USC is a bad team. UCLA held USC to 16 points in the first half on 24% shooting. But in the second half last place USC out-played UCLA and shot 56% and outscored UCLA 38-33.

Why did this happen? One reason: Coach Ben Howland only played seven players! See the ESPN box score. Are you kidding me: Zeek played the least minutes of any starter and that was 33?!?!? I realize Anthony Stover may be hurting but why not more minutes for Powell and any minutes for Lane? CBH do you really need to play the Wears 71 minutes?!

But that is just the point. We only beat a terrible USC team by 10 points. What keyed SUC's second half comeback? Let's discuss that after the jump.

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January 16, 2010 was the low moment in Jerime Anderson's career. In a game at home against USC, UCLA lost 67-46. Anderson had the ball stolen from him at half court just trying to bring the ball up the court. Anderson himself called it his worst moment. In only nine minutes he had two turnovers and 0 points.

Well it is 2012 and tonight UCLA is at "home" for the last time in Jerime Anderson's career against USC. Jerime is a better player now and hopefully he can do his part to make sure the Bruins beat USC by more than the 21 points they lost to USC by in his sophomore year. The official preview is here and gametracker is here. The Bruins Nation mini-preview on this awful SUC team is here.

The game is at 7:32 p.m. PST on FSN Prime Ticket. Anthony Stover is probable for the game tonight. Great chance for the Bruins to rest some tired legs.

Go Bruins, Beat SC!

Another season, another five-part preview as we look ahead to the 2012 UCLA baseball season, which will get underway on February 17th when the Bruins take on Maryland at Jackie Robinson Stadium. As we look to the season, we started with Part 1, a general 2011 review and 2012 preview with a look at the state of the program. Part 2 took a look at the pitchers and Part 3 looked at the position players. Part 4 previewed the Pac-12 and Part 5 looks at the country and where UCLA fits in the national scene.

There aren't any surprise teams at the top of the heap in college baseball this season. It is the year of blue bloods with every team in the top 10 having made at least five College World Series appearances in their history and the others in contention for a spot in Omaha having been in contention the last few years. The closest thing there is to a sleeper or newcomer to the big boys' party this year is Central Florida and they're not even a top 20 team.

This season, it is all about the know quantities and to an even greater degree, that applies to the conferences. With the exception of Rice in Conference USA and TCU in the Mountain West, soon to be Big XII, there aren't top teams coming out of non-power conferences. Cal St. Fullerton, Louisville, St. John's and Central Florida are in a group of borderline top 25 teams, but that is about it. There is no Pepperdine, Costal Carolina, San Diego, Long Beach St. East Carolina or Southern Miss this season. It's all about the big boys.

Sometimes it is important to knock the big boys down a peg though. That is what my eight for Omaha is here for. I apologize now for jinxing the eight teams that I'm picking to make it to the College World Series (and that is why I don't take UCLA into account).

• Florida
• Stanford
• Arkansas
• Texas A&M
• Arizona
• Georgia
• TCU
• North Carolina

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We are sure many here were holding their breath to read the latest "blog" from Dan - "what's wrong with Spaulding" - Guerrero. The staff at UCLA athletics continues to pump out the lame newsletters on a weekly basis, which only keeps adding the embarrassment that has become Chianti Dan. Take the latest "word from Westwood" example in which Dan "blogs" about Ben Howland's dumpster fire program:

With just six regular season games remaining on the schedule and tight Pac-12 standings at this point, the men's basketball game against USC tomorrow night at the LA Sports Arena will mean much more than just a battle for city supremacy. Our Bruins are jostling for the best-possible seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and need much of the same boisterous support you have shown them in recent weeks as they look to defend their home court, especially in such close proximity to our rival's territory. I look forward to seeing you at the Sports Arena with your blue and gold on tomorrow night.

Then, the very next morning, Ben Howland and his charges will head to New York for their matchup against St. John's on Saturday. A cross-country trip followed by an early tipoff (10 am PT on CBS) will be a challenge, but playing in as iconic a venue as Madison Square Garden presents a unique opportunity for our Bruins to shine on the national stage.

You feel the excitement everyone?! Guerrero is fired up for the Bruins to position themselves to finish in fourth place in arguably the worst Pac-10 conference in last 30+ years.

I have no idea what he means by "Ben Howland and his charges": [Screenshotted here in addition to being excerpted above]:

What does he mean by charges? People Howland is in "charge" of? Did he mean to write about Howland and his minions? More on Dan's "blogging" after the jump.

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One of Chianti Dan's most "brilliant" moves was to have UCLA plays its home games practically on the USC campus. There is no defending this move and tonight UCLA will be in the ultimate non-home home game against USC on their campus in a rundown arena as the "home" team:

The UCLA basketball team has played host at the Sports Arena 11 times this season as Pauley Pavilion undergoes renovations, winning seven of those games.

Tonight's matchup will be unlike any of those, though.

This time, the opponent needs to just roll out of bed to make it to the arena.

While the Bruins will "host" USC at 7:30 p.m., they are expecting quite the turf war.

"Our gym is on their campus; it's what, not even 50 yards from the Coliseum?" UCLA sophomore center Joshua Smith said.

Smith and other players added their thoughts on the "home court."

All of our games haven't really felt like home games so this isn't really anything new," center Joshua Smith said. "People have said that they will have a lot of fans there being that it is on their campus, but it doesn't matter. We're just going to go out there and play." . . .

"I'm not concerned at all," guard Tyler Lamb said. "We're not playing to see how many fans go to the game, we're playing to win. That's the main thing. We are playing on SC's campus, but I still feel like it's a home game for us. We've been playing there all year and we've adjusted to it pretty well. I think we're still going to get great fan support."

"I really do want to see if we're going to have more fans than them," guard Lazeric Jones said. "I'm sure we'll get more of our fans out there. Hopefully I don't have to go out and recruit fans."

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Attention, Dan Guerrero: this is how a real Athletic Director does it.

An article on the ESPN Chicago website discussed Illinois AD Mike Thomas and his refusal this week to publicly give a vote of confidence to his men's basketball coach, Bruce Weber. You know what that likely means for Weber. It means Thomas has high standards for the University of Illinois, things aren't good enough with the basketball program, and the AD is not going to stand for it.

We know this because he not only said it publicly, he said it directly to an Illinois fan. Almost as impressive as AD Thomas having high standards, and making these comments is that he made them in direct conversation with the Illinois fan base.

Thomas took about an hour of phone calls Saturday morning from a mostly disgruntled Illinois basketball fanbase on WDWS-1400 AM in Champaign, Ill.

"I need to look at the total body of work and all of the things that come into play as far as making those decisions. Because those are important decisions and they affect a lot of people. I'll tell you this: No one wants to win more than I do. I'm here to win championships."

"You certainly look at the competitive piece," Thomas said. "You look at your recruiting. You look at trends, the trajectory. Are they on an upward trajectory? You look at other things. You look at other things that might be off the floor as they relate to compliance and academics."

Here is an AD who gets it. If only our own AD had similar standards.

At a quick glance, Illinois basketball is having a decent year right now. The Illini are 16-8 in a very competitive B1G Ten that features 5 teams that are ranked in the AP Top 25 (#3 Ohio State, #11 Michigan State, #21 Wisconsin, #22 Michigan, #23 Indiana. Those teams account for half of the Illini's losses, with nationally ranked UNLV and Missouri accounting for 2 others. Illinois is certainly in play for a tournament berth. Contrast that to our Bruins at 14-11 and 7th place in a conference that has no teams receiving votes, and with 9 of our losses coming against unranked teams. By any comparison, Illinois has got it all over us right now.

But that's not good enough for the Illinois AD.

"Is it realistic that we in any sport are going to win the Big Ten championship every year?" Thomas said. "It's probably not likely. But even in those situations, you want to be part of the discussion. You want to feel that energy and excitement is there when you get towards the end of the season.

"And then when you're looking into the NCAA postseason play, it's not a question of whether you're in the tournament, now you're sitting there saying, 'Where are we going to be seeded?' "

Nor has recent history been that bad for Illinois. In 8 years under Weber, the Illini are 83-53 (61%), reached the NCAA Tournament in 6 of those years and made it to the Championship game in his second year (they lost to UNC), and have just one sub .500 season. Not too bad, right? Lots of schools would be happy to have that sort of success over nearly a decade.

But that's not good enough for the Illinois AD.

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The dust from signing day is only now beginning to settle, but the focus has already shifted to recruiting the Class of 2013. As we noted earlier, Jim Mora is already on the recruiting trail around Atlanta, putting in face time with the next group of recruits he'll try to pull into Westwood. So, since our current depth chart and composition of next season's roster are totally up-in-the-air with the soon-to-come wave of medical retirements, transfers, and other miscellaneous ways that our roster will get reduced to 85 guys, it seems kind of speculative to project what the team will look like going into, not this fall, but the fall of 2013.

But, if Mora is going to succeed in Westwood, he needs to do exactly that: project what his roster will look like this fall, and then make recruiting decisions re: the Class of 2013, as well as the Class of 2014. After all, the early bird gets the worm, right?

So, with that in mind, let's try to make a way-too-early projection of how the Bruins will look come the fall of 2013, so we'll know where our recruiting needs are and can gauge Mora's recruiting success over the next year (form now until National Signing Day, 2013) as accurate as possible. As with the depth chart projections for this upcoming year (defense and offense), we'll assume Mazzone's spread offense concepts, as well as a 3-4 base defense, for the purpose of these projections.

Let's get this started with the defensive side of the ball.

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The good news is we play USC tomorrow night. While UCLA is struggling, UCLA fans can take some small solace in that USC may have the worst basketball team in its history. Jim Healy's tape of Charles Barkley from years ago, sums up Southern Cal basketball now.

So, how bad is it?

USC ranks 342 out of 344 teams in points per game. They have earned this ranking shooting the 335th worst in the nation from three (the same as UCLA's Saturday opponent St. John's) and a whopping 39% overall. In other words, they are third worst in the nation at scoring points, ninth worst shooting from three and still in the top 20 over-all worst at field goal percentage. It is any wonder, they have not broken 50 points their last three games?

The bad news does not stop for USC. Since UCLA beat them the first time, they have lost their starting center who was their leader in field goal percentage, blocked shots, and their second best rebounder. They literally do not have a big man off the bench and their starting PG, Maurice Jones, is averaging an insane 38 minutes per game.

This team is unbelievably bad. If not for one game against Utah they would have went 0 for the Pac-12. This is not a trap game, but rather a fire-the-coach-and-take-away-the-scholarships-from-the-players- right-now-if-you-lose kind of game.

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