With less than a month away from the beginning of fall football camp, we languish in the the last few weeks of the summer without UCLA sports, all while Chianti Dan enjoys his Italian vacation. Hopefully, the Italians will decide to keep him there, since he manages to amaze with new levels on total incompetence on a routine basis. And with that said, let's take a look at the various bits and pieces of news from around the wider UCLA-iverse:
- Let's start with football and a rather odd statistical anomaly highlighted by the WWL. If you've gone to a game at Autzen during the last few seasons, the question posed by Ted Miller will seem kind of, well, stupid. Miller asks if UCLA's home edge tops that of the Ducks, and we all know that's simply stupid. In comparing a team's home record for the prior three seasons to their overall record for the same period, you discover something you already knew: that our Bruins have been decidedly better at the Rose Bowl than on the road, while Oregon has been simply dominant both on the road and at home.
- Flipping over to baseball, freshman pitcher Cody Poteet has joined up with the Walla Walla Sweets for summer baseball and was outstanding in his summer debut, ringing up 11 batters in 7 innings, surrendering just three hits and coming away with a no-run win for his effort. Encouraging sign of things to come for the defending national champs.
- Heading over to the academic side of campus, the Pac-12 conference announced that former punter Jeff Lock and former gymnast Vanessa Zamarripa received the
spineless ineffectual moronTom Hansen conference medal, awarded to each school's outstanding senior student-athletes based on performance on both the field and the classroom. While it's awesome for Locke and Zamarripa to receive recognition for their outstanding work at both ends, it's kind of a bummer that their award is named for one of the most ineffectual tone-deaf idiots to lead this conference. - Sticking with academics, UCLA and Southwestern law students will soon start contributing to amicus curiae briefs for various non-profit organizations or causes, with Bruins focused in on First Amendment issues. In other news, betting for the number of Court of Appeal justices committing suicide has sky-rocketed: after all, the only thing worse in the world than a lawyer is a law student.
- Finally, a public service announcement: if you take the Big Blue bus to get to campus, the terminal at the Ackerman Union turn-about will be closed beginning today, Monday, July 8 due to the construction of Gene Block's idiotic hotel money flush, also known as the Luskin Conference and Guest Center. If you need to get on the Big Blue Bus, you can catch it in front of Parking Lot 2 (Charles E. Young Drive, between Westholme and Manning Avenues), which seems a bit of an odd decision (since it will obstruct traffic on the narrow Charles E. Young Drive) given that there is an actual bus terminal around the corner from Parking Lot 2 at HIlgard Avenue and Strathmore Drive. Hey, are we sure Chianti Dan isn't back from Italy and planning bus routes in his spare time?
Alright folks, those are your various bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse as we count down the days until Jim Mora's football program returns for fall camp. Fire away in the comment thread with your thoughts, additions, and various opinions on all things UCLA.
GO BRUINS