Mendacity of Wooden/UCLA Haters ...

by bluestreet on Apr 8, 2006 1:14 PM PDT

Wooden/UCLA haters came out of the woodwork during our Final-4 run. ManPundit (by the way TY BruinsNation for taking this prick of your blogroll) attacked Coach Wooden based on a hit piece from Yahoo Sport's Dan Wetzel. You see Wetzel does this every year. Every year during the tournament time Wetzel will comeup with a hit piece of Coach Wooden. You wonder why. Here is Russ from the Bruinzone:

Some salient points on Wetzel.

He co wrote a book with Tark, he's friends with tark, he spent months talking to Tark. Tark hates Wooden and UCLA because while Wooden was winning, Tark was cheating in multiple places and unable to come close to Wooden.

One of Wetzel's buddies is Bret Bearup, the guy many college coaches consider to be one of the more powerful influences in recruiting today. Why did Wetzel choose to write about Gilbert before the title game and not Donovan's good friend Bearup? Would you write an article the day of the title game bringing up innuendo about a close friend of yours?

Wetzel has a blog on his site that talks about a basketball tour he takes every year, Bearup has gone on it with him several times.

Wetzel on his own site jokes about the statue of Wooden that's mentioned in your link. He says if it's not Wooden's head, maybe it's Sam Gilberts, seems appropriate since Gilbert won all those titles.

Just another thing, the Walton quote came from a 1978 book. Walton's co author on that book came out later and said that Walton was very difficult to tie down on his stories for that book, they changed regularly, and that he knows for a fact Walton called Wooden after the book came out and apologized and admitted he'd embellished. Does that mean Bill didn't see any improprieties by Sam Gilbert, of course not, but was Bill being completely honest when he said they should strip 7 titles and put UCLA on 100 years probation, no, he was embellishing because he thought it would sell more books.
Wetzel doesn't bother to respond to emails by the way.

And of course the ManPundit fell for this bullshit hook, line and sinker. You wonder why we consider the ManPundit nothing but a dumb piece of shit - just like a typical Trojan. By the way neither Wetzel nor the Pundit could come up with any tangible evidence of any improper activity by Coach Wooden. Assholes.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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An attack on Coach Wooden ...

will never be acceptable on BN.

by Nestor on Apr 8, 2006 1:29 PM PDT reply actions

Even if ALL those things we're somewhat true...

...the man is freaking 95 years old. Calling out a man of Wooden's stature at this point in his life is beyond pathetic. I wish Wetzel was a little older, so that when I'M forty something like he is and he's pushing 90, I can write some slanderous filth about how he was in bed with all these shady characters and attack whatever pathetic reputation he built up as a shock jock type "journalist".

by scittles on Apr 8, 2006 4:24 PM PDT reply actions

Good post blue

That's good info, much I which I didn't know. Thanks.

by Cocoman25 on Apr 8, 2006 5:43 PM PDT reply actions

We should urge this prick...

...to do a hit piece on Tark.

Is he going to say that UNLV wasn't cheating in the Larry Johnson-Stacey Augmon era?

Asshole.

by Ajax on Apr 8, 2006 9:54 PM PDT reply actions

Tark

I go back far enough to when he was at Long Beach St. and he would always complain about Wooden because we were the premiere program and he could not compete (recruiting)or beat us on the court.
Of course the NCAA chased him from LB to all the other schools he went to and there was always a stench whe he was there.

Tark is a person who lives in "Tarkland", aplace where you can do no wrong.

Wooden did in fact get a scolding from the NCAA, he had one of his players who could not get home for the holidays and had him have dinner at his house. He told the NCAA he would continue to do that because none of his players were going to be alone at the hokidays.

by artybruin on Apr 9, 2006 10:23 AM PDT reply actions

More obsession

if anyone is obsessed, it is clear now that it is Bluestreet with HP.

As to the thing that I posted, as usual I was very clear and fair:

Is John Wooden the greatest coach ever? I think so. Was his program corrupt because of the influence of Sam Gilbert? Absolutely. Was UCLA doing things differently than all the other top programs? Probably not.

There is nothing in that statement that can be thrown out as untrue.

by Heismanpundit on Apr 12, 2006 1:10 PM PDT reply actions