Bites: Dan Guerrero, Morgan Center, UCLA Total Fail Edition

The title pretty much says it all, doesn't it?  This has to be one of the worst weekends in recent UCLA history.  On Friday, Howland's overweight, slow, lazy, entitled squad came out flat and uninspired against a vastly inferior (in terms of talent) Loyola Marymount squad, and got promptly beat-down 58-69 at the decrepit Sports Arena, marking the first time the Lions beat the Bruins since World War II.  Not to be out-done, Rick took his hapless team to Salt Lake City, where the Bruins embarrassed themselves with stupid penalties and lazy, unimaginative play, leading to a 31-6 Utah victory.

Now, any weekend where both UCLA's football and basketball team is a bad weekend.  But on this weekend, it wasn't just the losses, but the manner in which UCLA lost both games, and the simple fact that UCLA, in both games, had vastly superior talent, and both games were games in which the Bruins should have won.  Instead, they didn't just lose, they got spanked.

Naturally, the little Neuheisel apologists and their Neub mindset have gone quiet this weekend.  Where are all of you losers now?  Want to come back and sing some more sunshine-and-rainbows bulls**t about how Rick is "turning the corner"?

From the weak, sub-par arena that UCLA has to play it's "home" games in, to the garbage football program we are subjected to every Saturday, to the idiotic entitlement mindset that Morgan Center has developed (and is shown through the idiotic actions of players on both squads), this weekend has been an illustration of why Dan Guerrero must be fired as part of wholesale regime change in Westwood.

For the third time, I've had to write a "Rick and Dan fail" edition for Bruin Bites (prior two are here and here).  And it's time to repeat what I said prior to the Utah game:

So, please, everyone, let's take a moment to stop and think.  When have both of our two major revenue programs been as much of a joke as they have been the past three years?  When have we had a run, like these past three years, where both UCLA football and basketball were national punchlines?

We're a joke.  Our football team is a joke.  We went on national television and got absolutely stomped by an Arizona program that was 1-5 and without a real head coach.  They had a defensive coordinator with zero head coaching experience. And they smoked us.  Our basketball team is a joke.  We don't have the athletes to play "Ben Ball" defense and we haven't been relevant since the true Ben Ball Warriors (DC, LRMAM, LMR, KL, etc.).  These current UCLA basketball players don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys.

It's now time to focus on the root of UCLA's problems: the tone-deaf, ineffectual chump running Morgan Center. As we've said on BN (and as many of you, on Facebook, on MexiBruin's petition, and other places across the social media landscape), nothing short of wholesale regime change will suffice.

DAN GUERRERO MUST BE FIRED.

With that, let's turn to the Sunday afternoon edition of the bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse after the jump:

• Starting with the obvious, as ESPN's Peter Yoon reports, basketball season ticket sales are significantly down for UCLA this year.  With a loss of 25%, total failure Dan Guerrero has known lying scumbag Mark Harlan out to put things in full spin mode for the dolts at Moron Morgan Center, saying that this decrease was "expected" and that the "walk-in" numbers are "very good" using the exhibition in Ontario as proof.  Except, as was noted on BN by folks at that game, Cal State San Bernardino (which is about 22 miles from Ontario, as opposed to the nearly 60 miles between Westwood and Ontario) had a huge contingent of fans.  So, nice try Mark: your numbers were inflated by the opposing team's fans.  And, we saw more of the same in our listless loss to LMU, with an mostly empty Sports Arena (5,382 was the official attendance in an arena that seats 16,000+).  Just another black mark in Dan Guerrero's continuing  Reign of Error.  Oh and hey Mark, you realize you're not even good at lying, right?
• Fortunately for UCLA basketball, the gem of Howland's current recruiting class (assuming he doesn't land Shabazz), Kyle Anderson is still feeling good about UCLA despite watching the embarrassment at the hands of LMU on Friday night.  Apparently, he's the only one.
• On the other hand, it seems like Howland has fallen behind Calipari in the race to land the one year of college basketball that Shabazz Muhammad is offering.  That being said, unless Anderson can become a Magic Johnson style PG (in terms of his size), landing Shabazz won't address the glaring hole in Howland's roster: the lack of a true PG, which is where the de-commitment of Dominic Artis will hurt the Bruins for years to come (assuming Anderson ends up at SG or SF instead of PG).
• Speaking of UCLA point guards, Matthew Bell at The World has a feature on former Bruin PG Jordan Farmar, who has taken up playing with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel during the NBA lock-out.  Great that JF is keeping himself game-sharp and is playing in a country he personally enjoys (he has family connections to Tel Aviv, being one of the few players with Jewish ancestry in the NBA).  Shame we haven't found an adequate replacement for his position (ironic, given that Howland produced JF, RW, and DC).
• While we're on the subject of former UCLA players, there's someone out there who could have helped out the Bruins' woeful perimeter defense against LMU.  His name is Mike Moser and he put up a nice double-double in his UNLV debut, grabbing 20 rebounds and putting up 16 points.  And to think he was stuck on the bench in Westwood while loser scrubs like Dragovic ate up all the minutes.  Coaching and player development total fail for Howland.
  
• Finally, Ben Bolch at the Los Angeles Times sat down with former UCLA great Marques Johnson for a Q&A, where Marques channeled BN: calling out UCLA for not having adequate guard play, that with our personnel, playing zone would be more appropriate, and that Josh Smith's apparently lack of commitment to conditioning was disappointing.  Pretty good thoughts from a guy who knows how to win it all and to do it the right (read: John Wooden) way.

Alright folks, that's your Bruin Bites round-up of news from around the UCLA-iverse. Sad way to end a terrible weekend for UCLA's big two sports, further highlighting the need for WHOLESALE REGIME CHANGE IN WESTWOOD, STARTING WITH DAN GUERRERO.

GO BRUINS