Bruins Nation - All Posts

Magnificent Seven: UCLA Gets Seven Straight Win Against Southern Cal

2013-05-19T05:02:43Z

UCLA stays hot in the Pac-12 race winning its eight straight game beating Southern Cal for its seventh straight win, taking yet another cross-town series.

Fire Dan Guerrero Billboard Fundraising Now Approaching $3,000

2013-05-19T04:47:32Z

Well today should be a good reminder on why this cause is so important. The latest report in the Los Angeles Times regarding the debacle that was the hiring process of Steve Alford raises brand new questions about exactly what Dan Guerrero did to properly vet Alford before bringing him on to Westwood.

The time is now to turn up the pressure. And thanks to the tireless work of GoFightWinBruWins we have an easy vehicle to take the message re Guerrero's incompetent beyond the world of blogosphere. The Fire Guerrero billboard project needs about $6,500. The effort is getting there as it is not just $150.00 from hitting the $3,000 mark. Let's get over that mark in next few days. Donate here.

This kind of stuff matters as noted in this fanshot about Wake Forest fans taking matter in their own hands and getting up a billboard about their AD. We have already made a lot of progress. This weekend's story in the LAT should put a brand new urgency in this effort as it is a fresh reminder for everyone why we need to step up today and pitch in whatever we can to send a loud and clear message re. the worst AD in America.

GO BRUINS.

BUSTED? Dan Guerrero & Steve Alford Reportedly Contradict Each Other re. Pierce Saga in Iowa

2013-05-19T04:25:04Z

Chris Foster of the LA Times has posted a long piece on UCLA's questionable (and that's being nice) hiring of Steve Alford (fanposted here and here). Foster's article doesn't shed any information on Alford's ugly track record in Iowa. It doesn't add anything new on his time in New Mexico, which tells us nothing whether he is not prepared for a coaching job like UCLA.

But Foster's piece does is to report that Guerrero and Alford contradicted each other on whether or not Guerrero directly questioned Alford about the ugly Pierce saga in Iowa (emphasis added):

Guerrero was also questioned - about whether UCLA had properly vetted its new coach and investigated what happened at Iowa. He said he "clearly discussed" the Pierce situation with Alford before hiring him.

However, when Alford was asked a similar question, he said the topic never came up.

Guerrero later amended his comment, saying he discussed Pierce with his staff and Alford's representatives, but not with Alford.

Now if an institution operated with any sense of credibility and accountability, this would be exclusive. We get none of that from an incompetent UCLA athletic department. Instead the Guerrero tonight issued a sloppy statement which amounts to nothing more than a pathetic non-denial denial:

"It is unfortunate that Chris Foster's article on UCLA men's basketball Coach Steve Alford focuses only on issues and opinions from long ago and ignores what he has accomplished since arriving at UCLA. In addition to assembling a phenomenal coaching staff, every student-athlete chose to remain a Bruin and play for Steve. I should also note that despite an exclusive interview with Chancellor Gene Block on the subject of Coach Alford, Foster failed to mention any part of the interview, including the chancellor's repeated and unequivocal support for Coach Alford and his firm belief that Steve is committed to being a Bruin and embracing the values of Coach John Wooden. Finally, contrary to the impression left by the story, Steve has been warmly welcomed by the Bruin family and the Los Angeles community. We are all excited to have Steve as our coach and are looking forward to the new season. Go Bruins!"

LOL at the exclamation point in an "official" release. In other words Guerrero still cannot deny the assertion that he didn't question Alford about the Pierce saga in Iowa. There is also the matter of whether Chancellor Gene Block himself was even bothered about Alford's past and did his due diligence in asking Alford about the situation whether putting him in charge of the program built by Coach John R. Wooden.

Instead we get a pathetic statement from Guerrero whining about an article that tells the truth about a fanbase somewhere between disgusted and ambivalent about the joke process to replace Howland. It's amusing to read Guerrero about the "Bruin family" "warmly" welcoming Alford to Westwood given that his staff flew Alford into town like an unwanted pariah, introducing him in an empty Pauley Pavillion press conference that was closed to the general public.

It is amusing to read about a fanbase being "excited" about Alford when Chianti and his clowns have to call up Trojan alums to put on empty wine receptions honoring some guy who was a massive bust in his first try as a head coach at a major conference.

Now Guerrero did try to inject some revisionist bullshit into this story by planting this nonsense with Peter Yoon:

Guerrero says Alford's character is, in fact, a big part of what made him a candidate for the UCLA job. He vetted Alford during the hiring process and discussed the Pierce incident with former Iowa athletic director, Bob Bowlsby, as well as with officials at the University of New Mexico.

Uh, yes ... everything is supposed to be all right because he got the thumbs up from the same guy who made the disastrous decision (for Iowa fans) to bring in Alford to take over the Hawkeyes hoops program. Okay Chianti, only his shills will buy nonsense spin like that.

Think about this with a modicum of common sense. If Alford was genuinely vetted by Guerrero and Block regarding the Pierce story in Iowa, would he have been caught so unprepared - sounding so repulsive and clueless during his introductory presser in Westwood?

Whatever, at this point I guess we are stuck with Alford for at least two seasons. To date he has done nothing to inspire confidence in the Bruin base. He didn't even get whiff from Aaron Gordon (even though his connection with the Gordons was immediately mentioned by some to spin this bullshit hire when the announcement was made). He lost to freaking Steve Lavin for a key recruit, and could hold on to a quality recruit when UCLA desperately needs bodies in the program.

We have no idea where UCLA stands on recruiting at this point as Bruins are in a battle with JustSC for a local must get point guard recruit like Jordan McLaughlin. It's already looking a little dicey enough that Alford and his staff are "recruiting" another out of state point guard from Colorado in case McLaughlin doesn't become a Bruin.

We will see how all this shakes out. But at this point there is nothing to be excited about when it comes to UCLA basketball. The program remains in the same quandary it was during the last few pathetic years under Howland. And, for all of this there is no one to blame except for Block and Guerrero.

If you are upset about all this, one thing you can do is to keep up the pressure. If you are in LA join uclaluv for the petition delivery to Block's office on Monday. And, if you can contribute today for the billboard - so that folks can get message out re. the most incompetent athletic director in America, beyond Westwood.

GO BRUINS.

UCLA vs. Southern Cal Saturday Baseball Thread: Bruins Look To Make It 7 Straight

2013-05-18T20:59:23Z

Bruins will look to stay hot this afternoon, by going for another series win against Southern Cal. As usual for a Saturday Nick Vander Tuig will be the man charged with getting it done. While Adam Plutko had the distinction of being Bruins' no. 1 starter this season and has had a stellar season so far, it's NVT who has put together (at least on the paper) the best season among the Bruins' starter. He is 9-3 with a 1.79 ERA on the year, and will be opposed by Wyatt Strahan, a sophomore RHP with a record of 4-3 and ERA of 2.49.

If you're not out at the ballpark this afternoon, listen in to John Ramey and Tim Welhelm or follow along with GameTracker. This is your open thread so chime in with updates and observations as the Bruins look to keep getting it done against the Trojans.

GO BRUINS.

STREAKING: UCLA Stays Hot In the Pac-12 by Beating Trojans

2013-05-18T19:04:17Z

UCLA baseball continues to stay hot in the Pac-12 race winning its seventh straight game beating Southern Cal for its sixth straight win in the cross-town series.

Quest for #109: Men's Tennis Elite Eight Open Thread

2013-05-18T18:47:06Z

The #1-seeded men's tennis team continues to survive and advance in dominating fashion, marching into today's Elite Eight matchup with #9-seeded Duke following a 4-0 demolition of #16-seeded Vanderbilt in the Sweet Sixteen round. Against Vandy, the Bruins got started with a solid pair of wins to take the doubles point (8-4, 8-0), followed by three straight singles wins by Adrien Puget (6-2, 6-1), Clay Thompson (6-1, 6-2), and Karue Sell (6-4, 6-3) to take four straight points and continue their perfect run in NCAA action. As it currently stands, UCLA has yet to drop a point in NCAA action, and they'll look to continue their assault on the national title this afternoon against Duke, with the match getting underway at 2 p.m. PST.

If you want to check out the action, both live statistics and live video will be available through the University of Illinois here.

Fire away with your thoughts, updates, and reactions in the open thread for the men's tennis Elite Eight match.

GO BRUINS

UCLA "Blindsided" by Alford's Increased Buyout Settlement

2013-05-18T02:16:21Z

Dan Guerrero's botched hiring of Steve Alford continues to cost U.C.L.A. far more than it bargained for. (HT to chrisorr for the fanshot)

Forget the blow to our reputation that came with Dan's failure to bring in a top tier coach that one of the all time great college basketball programs in history deserves. Never mind the ethical and character hit the Bruins took with Alford's inital whitewashing of his Pierre Pierce comments and his subsequent backtrack and forced apology.

This time it just comes down to dollars. At least this time the value is tangible. But that doesn't make it any more palatable.

The University of New Mexico issued a statement today claiming they have reached an agreement in principle with Steve Alford on the final value of the his buyout (bold text is mine).

UNM issued a news release Friday afternoon stating the buyout plus savings of deferred compensation payments, incentive bonuses and his final paycheck would net the university a "favorable" outcome of $625,000. The actual buyout Alford and his new employer, UCLA, will be paying is just $300,000 - a little more than the $200,000 he said he owed and far less than the $1 million buyout UNM felt initially he owed as part of a new 10-year contract he had agreed to in March that was supposed to begin April 1.

UCLA, meanwhile, was blindsided Friday afternoon by UNM's announcement as the two sides have not yet signed any agreements and made it clear that they are not paying the $625,000 initial media reports implied as a result of UNM's press release.

The $625,000 amount appears to be the sum of two values. The first is $325,000 in compensation and bonuses that UNM is no longer going to pay to Alford. The second is a $300,000 payment to UNM from...well, someone.

"It's pretty convoluted but the simple answer is, and these are approximate figures, approximately $325,000 in savings to UNM for compensation not paid and then $300,000 in buyout," said Kimberly Bell, Associate University Counsel. "And it's an agreement in principle, nothing signed yet, there are some details to work out."

So if this report is accurate, Alford's buyout will cost another $100K than we were originally told. Bruin fans were initially informed that the cost of the buyout to Alford's contract would be $200,000. While the hire of Alford was questionable for any number of reasons, the fact that we would have to pay a buyout for any of the coaches we were expecting was not a surprise. That's how these things work. The $200K buyout amount was a hefty but expected gut punch.

What was a surprise was the subsequent claim by UNM that they were actually seeking a buyout of a cool 1 million dollars, based on the numbers in Alford's contract extension to which he had agreed but not signed when he abandoned the Lobos and took the offer from Guerrero. There was plenty of contentious discussion here on BN over what consituted a contract. Apparently the discussion between UNM and Alford and his reps came to these numbers today. And while the total return to UNM has dropped from its initial claim for 1 mil to $625K, the balance due from Alford's side has risen from $200K to $300K.

My big question is who is going to pay this extra $100K. Because it better not be U.C.L.A.

Tydides said this loud and clear almost three weeks ago when UNM announced it was expecting a $1 million buyout for Alford. Here is the key graf from an article written by Jeff Eiesenberg with Yahoo! about the dispute:

UCLA had given him [Alford] a $200,000 signing bonus to cover the buyout from the previous contract. It would not be surprising to see the school step in and help its coach cover any further money the arbitrator decides he owes.

As Ty said, "Pay your own damn buyout".

Or at least I know a guy making three quarters of a million a year who can pony up some of his own, too. After all, this was his hire. He should get to reap the rewards, and suffer the penalties, of his decision.

The difference between this settlement and what was originally reported is another strike (make that one hundred thousand strikes) against Guerrero and his inept management of our athletic department. We already know that Guerrero can't conduct a proper coaching personnel search in the first place, so should we really be surprised when he proves to be a failure with the fine details of contract negotiations? You know, those obscure little things like buyout amounts? I'm sure there are plenty of people out in the BN community who have handled their own professional contracts or contracts for clients with more skill and precision than Guerrero and his team have shown.

Sadly, it would also not be surprising to watch Dan and his equally clueless Chancellor, Gene Block, simply roll over and write a check for the difference. That's another $100K that should be used for our student athletes, our student body, and our University. But neither of these guys were business majors, were they?

islandbruin2 has already exposed the facade of financial responsibility in the athletic department that Guerrero and Block are hiding behind. But once you get past the unbelievably perfect bottom line, the real accounts are ugly. It's not like either of these guys gives a damn about value and good business, let alone athletics. Bruin fans are sickened to see Guerrero rake in his obscenely inflated salary while he claims he doesn't have the money for marketing and forces his football coach to volunteer to foot the bill to transport students to the Spring Showcase at the Rose Bowl.

Meanwhile we have to suffer Block selling off the invaluable Hannah Carter Japanese Gardens and nickel and diming the top professors in the world while he boasts about the construction of a freaking hotel in the center of campus and praises adidas for screwing over sweatshop workers for two years while failing to use his leverage to simply do the right thing.

Is it any wonder that with the fiduciary irresponsibility of these two that U.C.L.A. now finds itself "blindsided" by New Mexico's statement?

How many bus trips to the Rose Bowl would $100K cover? How many court side tickets for The Den does $100K buy? Sadly, it appears that Guerrero's and Block's incompetence will cost U.C.L.A. just that amount. It is pathetic that we should be grateful that UNM found $325,000 that they could just not give Alford, otherwise they would probably still be coming at us for an even higher amount than today's settlement.

If an extra hundred K is what Alford and UNM agreed on, fine. Alford is welcome to write a check to cover the difference. That's his business. In my opinion, it better not be U.C.L.A.'s business. Not a single dollar of it.

Beat Southern Cal: UCLA Looks to Take Care of the Trojans in South Central LA

2013-05-18T00:04:12Z

With all the issue with our platform it's been a wacky week here on BN and all around SBN. So thanks again for your patience last few days. Due to the technical issues we didn't get to post the baseball results/thread from Tuesday night as the no. 8 ranked Bruins lost to a very good Fullerton (ranked no. 4) by a score of 2-5 (official recap).

So the Bruins will look to bounce back starting tonight with their last regular season series in Los Angeles to take on Southern Cal (19-30, 10-14). With just two series left in this conference season (Southern Cal and Stanford), it will take an absolute miracle for the Bruins (34-15, 17-7) to hold on our back to back conference title. With just two conference series left on the schedule, the Bruins find themselves in third place in the standings, just three games behind Pac-12 leaders Oregon State. The Bruins are two games behind Oregon for second place in the conference and are currently three games ahead of Arizona State for third. But hopefully the Bruins can finish these last 6 conference games strong and head into the tournament with a lot of momentum.

Bruins have been dominating the Trojans recently. Since John Savage became head coach of the Bruins in the summer of 2004, the Bruins have gone 20-9 against USC and have not lost a season series to the Trojans since 2005. UCLA has also won 20 of its last 25 games against the Trojans, including the last five meetings. The two sides met earlier this season at Jackie Robinson Stadium, with the Bruins claiming a 6-1 victory over the Trojans.

Adam Plutko will get the nod for UCLA. He is now 7-2 with a 2.68 ERA on the year and will be going up against some Trogan named Bob Wheatley, who is a lefty and has pretty good record at least on paper (3-4 with a 2.78 ERA this season).

If you're not out at the ballpark in South Central tonight, listen in to John Ramey and Tim Welhelm or follow along with GameTracker.This is your open thread so chime in with updates and observations as the Bruins look to win their fifth straight game.

GO BRUINS.