Bruin Bites: XSF's Return, Hoffman's Draft Position Rising, Alzheimer's Breakthrough at UCLA

It's Wednesday, so we're halfway to the weekend, which, with college football finally over for the year, will only feature Ben Howland's squad facing off against hated U$C at the Costco Galen Center on Sunday. Ironically, in his latest "blog" Chianti Dan laments the "13-mile trek across town" to play at U$C. I guess he forgot that he's scheduled the overwhelming majority of our Bruins' home games at the Sports Arena. You know, the decrepit arena that wasn't even good enough for the Trojans. You know, the one that is approximately 0.5 miles from the Galen Center. I even like his talk about how "big" it is to "win on the road" which is just LOL hilarious since all of our "home" games are, by his own words, now "road" games. What a tool. Why is Gene Block still paying this moron?

In any event, let's take a look at the bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse for the middle of the work week:

• Starting with football, the L.A. Times quickly talked about the changes that UCLA's football program has gone through from 2009 to the present, as seen through the eyes of returning offensive line stud Xaiver Su'a-Filo, including a handful of quotes about his return. Fortunately for UCLA, XSF says he's "excited" for Coach Mora, who apparently had Adrian Klemm and Angus McClure in his home as soon as he got home to convince him to come back to Westwood.
• Sticking with football, Raymond Ford of Serra High, a three-star defensive back, in a move that was widely expected following the firing of Rick Neuheisel, has de-committed from UCLA. While getting Ford would have been a great get, in terms of depth, I'll gladly trade his de-committment for the commitment of Ishmael Adams and Marcus Rios (both four-star defensive backs). While the Bruins are still in the mix, it seems like Nebraska is the new leader for Ford's services.

• Turning over to the "real" football, former UCLA Bruin stand-out forward Chandler Hoffman has turned heads at the MLS combine, moving himself up in a prime position to be taken third overall in the MLS draft after impressive performances at the combine. Naturally, this doesn't come as a surprise to us since we've watched him ripple the net on a regular basis for the Blue and Gold.
• On to basketball, the L.A. Times has a quick bit on Howland's desire to get the Wears to the free-throw line more often and his hopes that the Wears will use their height and get more physical underneath to draw more fouls.
• In the bigger picture in basketball, fellow SBN blog Searching for Billy Edelin took a look at the complete collapse of Pac-12 hoops, mentioning, of course, the total disappointment that has been UCLA basketball in this season of dumpster fire basketball under Howland.
• Finally, in keeping up with the one thing that UCLA never disappoints in - academics - neurologists at UCLA announced that they have determined a method to detect and identify chemical changes in a patient's brain up to 15 years prior to the development of Familial Alzheimer's disease, which, in turn, they hope will provide them an opportunity to study the onset of Alzheimer's in an attempt to develop a treatment plan for this devastating disease.

Alright folks, those are your mid-week edition of Bruin Bites as we count down the days until the weekend. Fire away with your thoughts, additions, and comments in the thread.

GO BRUINS