The Morning After, Epilogue: Illinois

Sheesh gbruin, I can’t even get through the opening paragraph of your post without having serious English 10-series reflections…

Thanks for the memories…

…you nailed it.

Happy New Year, all you Bruins. Things WILL get better.

Thank you for catching the tone of what I felt yesterday so perfectly. I watched both games at the tavern with other Bruins and our hopeful enthusiasm faded in typical fashion.

despite the hope for a dramatic final saving grace and justification for the endurance of the season as a whole – for one final good ending – we got a performance that simply reflected the frustration and misery and futility of the previous 13 games. And I fell sucker for the epilogue once again.

We had all hoped for different endings for both teams. But instead we threw long, over and over again, to covered players, Rosario drop on a td play, threw a pick six, did not go to Coleman more often. And in the bball game: Josh missing little shots under the basket, not jumping, our bigs having the ball taken out of their hands over and over; and in the second half, 3 turnovers in the first 3 minutes. It was like watching the tragedy of two teams at the same time.

I actually felt excited yesterday before the games. But left the tavern with that same familiar feeling…soft despair, really almost nothing.

As for epilogues, I am ever so grateful to JK Rowling for letting me know what happens to Harry. I was worried for him, thinking he might suffer the same fate as Frodo.

Could look so terrible yesterday. It was appalling.

On another low note, I went to Knott’s Berry Farm on Friday and as you can imagine it was incredibly crowded due to the holiday season. If I were to take a straw poll based on sporting apparrel I saw among the crowds, LA is split evenly between Oregon and SC. I would guess we have a tenth of what the other schools had and about even with out of town teams like Wisconsin, or the Washington State.

..and absolutely no disrespect intended. (In fact, much thanks for the injection of literary references.) Perhaps somehow Macbeth’s soliloquy — “..a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage..” — could be worked in.

…is that Mora is simply there to placate the Bruin faithful. I’ve come to realize that Bruin Nation represents what I might call the ‘fanatical few’. i guesstimate that we are about %10 of the Bruins out there in the world. By changing the coach, the Heads at UCLA (Blockhead and Donut) have placated the overwhelming largest slice of the pie. they’ll comfortably wait another 3-4 years to ‘give Mora a chance’. I agree he should be given a chance, but I know the administration will try to make seem like we are unreasonable. We demand excellence and we demand it now. They demand mediocrity, and ‘we’ should be happy to even have sports

Nicely done. That should make a guest column in a national newspaper. Anyone have any contacts to get this printed?

My final 2 cents, for what it’s worth:

Kevin Prince, whatever anyone may say about his talent, is a WARRIOR.

If the whole team (and coaching staff) played/coached with as much heart, I don’t see how we wouldn’t be top 25 on shear grit alone.

He’s been beat to hell and back for several years now and he keeps getting back up. I feel like he should be retired and given a pension for all the beatings he’s taken on behalf of the program and due to poor coaching. I wonder what he could do with a line that protects him.

Maybe he can be blamed for some things, but I don’t think he can be blamed for the drops in the endzone (Rosario and Fauria) and bad play calling. There is no way he should have thrown that screen pass (pick 6), but why was it dialed up in the first place when we were backed up in our end of the field? Isn’t that the coaches putting him in a bad situation? I can’t remember, wasn’t the ball on the far right hash at the time?

I don’t want to belabor the point, but it just seems like every time Barr is involved in a play, bad things happen. Just in this game alone, he was involved in a fumble deep in our end (interferes with snap while in motion) and converging on Shaq on a deep pass route (not sure who’s fault that was, but Evans comes out of it injured). I just don’t know what it is about this guy. Maybe someone else can explain it. I’m at a loss as to why they keep going to this guy when he never seems to get it done. Some guys look good on paper and then there are the Wes Welker’s of the world.

Anyways, it’s a game that we should have won. Take away 2 dropped passes in the endzone, a fumble deep in our end and the pick six and we would have rolled the Illini. Yep, that performance sums up our season. Instead of taking the game by the balls, we just kind of roll haplessly along and hope for the best. It seems like an attitude problem.

Well, it’s all been said before. Thanks, BN, for providing a forum for this cathartic exercise. The wife is getting a little tired of my obsession with all things UCLA. It’s nice to have a community here where we can share our observations (vent our frustrations) with other like-minded people.

Well, everyone, Happy New Year. Bring on 2012. And someone, get gbruin paid. Great work.

I have a few unanswered questions:

1. Who is conducting this study?;
2. What is it’s scope?;
3. What is the timeframe for completion?;
4. What segments of the UCLA community will be solicited for their opinion?

Maybe you have some questions, too.

These are just a few questions off the top of my head.

There needs to be more communication and involvement with students and alumni about this feasibility study. I feel like DG is just throwing this out there to placate us. Does he just expect us to trust him after all of his failures.

GIVE US MORE DETAILS!!!

COMMUNICATE WITH US!!!

Bruin Bro, I think you are probably right, but if we, in fact, do represent 10% of Bruins, I consider that a large percentage. 10%, with a strategy, planning and execution, should be able to make an impact on the direction of UCLA athletics. 10% just bitching and moaning (while sharing some great insight) is probably not going to amount to much. The questions is, are we going to sit back and hope for the best, or our we going to take the bull by the horns, get better organized, formulate a strategy and demand the change we expect? The problem is “we” don’t get paid/will not get paid for this expression of passion for our beloved school. So, it will amount to someone willing to make that sacrifice and rally the troops a la the Ole Miss Forward Rebels! organization (http://forwardrebels.org/). It appears the groundwork has been laid. Perhaps we don’t have to recreate the wheel on this one, just tweak it a little.

A few choice pulls from the “About The Forward Rebels” section of the Forward Rebels! website:

Why the Culture of Apathy?
The Passion is Still Alive
It Begins with Unity Among Fans
Communication is a Two-Way Street
How We Will Make It Happen

They have a plan.

We don’t.

When are we going to get a plan and execute it?

I can only sit back and watch (post a few comments from time to time) without getting frustrated because I don’t see a strategy going forward.

Without a strategy and a leader, I’m afraid we are no different than our football and basketball teams: a lot of talent and a lot of underachievement. BN creators and moderators, you do a heck of a job. We need to take the next step and the time is now. We need to take a little of the brilliance of this blog and focus it for concrete change. I feel like, until we do, the administration is not going to take any of us seriously. We will continue to be blown off and I, for one, can’t take it any more. Open for comments…

this has been a tough year for most of us on many levels with our frustrations compounded by the trials and tribulations of that which we have grown to rely on in tough times . . . our once-proud UCLA tradition of excellence on and off the field. there were many joyous times over the years that lifted our spirits and bolstered our school pride . . . and even our identity in our personal and professional lives. these events were not always great (thank you brian poli-dixon), but sometimes were unbelievably memorable (thank you Gus Johnson). through them all, our guys represented us in the national spotlight by breaking their backs even when they had no business even being competitive (thank you 10-10 tie). with this backdrop I wish everyone a wonderful and hopeful 2012 even after such a dreadful end to 2011 in the hopes that our football and basketball programs have gotten the poison out of their systems prior to the dropping of the big ball. like and old friend who moved far away, I miss it dearly.

… For a South Campus Major. :-)

Thanks for doing this every morning after this season gb. Hopefully rest of this year … Starting in Fall .. these posts will have entirely diff vibes. Thanks again man.

As Bruinut tried vainly to pick up the pieces of his shattered self, he asked himself over and over, “Why do I put myself through this?” After having a glorious day in San Francisco utterly and completely ruined by yet another erratic, losing performance by his football team, he checked in to see the results of his also beloved basketball team, who had been playing at the same time. Make that two erratic, losing performances. His stomach tightened further. His head pounded. His soul ached.

“Why do I punish myself, so?” he wondered. “Why should I continue to care? Why don’t I just give up? Wouldn’t life be better, then?” He shuffled listlessly along the Embarcadero toward the ferry that would carry him across the bay, hoping that this latest torture would not cause his dear wife to lose patience, finally, with his turbulent swings and announce, “That’s it! I’ve had enough.” They arrived home hours later. He was beaten and depressed, not knowing how he could, once again, find joy in life.

Then, the next morning, almost by chance, he stumbled upon a piece written by one, gbruin, who described his own inner turmoil with artful expression and surgical precision. “Yes, me too,” thought Bruinut. Gbruin continued, describing how he, too, was powerless to stop caring, to stop asking himself why he put himself through this again and again, to stop being a Bruin. “Yes, me too. I’m not alone,” thought Bruinut. Warmth slowly crept into his being. Finally, speaking from his own profound sorrow, gbruin gave Bruinut the kindest gift of all—hope. There will be better days ahead.

I hope we all see those days real soon. Thank you for this beautiful post.

The Great Gatsby is my favorite book and after a rough weekend, hope is what we need right now. 2012 is going to be a monumental year!