Bruins Nation

Women's Water Polo

glassbruin — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:19:17 -0000

I don't know how many of our Bruin Fans have ever watched a water polo game...apart from kids sporting events, tonight on CBS-C was my first spectator view of a water polo game on TV...and what an introduction it was, with Ucla bringing down #101 with a dominating defensive performance over our arch-rivals.

UCLA won its fourth consecutive and sixth overall NCAA women's water polo title on Sunday evening, defeating USC, 6-3, in the championship match. The victory was UCLA's 10th national title and UCLA's 101st NCAA title. Bruin seniors Gabrielle Domanic, Brittany Rowe, Courtney Mathewson, Jillian Kraus and Kamaile Crowell finished their careers with four NCAA titles and a pair of undefeated seasons.

via grfx.cstv.com

Frankly it was almost as pleasurable as watching Ben Ball, with the Bruins' defensive effort being just intense and incredible, holding an SC team that averaged more than 10 goals per game to 3 tonight. Every time the Trojans seemed like they were making a run, our defense just got more intense.

For those who are unfamiliar with water polo, action in the game is similar to hockey, there are six players on offense and one goalie. There are minor fouls that happen all the time, but a major foul causes a player to get ejected and there is a subsequent "power play" where the team that has a player ejected has a one player deficit. Am sure that the stats will be in the write-up after the game, but SC had about 13 or more 6 on 5 opportunities and only scored on one or two - it really seemed like every time we got in a tough spot, the defensive intensity of the remaining five kicked up several levels and Ucla pulled out the stop. And although Ucla had way fewer of these opportunities, it seemed like our players were smarter and more skilled and converted on the slightest mistakes from the Trojans.

It was particularly interesting to listen to the interview of Ucla water polo coach Adam Krikorian after the game. He clearly comes from the same lineage of classy coaches that we expect from Ucla, giving credit to the team, his fellow coaching staff, and the sports administration support and downplaying his personal efforts...but check this bio out and you will see that he is a phenomenally good coach...

There may not be another head coach in any sport throughout the country who has accomplished more than Adam Krikorian in such a short span. In his 16 years with UCLA's water polo program as both a player and a coach, Krikorian has won an unprecedented 13 national titles - nine as a head coach, three as an assistant coach and one as a student-athlete.

This spring, Krikorian enters his 10th season as head coach of the UCLA women's water polo team and his ninth alone at the helm. In 1999, he served as interim head coach while was coaching the U.S. Women's National Team.

As women's water polo head coach, Krikorian has guided UCLA to six national championships (five NCAA titles) and boasts a remarkable .858 winning percentage (229-38 record). Krikorian's women's water polo teams have won 88 percent of their conference matches and have finished with a perfect 12-0 MPSF record once (in 2005).

A former standout on the men's water polo team from 1992-95, Krikorian has earned National Women's Water Polo Coach of the Year honors four times - in 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Krikorian gained National Men's Coach of the Year honors in 2004 after having led that men's squad to its eighth NCAA championship in program history.

I would encourage any of you who have the opportunity to catch a rerun of this game, it's not a high profile sport but Coach Krikorian and this group of seniors who have won four consecutive national championships with two undefeated seasons deserve huge accolades from the Bruin Nation.

UCLA Teams Looking Championship Worthy

ryebreadraz — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:43:16 -0000

So as we wind down the athletic year ,a few UCLA teams are either in the postseason or making their final runs to the postseason. Let's take a look at how they did this weekend and what to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Women's Water Polo- This has been all over BN so I'm sure by now you know that our fantastic team completed their undefeated season by beating USC in the national title game. It was the program's fourth consecutive national championship and I think it's fair to start throwing Adam Krikorian's name in there with some of the best in the NCAA, regardless of the sport.

Women's Golf- The top seeded Bruins went to Austin, Texas and blew away the competition to advance to the NCAA Championships. The Bruins shot -3 for the regional, while second place Purdue finished a full ten shots back. Freshman Maria Jose Uribe led the Bruins, shooting -8 for the regional and tying for first place. Junior Tiffany Joh finished fourth, going -5 for the regional and -4 on the final day, which was the best of any golfer. This is head coach Carrie Forsyth's fourth regional title. The Bruins will now head to New Mexico for the NCAA Championships, beginning May 20.

Men's Tennis- The third seeded Bruins kicked off postseason play on Saturday with a 4-0 victory over Eastern Washington, then beat Wisconsin 4-0 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. UCLA's two NCAA tournament victories improved their record to 14-0 at home, the second consecutive season the Bruins were perfect at home. The Bruins' Round of 16 match will be against fourteenth seeded Florida St. on Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Women's Tennis- Just like the men, the women also advanced to the Round of 16. The seventh seeded women also swept both their matches 4-0, first defeating Buffalo in the first round, then defeating Denver in the second round. The Bruins will travel to Tulsa as well for the NCAA Championships where they will face none other than USC in the Round of 16 on Thursday. The Bruins and Trojans faced off twice this season and UCLA won both match-ups. They won the first match at USC 6-1, then won the second match at home 5-2.

Softball- The softball team headed north for their final game of the regular season and went 2-1 on the weekend. They opened up the weekend with a 3-1 win at Oregon, dropped a game Friday to Oregon St. 5-3, but bounced back to beat the Beavers 5-1 on Saturday. The success this weekend and throughout the season earned the Bruins the #2 national seed for the NCAA tournament. UCLA will host their regional and a super-regional should they advance. In UCLA's regional is Nevada, Purdue and Cal St. Fullerton. The Bruins play Fullerton in their first game, but don't expect a win easily. The Titans beat the Bruins in the only game between the two this season. I'm not going to go into any more detail here because I'm hoping Daynuh can give us a thorough preview of the regional. The only thing I ask of the rest of you is to head out to Easton Stadium next weekend to support our Bruins and create a great home field advantage.

Baseball- UCLA saw their postseason hopes dashed on Sunday when they lost to Oregon St. 8-7. UCLA had a 7-4 lead in the eighth when they gave up a two out grandslam that all but ended their regional hopes. This was one of the more disappointing seasons a team can have, going from preseason #1 to out of the postseason. UCLA had eight games left, all against very good teams and will likely need seven wins to get on the bubble. I'll have a season wrap-up after their final game in two weeks, but as a little preview...look for me to take some shots at the coaching staff and question the direction of the program.

Men's Golf- They had the weekend off, but Thursday they will kick off their postseason when they travel to Washington for the West regional. The Bruins are the second seed in the West regional and need only to finish in the top eight to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Carmelo, Juice Deuce, Tim Floyd & Those Laker Tix

UniversityofSecondChoice — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:21:34 -0000

Howdy BN. The new site looks great!

Had to come back here for after today's big news.

In case any of you missed the full OTL segment on the Juice Deuce, I posted it in the nifty FanShots section.

Wanted to go into it a little deeper though.

In that full segment and her extensive writeup ESPN's Kelly Naqi (who must have gone to a different school of sports journalism from the monkeys who pose as sports reporters in LA) gave us this little detail about OJ2 and BDA:

As Mayo held up different clothing combinations for Guillory's approval, Johnson said Mayo had a plan. Over the next year in a city that is home to the stars, he was going to create the Mayo Brand, and then take his total package to the National Basketball Association. Once he turned pro, Mayo would sign with an agent at Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management (BDA), which represents a number of NBA stars, including Steve Nash, Yao Ming and Carmelo Anthony; and the agent would polish that image.

It didn't occur to me right away. I just realized a little while ago that this is not the first time we are hearing Carmelo's name in a OJ2 story. Remember this from the LA Times back in January ?:

USC freshman guard O.J. Mayo may have violated NCAA rules by accepting complimentary tickets from Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to Monday's Lakers-Nuggets game at Staples Center.

Although USC compliance officials could not be reached for comment, NCAA bylaw 16.11.2.2.3 states that student-athletes may not receive "free or reduced-cost admission to professional athletics contests from professional sports organizations, unless such services also are available to the student body in general."

It was not immediately clear if the NCAA would consider Anthony an agent of the Nuggets or merely an individual who gave tickets to a friend.

The tickets Mayo received were located behind courtside seats near mid-court and had a face value of $230 each.

A compliance director from another West Coast school said that although he did not have all the details, Mayo's actions could constitute a secondary violation and that the NCAA could order Mayo to donate the value of the tickets to charity.

Nothing came out of that story as Tim Floyd was super duper quick to take the fall :

Southern California coach Tim Floyd has taken the blame for a possible NCAA rules violation by freshman standout O.J. Mayo.

Mayo accepted free tickets to Monday night's game between Denver and the Los Angeles Lakers from Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, and attended after telling his coach of the situation.

"O.J. asked me if he could go to the game," Floyd said before the Trojans left for a two-game road trip that began Thursday night at Oregon State. "I asked him where he was getting the ticket, and he said, `Carmelo.' I said, `How long have you known him?' He said `Since seventh grade.' I said, `Sure, he's a friend."

Mayo, averaging a team-leading 19.7 points, told reporters Tuesday he had received the tickets, which were located behind courtside seats near midcourt at Staples Center and had a face value of $230 each.

"It's a secondary violation. It's one of ignorance on my part if it was a mistake," Floyd said. "I'll take the responsibility because I told the kid he could go to the game. I assumed he could go to the game. If they want to suspend me for a game, suspend me for a game, but not the kid. He did the right thing."

May be someone should probe deeper into that story again?

I don't know. I think Tim has few more questions to answer from that story. Don't you?

WWL's Pat Forde: Southern Cal Deserves "Death Penalty"

Nestor — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:04:53 -0000

From WWL's Pat Forde following the (not so surprising) bomb shell on OJ2 (emphasis added):

In a just world, USC basketball would have something in common with SMU football in the near future.

The death penalty.

It's not going to happen, because NCAA bylaws don't work that way. And besides, they're not likely to ever again disband a program for a year after the smoking crater it left at SMU.

But USC deserves it. The school has so far escaped facing NCAA prosecution for compelling allegations that star tailback Reggie Bush and his family were lavishly compensated by an aspiring agent while playing for the Trojans. Now comes a devastating, thoroughly documented "Outside The Lines" report that goes into stunning detail about the money and gifts star guard O.J. Mayo allegedly received before and during his one season at USC.

All directly beneath USC's chronically blind eyes.

You can plead ignorance once -- and even that was almost impossible to believe, in the case of Bush. Plead it twice? Um, no. USC should be crushed by the NCAA, the Pacific-10 and its own administration.

Especially with a player everyone in Hoopsworld strongly suspected was no amateur before he set foot in Los Angeles. You had to search hard to find a soul who didn't think O.J. Mayo had been prostituted for years as his prep legend grew, starting in seventh grade. (Put it this way: When early Mayo confidant Sonny Vaccaro gets muscled out of the scene, somebody's bringing some serious juice to the table.)

So you take the Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of "lack of institutional control"?

If all the allegations stand up, USC athletic director Mike Garrett and the Inspector Clouseaus who comprise his compliance staff must lose their jobs over these serial embarrassments, or the school has no credibility whatsoever. When USC's two highest-profile sports both have star players allegedly on the brazen take from agents, somebody needs to answer for it. A lot of somebodies.

Or USC can take its ignorance and explain it to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which shouldn't be in much of a mood to listen if the same OTL facts are presented to NCAA investigators as compellingly as they were on national TV and on this Web site Sunday.

Just one question: where was the LA Times?

First it was YahooSpots breaking the story open on BushGate and now WWL's OTL bursts open not so shocking MayoGate. You'd think Southern California's number 1 newspaper with its access to Southern Cal's athletic program would be on to this stories. No ... once again it's the national media reporters who ends up exposing what we have been suspecting all along.

Otherwise, we have nothing to add to Pat's article, which fired off this missile pointed towards Timmeh :

In the wake of this, it's hilarious to listen to Floyd's interview on "Pardon The Interruption" before Mayo started his brief career at USC. In a previous episode, Michael Wilbon had arched an eyebrow about taking someone with Mayo's red flags into the program. Floyd's response made Mayo sound like a tragically misunderstood Eagle Scout.

According to Floyd, Mayo was raised by a single mother who didn't have the money to pay a big cell phone bill -- which ostensibly is why Guillory discouraged Floyd from calling him during his recruitment. Floyd also said the kid "doesn't have anything" materially.

Despite that, the USC coach apparently never got around to wondering how the poor child from Huntington, W.Va., could afford the expensive clothes on his back or the expensive shoes on his feet. How about the flat-screen TV in his dorm? That never set off an alarm? If the answer is that USC coaches or compliance workers never set foot in Mayo's dorm room … why the hell not?

When you recruit someone radioactive, you better have everything checked down to the smallest detail. Or else your program turns into Three Mile Island.

As for the TrOJans making excuses from this latest scandal I will just leave you Pat's closing words in that must read article : "deny on".

GO BRUINS.

[Updated w/ WWL Video] Mayo Received Benefits?

bucknellbruin — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:03:53 -0000

Bumped (w video from WWL). GO BRUINS. -N

A formerly close friend of OJ Mayo said that Mayo accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts while at USC.

Former USC basketball player O.J. Mayo, a projected lottery pick in this year's NBA draft, received thousands of dollars in cash, clothes and other benefits in apparent violation of NCAA rules while he was still in high school and during his one year in college, a former Mayo associate told ESPN's "Outside the Lines."

Mayo accepted around $30,000 in cash and gifts during the past four years from Rodney Guillory, a 43-year-old Los Angeles event promoter. In addition to cash, the gifts included a flat-screen television for Mayo's dorm room, cell phone service, a hotel room, clothes, meals and airline tickets for Mayo's friends

Read the whole story here .

First Bush, now this. How much more has to happen before the NCAA does something?

OJ Admits to Murder

Tydides — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:33:38 -0000

I know, shocking right?

From Yahoo News:

Mike Gilbert also claims he helped his former friend wiggle out of the murder charges by suggesting how to bloat his hands so they wouldn't fit the notorious bloody gloves.

Gilbert's book, "How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse" (Regnery Publishing, 232 pages, $27.95), is due in stores Monday. It was released to The Associated Press in advance.

He said Simpson had smoked pot, took a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when he confided at his Brentwood home weeks after his trial what happened the night of June 12, 1994. Simpson said he went to his ex-wife's condominium, but did not bring a knife with him. Simpson told him Nicole Brown Simpson had one in her hand when she opened the door.

In a soft mumble, Simpson told him: "If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive."

"Nothing more needed to be said," Gilbert writes. "O.J. had confessed to me. There's no doubt in my mind."

Who wants to bet that the neanderthal buffoons from across town will still wear their OJ jerseys with pride? No takers? Another shocker.

Poll

Is OJ Simpson a Murderer?

Remember 11 months ago?

Seanny Rotten — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:39:13 -0000

The Digg link (PLEASE DIGG!!) and the archived link from here (go ahead and recommend!). My brother is now at an AFB in South Dakota, has made it home from Iraq safely (for the second time) and should be getting his Honorable Discharge from the Air Force in late August/ early September.

Thank you again, BN for your good wishes and words of support.

Now think back all those months, BN. At one point it looked as though we'd never be rid of CTS and "coaching harder" and "answering the bell"! Now the future is brighter than ever, we have a brand new HC and OC and we dare to dream of regularly competing for the Pac-10 and *gasp* National Championships!

Suggestion for BN Walk Posts

bru79 — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:32:32 -0000

I noticed that with the new format there are different lists that show only the title of the post. It might be helpful to include the date in the title of the BN Walk Roundups to differentiate them from each other.

got to reach 75 words to post this...Go Bruins!

Forcier acceptance letters

Free the 16 — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:22:52 -0000

Was checking out the PE Bruin blog and found this...

http://www.qbforce.com/chris/Offers/Offers.htm

It is a link to Chris Forcier's website and on it he has copies of the scholi letters he received from several schools, including UCLA. Interesting to see how they differ.

Plus he has some other interesting stuff on his site as well. Don't know if I remember a current player having such a site.

BoBo Circus

Koach Karl I — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:13:09 -0000

The continuing saga of BoBo (the basketball player, not the clown) is getting slightly more interesting. As everyone knows, Trent Johnson is making a push to keep BoBo at LSU by dragging his feet on processing the release request. Not much more to add here, except this quote from Johnson in The Shreveport Times (link):

"He's a very good young man, but is he by any means Shaquille O'Neal? No, he's not," Johnson said. "It's going to take it's time. I've never been in a situation where I'm going to beg."

Jill Painter also linked to it.

I am no genius when it comes to recruiting or dealing on a day-to-day basis with the psyche of "student" athletes, but it seems more than a little damaging to LSU's chances with der BoBo to come out with quotes like this one, no?

By the way, awesome new format for the site. When an old guy like me can block quote and insert links, you know it is easy. Reminds of the old days with word processing apps going from inserting formatting in the text to WYSIWYG.

WHISTLE! (as Cheatie Peetie, Jr. likes to say)

Prince to Enroll Early?

BruinFanBaby — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:45:56 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Jill Painter of the Daily News is reporting that incoming QB Kevin Prince has told CRN that he plans to enroll at UCLA early, if there are enough scholarships available. From the Daily News:

Prince, recovering from reconstructive knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said he could start taking classes in June, but UCLA needs to check its scholarship situation to make sure one is available.

"That's definitely what I want to do now," Prince said. "I don't want to wait anymore. Whether I do (enroll early) or not, I'm preparing to. I talked to coach Neuheisel about it. He was the one who brought it up. He just wants to make sure they have the right amount of scholarships."

Football programs are allowed a maximum of 85 scholarships, and it's unclear how many UCLA still has available. A UCLA official said the school is not over the maximum 25 new scholarships per year.

The school is in the process of figuring out its scholarship allotment for next season. It reportedly offered a junior college offensive lineman a scholarship.

Considering that Cowan will be out for the year and that we don't know how Olson will recover from surgery, I'd say this is a good idea. Prince was slated to enroll in 2009, but I think he'll get a lot out of competing with Crissman, Craft and Rashaan and learning the system from Coach Chow right now.

UCLA Heads To Corvallis For Big Series With OSU

ryebreadraz — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:47:33 -0000

Bumped. Welcome to our new digs everyone. GO BRUINS. -N

I'm not going to do my usual series preview because this week we've got a Q&A with Jake from Building the Dam. Jake gave us a look at the two time defending national champions Oregon St. who enter this weekend a half game up on the Bruins in the Pac 10 standings.

(Questions are in bold)

The Beavers figured to be carried by their pitching in 2008, but entering this weekend the three Oregon St. starters have ERA's of 6.09, 5.18 and 7.69. Why have the starters struggled and how have the Beavers managed to win with such abysmal pitching?
Mike Stutes was supposed to be our ace coming into this season, which he is to some extent, but he hasn't been as effective this year as he was his sophomore and junior seasons. It's hard to tell whether he has just backed off the gas since it's his senior year, or he really is struggling due to a mechanical problem or something to that extent. As for Jorge, I think he's still in post-Omaha shock. He was close to unstoppable in his freshman campaign, and after being named MVP of the CWS and picking up other post-season honors, he's had a tough time finding his footing on the rubber after being on Cloud 9. The third starter is usually Tanner Robles, but we've also seen James Nygren, Josh Osich, and a few others in that position. They're freshmen. Even though the coaches will probably tell you that they could be more effective, the true reason for the high ERA would be lack of experience.

Oregon St.'s Goss Stadium has a very unusual field that is all FieldTurf with the exception of the mound and plate. Have you noticed this becoming a home field advantage for the Beavers and what type of team does the turf favor?
Goss Stadium has a FieldTurf infield, with a natural grass outfield. There are cutouts for the mound and the plate. Living in the northwest, it's a great asset to the program to be able to practice outdoors more often and schedule more games. Many high schools are now installing FieldTurf surfaces, as natural grass baseball fields and the state of Oregon are not the best combination. So it's not that unusual around here. As far as speed, the turf plays fast when it is first installed, since the "grass" is still somewhat matted down. It's now a year and a half old, so the turf will play slower now than it did last season. But you're still going to see more natural hops and quicker speeds than you will on a natural grass field. Since the Beavers are accustomed to the turf and the Bruins aren't, I'd say that the advantage goes to the Beavers. But when it comes down two it, it's not that hard to adjust between grass and turf.

Starting this weekend, Oregon St. will play 12 games in 17 days to finish the season. Do you see this affecting how Coach Casey uses his bullpen this weekend knowing how much work they have ahead of them?
You have to take into account that only six of the twelve--half-- are league games. The Beavers need every win they can get, but I expect Pat to play to win the UCLA series before he worries about who he's going to throw against Utah Valley. We have a deep bullpen with a lot of freshmen, so they'll likely get some work in those midweek games. We should be able to go with the normal rotation again next week against USC, and likely the week after that against Pacific. If our starters don't get into trouble, we should be alright. But that's been happening a lot lately...

Until the postseason last year, Oregon St. struggled to score runs. This season they lost two of their best hitters from last season and yet they are batting over .300 as a team. How have the Beavers turned around their offense and which players have been the keys to the offensive turnaround?
First of all, the addition of assistant coach Pat Bailey has helped tremendously. Pat oversees the Beaver offense, and is a big reason for the Beavers increased performance at the plate. But beyond that, some particular players are just stepping up. Lonnie Lechelt was a liability on offense last season, and now he's one of our best hitters. Same with Drew George. He's hitting the ball much better. And Ryan Ortiz has stepped in to fill the shoes of Mitch Canham beautifully at the plate. There is still room for improvement though, and there are some guys that are under-achieving. Joey Wong and Jordan Lennerton are the ones that come to mind.

What unheralded Beaver should we keep an eye on this weekend?
Well, that's a tough one. Right fielder Daniel Robertson has the potential to break out any day, and the Beavers desperately need Joey Wong to start hitting the ball better. Same goes for Jordan Lennerton. I'd say watch out for freshman closer Kevin Rhoderick, even though he is somewhat of a "heralded" player. He's a beast.

Finally, you know I can't let you off without putting you on the spot. What's your prediction for this weekend?
I'm not much of a predictions guy, but I know that the Beavers desperately need to win this season. They were in the same circumstances last year when they came down to your place and swept a series that got the Beavers into the tournament. Without those wins they would have probably been left out of the post-season, and would not have gotten a chance to go to Omaha. They hope to do the same thing this year. I'll let the players decide the result.

A big thanks to Jake for the answers which mixed up the regular and sometimes boring series previews with something interesting and new. He's going to post my answers before Saturday's game so I'll link it once it is up for anyone interested.

Here are the starters for this weekend:

Friday, May 9 - 5 p.m. - at OSU's Goss Stadium
UCLA's Tim Murphy, LHP, Jr. (3-5, 3.64) vs. OSU's Mike Stutes, RHP, Sr. (2-6, 6.09)

Saturday, May 10 - 1 p.m. - at OSU's Goss Stadium
UCLA's Charles Brewer, RHP, So. (6-4, 5.45) vs. OSU's Tanner Robles, LHP, Fr. (3-1, 5.18)

Sunday, May 11 - 1 p.m. - at OSU's Goss Stadium
UCLA's Gavin Brooks, LHP, So. (5-2, 5.03) vs. OSU's Jorge Reyes, RHP, So. (3-2, 7.69)

If you want any other info on the weekend's series, check out the official site's preview . As always, you can listen to the games or follow them on GameTracker via the official site.

Welcome to the new Bruins Nation and SB Nation

clockwerks — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:00:29 -0000

Hey Bruins Nation,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
Once you're logged in, press your Z key in any thread with new comments
Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Bruins Nation from YouTube or images from Flickr
Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

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To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

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FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Bruins Nation and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

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What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Bruins Nation now has all the basic information about the UCLA Bruins and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of UCLA Bruins material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Scully & Wooden: for the Kids Tickets

freesia39 — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:26:20 -0000

I saw this on the LA Times website today - it'd be a good opportunity to hear Coach Wooden speak, along with Dodger legend Vin Scully.

From the Ticketmaster website:

Vin Scully and John Wooden appear together one night only, on-stage at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE to share their thoughts, philosophies, reflections, insights and wisdom in the City where each has lived, worked and contributed for nearly 50 years to our way of life. Moderated by award-winning columnist T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times, proceeds from SCULLY & WOODEN...For the Kids will be donated to the Pediatric Cancer Program at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and pediatric cancer research at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and City of Hope through ThinkCure, the official charity of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Tickets range from 25.00 to 200.00.

Purchase tickets here

Johnson Willing To Let Bobo Out of NLI?

bluestreet — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:51:49 -0000

Just saw this in a local rag from LA. Bolding the important part:

Johnson said he spoke to Morgan's mother, Bianca Morgan, Wednesday, and she had not changed her mind from her published comments that LSU was not the right place for her son. She suggested Johnson hadn't shown enough interest in her son, claiming she "didn't get any calls back" from him after the coach's visit.

"I was shocked," said Johnson when he read about that, "because he's a very neat kid. On the other hand, this is not my first rodeo. There is no state of panic."

Johnson said he made repeated attempts since April 22 to contact Morgan and his mother but calls were not returned.

He said he would try to get to the bottom of the issue with a call to Morgan late Wednesday or early today.

"Regardless," he stressed, "I want guys who want to be here. This is LSU. This is the first time I've been in a situation where the recruiting pool is this large. I'm building a program, and I want to do so with guys who want to be here."

It doesn't sound like Johnson is going to try hard to keep Bobo. Also if I can remember from quotes I read from last few years, Johnson appear to be very respectful of Howland. So there may not be a lot of bad blood here.

Go Bruins!

Lute Olson and Arizona

Achilles — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:01:59 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

You know what's sort of weird to consider?

When Lute Olson took over at Arizona, they were an also-ran program in the conference.

And Olson deserves major respect for creating something out of nothing in the desert. He had many great players come through Tucson and many very good teams. He has multiple Final Four appearances and a single national title.

Now, a national title is nothing to snicker at -- it's a great accomplishment, the ultimate accomplishment. Nothing I can say can denigrate that accomplishment.

But ...

Jim Harrick has a national title. Gary Williams has a national title. Rollie Massimino has a national title. Jim Boeheim has a national title.

Maybe you get the picture: Sometimes you coach long enough and get into the right situation and you're in the right place at the right time enough times and you get the title.

I happen to think Lute Olson has had a great career. I'm not saying he's not a better coach than some guys on that list.

But consider this:

His program is in a shambles. They finished 7th last season and his two best players are in the draft. He's got an entirely new coaching staff (or will, once Josh Pastner takes that job at Memphis). His top recruit is having academic issues (there is an Internet report today that says Brandon Jennings might not qualify -- I bet he does, but still ...)

Add to all that Olson is an older guy and might not coach too many more years.

And, when push comes to shove, he might leave the program right where it was when he took it over -- an also ran -- and the entire Olson era will come and go with one national title, exactly the same amount of national titles that UCLA won during the Olson era.

Think about it: During the Olson era, UCLA had Walt Hazzard, Jim Harrick, Steve Lavin and now Ben Howland. Some of that era was considered sub par by UCLA fans. Harrick had some very good seasons and one really great season. Ben Howland has had three great seasons. But if the Olson era ended today, our record for that time would be very close to Arizona's. Theirs would be better -- I bet they won more conference titles during that span and they didn't suffer the lows of Hazzard and Lavin. But we've been to four final fours during the Olson era with one national title (and an elite eight appearance). We've won at least six Pac 10 titles during that time (I know that Harrick/Lavin won three straight and Howland has won three straight).

The funniest thing is: If Olson's era ended right now, we might actually be better vis-a-vis AZ than we were when he took over. He took over when Hazzard was the coach (I think he was, if it was Farmer, the point is still true). Now, Howland is the coach.

However many years later, we're almost back where we started and though the Olson era at AZ was undeniably a great one, did it really accomplish all that much more than UCLA did during the same time period?

(Side note: Another interesting point is that Arizona will soon -- two years, three years? -- learn what we learned in '75. That it is very hard to replace a legend. Except for a season here and a season there, it took us almost 30 years to find another top coach who would last more than two years. Ask Indiana and Kentucky fans how tough it can be to replace a legend. Arizona is going to find our soon enough.)

BN 2.0 is Set to Launch on Thursday, May 8

Nestor — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:01:38 -0000

Bumping this up so everyone can see. Again this will actually happen during late Thursday night. So you will actually see the new site when you log on Friday morning. Also as mentioned your current username will be reserved for you in the new site. But if you want to get started and claim it right now, you can go here. GO BRUINS. -N

Ladies and gents of Bruin Nation:

If any of you read any other SBNation blogs frequently, you may have noticed that many of the MLB, NBA, and NFL sites have transitioned to what we're calling "SBN 2.0". If you haven't seen the redesign yet check out True Blue LA (Dodgers), Halos Heaven (Angels), Athletics Nations (As), McCovey Chronicles (Giants), and Gas Lamp Ball (Padres).

The changes that have been made to all of these sites is coming to Bruins Nation. And it is happening this Thursday.

Yes, BN 2.0 is launching on Thursday, May 8.

Since this will be a new platform, usernames will have to be reassigned. But don't worry, many of you will already have your user name saved for you when you log-in to SBN 2.0. However, there may be some cases in which your username is taken by a member of another site.

Some of the new features include:

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

BN will soon have all the basic information about the UCLA Bruins and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams. (Note: College Baseball stats are not available at this time)

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of UCLA material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Network-wide accounts

After you register for SBN 2.0, it will be easy to register with any blog in the network. Your profile will be your hope page, displaying your statistics as well as your blog memberships.

And of course, there's the visual redesign.

So as of right now unless there is a last minute hitch BN 2.0 is set to launch on Thursday, May, 9.

For now, head on over to a SBN 2.0 blogs like the ones mentioned above and create a network account. If you get that out of the way now, you'll have little to worry about on Thursday when BN 2.0 launches. Many thanks to Jake over to Building the Dam, who drafted this template post, which I customized for BN.

GO BRUINS.

Academic Progress v. Graduation Rates

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:48:36 -0000

So first, I want to say that I am happy that UCLA has met or exceeded the minimum NCAA APR (http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/apr2007/110_2007_apr.pdf) . I am a firm believer that all student-athletes are in fact students, and should be students first and athletes second. So UCLA's APR is a good thing.

But, at the same time, I am very concerned about student-athlete graduation rates, especially, but not only, in the "big" sports of men's basketball and football. (http://stanford.scout.com/2/748689.html). If you look through these numbers, they should be of concern to anyone who is interested in the best interests of the students who are privileged to go to UCLA (and to many Pac 10 schools) and who we are privileged to enjoy watching.

A few things jump off the page, at least to me. The first is that Stanford does a far better job in graduating their players. Now I know there are institutional reasons for this. And I know that, in general, UCLA and most other Pac 10 schools get kids who are more likely to make it professionally than Stanford does. However, even at UCLA, most of the football players will not make it as pros. The same goes for baseball (though there are of course more who linger in the minor leagues for their careers). I believe that UCLA needs to do a better job of graduating their athletes. A college degree is this century's high school degree. Your chance of success and earning potential go up markedly with one in hand (http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/13/collegeboard).

But this is only the tip of the concern iceberg for me. If you look at the two different graduation-gap statistics given in the scout.com article, there are some areas of major concern. UCLA is rather high on two lists -- the differences between student athlete graduation rates and the general student population, and of equal, if not greater concern, the gap between african-american student athletes caucasian athletes. Both the fact that these gaps are significant, and the fact that UCLA consistently seems to be in the middle of Pac 10 on many of these lists, and shows up on even some of the national charts, should be a concern.

Now I know that some people will say that the graduation rates reflect that fact that UCLA gets many students who have professional potential. And there is of course some truth to that, especially in basketball. But basketball is such a small pool in the larger athletic waters. That UCLA can only graduate 61% of its african-american athletes, as opposed to 81% of its caucasian athletes (and the fact that 61% represents second best in the Pac 10, which is grim in and of itself), is not something to be proud of.

I want UCLA to be actively concerned about these numbers. I want UCLA alumni and UCLA supporters to be actively concerned about these numbers. They should not be acceptable to anyone. Now this does not mean I am not a realist. This does not mean that I don't think the APR is of value, that I don't think Kevin Love, for instance, should go pro, or that I am not happy that he, and other student-athletes are making sure they are in good standing when they drop-out/go pro. Because I am happy that they are responsible to themselves and to the school. But UCLA should do better. I know there is a different between public and private schools (having taught at both UCLA and Stanford), but I believe that UCLA should be second to Stanford in these various numbers in every category, year in, year out.

I know there are people who disagree with me, who say that a solid APR is good enough. But an education, and a UCLA degree, lasts far longer than any athletic career, for those few who actually achieve one. A long time ago, Horace Mann said: "Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men,--the balance-wheel of the social machinery." (Look at the insidehighered.com article I linked above if you want that quantified a bit.) If we, as a society, let our student-athletes leave a great academic institution like UCLA without an education and make no even minimal effort to anything about it, then the University, and we too, are indeed guilty of using them for our own amusement and making money on their backs.

I believe we can do better.

Little Pom Pom

UniversityofSecondChoice — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:48:53 -0000

Knock. Knock.

Hello BN.

Long time lurker, first time - you know how it goes.

My first post, so please go easy on me.

If you guys have not seen this yet, Scott Wolf, the Trojan shill from the Daily News is worked up over this video:

That is little Pom Pom - Brendan Carroll - making an ass out of himself humiliating walk ons at University of Second Choice (warning lots of profanity in the video).

The video by the way is an official Suc video!

Wolfie is whining (may be he is getting prompted by the SuC PR dept?) that Rick Neuheisel is pointing recruits towards that video pointing it out as a "negative characteristic" of Pom Pom's program.

All the Trojies are up in arms, sniveling like little babies.

Oops. Looks like I didn't make the 200 word count. How about this?

SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.
SC Sucks.

UCLA Ski/Snowboard Team 2008 SCCSC Champions!!!

JKNaka — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:59:57 -0000

Bumped. GO BRUINS.-N

The 2008 UCLA Ski and Snowboard Club Team took 1st place overall in the Southern California Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Conference, beating out Cal Poly Pomona, CSULB, SDSU, UCSB, UCSD and USC. The UCLA Ski Team took 2nd place and the Snowboard Team took 1st. The competition was comprised of four events: giant slalom, slalom, Boarder/Skiier-Cross, and Slopestyle, taking place over number of weekends from December to March. Full results can be seen here.

Certain outstanding Bruins must be congratulated.

Sophomore ski sensation Julie Fair won 1st place overall in a field of 40 female skiers. Sophia Berry and Britt Lindstrom were awarded 3rd and 5th place, respectively.

Freshman phenom skier, and former Squaw Valley Ski Team member, Charles Graves took 1st place in Giant Slalom and Slalom, earning him 2nd place overall in a field of 65.

Among 40 female snowboarders, senior and team vice president Melissa Yee placed 3rd overall. Sophomore snowboard team captain Bre Wright placed 4th overall and also took home 1st place in women's slopestyle (she's better than most guys).

The man of the hour was junior and team president Justin Globerson. Among 90 male snowboard competitors, Globerson took 4th place in Slopestyle, 2nd place in Giant Slalom, and 1st place in Boarder-cross, earning him 1st place overall. In addition to his athletic achievements, the UCLA Team President was honored with the "Team Officer of the Year" award for his exemplary display of leadership.

On a personal note, I must add that in my 7 years at UCLA (undergrad and graduate school), I have never met a group of individuals as genuine, sincere, and determined as these young men and women are. Once again, they prove on and off the "field" that UCLA produces the greatest student athletes. I am proud to be part of their team and they make me proud to be a Bruin.

Congratulations to the UCLA Ski and Snowboard Team for an amazing year of excellence.