Ben Ball Game Day Roundup & Notes

by Nestor on Jan 26, 2008 9:45 AM PST in Basketball Comment 11 comments

Let's start our Ben Ball game day roundup focusing on the Beavers. KSW over at Bruin Basketball Report has the preview up:

The Beavers are averaging 60.5 points a game on 38.3% shooting from the field and an embarrassing 27.9% on three-pointers.

The lone bright spot on the team has been the play of sophomore wing Seth Tarver (6'5, 205). After a rough freshman season when he battled injuries, he leads the team in scoring with 12.0 a game and is averaging 5.4 rebounds.

Tarver's brother, Josh, however has struggled from the point this season. All his numbers are down from his frosh year, he's averaging 7.5 points on just 33.6% shooting.

Seth and Josh's older brother, Shon, played at UCLA for four years (1991-1994). He led the Bruins in scoring in 1993.

That's pretty cool. I was thinking about Shon as soon as I saw the last name Tarver. Shon as some of you will remember came into UCLA with Ed O'Bannon as the two recruits who were destined to go to UNLV before Tark's house of cards (aka "USC of college basketball") crumbled under NCAA sanctions. I have written a number of times about my feelings towards King Ed. I will add tha Shon was also a great guy and a pretty solid player when he was at UCLA.

As for our guys from Dohn's this morning's report sounds like Luc or Lorenzo might see some action today:

UCLA's frontcourt could receive a boost with the possible return of backup center Lorenzo Mata-Real for tonight's game at Oregon State.

Bruins coach Ben Howland termed Mata-Real's status as "probable," but said starting forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was "questionable" to play against the Beavers. Both missed Thursday's win at Oregon because of lingering effects from concussions.

"They did some shooting, along with a couple of other guys," Howland said. "It was 20, 25 minutes. (Friday) morning after breakfast, Luc had taken a big ride."

Mbah a Moute said after watching the win against Oregon that he did not have a headache, but his problem had been in the morning. In days prior, he went to bed headache free, but awoke in the morning with a headache.

As per UCLA policy, players must be symptom-free for 24 hours, than have a "contact practice" before being cleared to play in a game.

I hope UCLA plays it safe with these guys. I rather have Keefe, Dragovic and Stanback rack up some heavy mins today than having to go to those two guys. This way we can have them completely ready for next week.

Elsewhere Pucin (LAT) and Dohn (DN) spent a lot of time today writing about Oregon Ducks fan behavior at Mac. Coach Howland had to say this about some of the comments hurled towards Love and his family (Dohn):

"What was really impressive was how poised he was, considering how vicious the personal attacks were that were going on in the stands," Howland said Friday. "I don't see it, but I hear about it after the games and it's like, `Oh, you're kidding me.' You guys (the media) saw it.

"They even wrote about it in one of the local papers, and one of the lines was, `It's not the worst ever at Mac,' and I thought, `Really?' After hearing what they were saying, well, what was the worst? That would be a good question.

"There were some really vile, disgusting, inappropriate innuendos ... just the whole deal. I feel bad when that happens to anybody. And at UCLA the students have been bad in years past. I don't think they've been that bad, at least, since I've been here."

And the Oregon administration had this (extremely lame) response (Pucin):

Greg Walker, a spokesman for the Oregon athletic department, acknowledged that some of the chants and signs were in poor taste. "But the other side of this is a free speech issue," Walker said. "We don't have the authority to take away signs. We don't agree with all the things that were said or that they were in the best of taste. We're aware of everything that was said and we're not always proud. But there is a right to free speech."

I personally don't get all that riled up about words coming out of student sections in college basketball arenas. And I see nothing wrong with showing and expressing emotion and expressing disdain towards the losers from South Central when they come to our house.

However, that said Walker's explanation doesn't jibe at all. This is not an issue of "free speech" if I understand it correctly. Mac Court is not a public place where free speech rights are applicable. I am presuming those students pay tickets to attend their games at Mac and in doing so they agree to set of agreements printed out in those tickets (which essentially serves as a "license"). So those students can be kicked out by the University administration if they violate any of terms of that agreement. And again I am presuming any such agreement wrt to tickets for Oregon athletics do not give those students the right to hurl words that cannot be printed. So in other words Walker's excuse is total BS and comes across as the effort of an administrative hack who is trying to deliberatively mislead and obfuscate assuming that no one is going to call him out on it.

Anyway, I am not going to worry too much about this. I have complete confidence in the leaders of our Bruin Den that they will deal with this issue when Malik Hairston comes to Pauley and get his last taste of playing on a college basketball court that features a Final-4 caliber program.

Let's keep our focus on Oregon State. It's a huge game for our Ben Ball warriors. They need to take care of business to keep control over the conference.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

I'm glad you brought up the free speech issue.

Walker is, of course, lying.

A ticket is a license just as you say and I wrote a letter to Diane Too-lazy-to-check-the-facts Pucin calling her on it. It's crummy reporting to let obviously false claims stand without setting the record straight. UO could require the students to wear tuxedos it it wanted to, let alone shut down abusive chanting.

That said, it's really allowing Walker to get away with lying that bothers me. I think that the OU students are just shooting themselves in the foot because the are guaranteeing that opponents play their hardest. Let them say what they want and show what kind of a school UO is.

When it comes to the return match, I hope our students don't retaliate in kind but just make a LOT of noise. And I hope that with everyone back, the Bruins run up the score and really give the Ducks something to cry about.

by Chandler on Jan 26, 2008 10:14 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

And it's "jibe," not "jive."

by Chandler on Jan 26, 2008 10:17 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Doh

Typo ... fixing it now. Thanks man.

by Nestor on Jan 26, 2008 10:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Great recall on the 1st ammendment issue

I get the feeling if someone brought this to the Supremes they would get a chuckle, and publish an opinion. The benefit is that all future casebooks for con law II would be hell of a lot better read. More on the subject, I read about 45 cases in the fall that allow Universities to control the speech of not only there student but anyone else on University property. If UO had the decency to write up some boilerplate policy for speech at games it would undoubtedly be held up in any court. That being said, i am no constitutional expert, just a lowly 2L, but that is my take.

big dog

by Sc is full of scumbags on Jan 26, 2008 2:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL

You know I am certainly not a con law expert. I took con law during 2L year and that was about it. But this seemed like an obvious call. FWIW I did get an "A" in that class! ;-)

by Nestor on Jan 26, 2008 5:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I like your name

After all, you can't spell scumbag without SC.

by Chandler on Jan 26, 2008 8:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Verbal Diarrhea

College is a time for brainless diatribe, and probably the last place. We would all be embarrassed to say the same things to someone's face, but somehow it makes you feel part of the group to unleash an F bomb against the infidel. I much prefer U C L A fight fight fight to F S C, but that's what happens when you get old. So its classless, but sometimes funny and not something to get too excited about. Love handled it perfectly with 25 and 18, so long as that went along with a win.

by 75NatChamps on Jan 26, 2008 10:53 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Roll out at least 3 more weeks

From the CBS halftime segment (UConn-IU), arising during a discussion of UCLA's current injury issues. One of the anchors spoke to Coach Howland during the week, noted that he is becoming rather frustrated with the loss of so many players. Roll's status came up during the report.

by bruinhoo on Jan 26, 2008 11:02 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

What did they say?

I'd like to know what exactly was said or written on the signs at that game. Is it posted or stated anywhere? or does anybody have access to that information?

by waters96 on Jan 26, 2008 1:12 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

It doesn't have all of them

But the video Nestor posted in Love Conquers [Video] shows quite a few of the signs up there.

by jaffa on Jan 26, 2008 1:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Just got done watching the video

A few comments on the crowd. First, that geeky little Oregon fan, Max Seimers, a member of the pit said "We are going to make Love regret going to UCLA". Uh.......no. Come to Pauley and look up in the rafters and look at the banners and you will realize why he came to UCLA. Unlike Mac Court, we don't hang banners for league championships. There is a reason that when you come to Pauley you can see John Wooden, maybe catch one of the other Hall Of Famers who played at UCLA just watching a game. It is tradition. It is respect. It is the University of Champions chump. Poor little Max will probably be applying to be Kevin Love's publicist in a few years.

Also, I don't mind the insults. I am not Kevin Love, but he seemed to handle it better than others. If it gets him so fired up that he gets 28 and 16........then I'll take it.

Look, we all need to understand. At the end of the day, all you have to do is to look at the scoreboard and up in the rafters! We win on both ends.

by jbcoach on Jan 26, 2008 3:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs