Bruin Bites: Jet Ski's Heisman Aspirations, Bruins Play for Japan Aid, Moto Keeps UCLA on List, Ching Chong Ling Long Shuts Down

Since we last checked in, we went through another round of the SBN Conference Re-Draft, adding Minnesota and Purdue to the Twelve-Pack, discussed Jerime Anderson's role in a "college athletes" party amid his felony theft allegations, previewed how Joe Tresey's defense would stack up this upcoming football season, talked about our basketball team's depth and our front court strength, highlighted LVBruin's observations from the Adidas Super 64 tournament, and discussed incoming freshman QB Jerry Neuheisel and the unique issues he and Rick face by having the "coach's son" on the roster.

With that, let's get to the tail-end of the weekend bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

• Fox Sports' Joe McDonnell has a Pac-12 football preview that pretty much echos the main points we've seen bantered around the program this season.  He echos many here at BN by stating that anything less than 8 wins and a bowl game will spell the end of the Neuheisel era in Westwood.  McDonnell does take note of the complete attitude adjustment that needs to happen on both sides of the ball in the wake of the lackadaisical approach UCLA had under Chow and Bullough.
• Sticking with football, Fox Sports also has a good profile on Johnathan Franklin, in which he discusses his Heisman aspirations, acknowledges that with the departure of Rahim Moore and Akeem Ayers, and with a revolving door at QB, it's on him to be one of the team's leaders this season, and that he has to put his fumble issues in the past if he wants to make a serious run at the Doak Walker and Maxwell (both of which he's on the watch list for) by the season's end.
• Switching over to basketball, ESPN profiled UCLA commit Lauren Holiday and the unique way that she wears her shorts.  Apparently, among lady ballers, rolled shorts is the new way to go.  If it works for them, it works for me.  But gentlemen, let's keep your shorts at normal lengths: no one wants to see high flying dunks in a banana hammock.
  

• In recruiting news, as our friends at our sister Maryland SBN blog Testudo Times noted, UCLA recruiting target Arnaud Moto, a Cameroonian (we've had some luck with those Cameroon dudes) small forward has narrowed his list down to six schools, including UCLA.  The folks at TT, apparently, our rooting for us to pull Moto in.
• Next Saturday will feature the "Play for Japan" all-day celebrity basketball event to benefit the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami at West Los Angeles College.  The day will feature coaching clincs and youth skills camps, but will be highlighted by a celebrity basketball game, including former Bruin players Toby Bailey, Earl Watson, Michelle Greco, and Natalie Nakase.  A very cool event and for a very good cause, so if you're in West L.A. and can make it out, please do so.  If you can't make it, donations can be made to Play For Japan here or to the American Red Cross' Japanese disaster fund here.
• In off-season news, UCLA's Sydney Leroux brought home Rookie of the Year honors in USL's W-League after scoring 11 goals for the Vancouver Whitecaps.  Congratulations and very excited to see Sydney back in action for the blue and gold in her senior season.
• Finally, following up on political correctness police d****bag Assemblyman Mike Eng of Monterey Park, it appears that Eng's incessant whining has forced Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout to temporarily shut down operations.  Sadly, the Chinese take-out service started by a pair of Asian-American UCLA students to bring Chinese delivery to kids living in on-campus housing, has been forced to look for a new restaurant to pair up with after "criticism" from whiny politically correct losers scared The Palace Restaurant off.  Rather than combat intolerance with humor (thanks Jimmy Wong), as these young UCLA entrepreneurs attempted to do, the political correctness police (read: whiny losers like Mike Eng and the Asian Pacific Coalition) would rather shut down a service to hundreds of hungry students and discourage Bruin entrepreneurship.  Then again, these are the kind of tools (Mike Eng and the Asian Pacific Coalition) that don't seem to understand that the university can't punish students for the business name.  Hint: it's a little thing called the First Amendment.
  

And with that, those are your Bruin Bites for the end of the weekend.  Take them in and enjoy the last few hours of the weekend and we'll see you again mid-week.

GO BRUINS