Center Court: Ben Ball (California) Open Thread
We all know who we need to win this game for:

Photo Credit: Erkki's UCLA pics' photostream (flickr)
It's Lorenzo (and Matt's) last day as Seniors at Pauley. While its not official we are also going to be seeing KL, DC (and may be even RW should he blow up in the Big Dance) last time put on their UCLA whites in the Cathedral Coach Wooden built.
We are sure Bears are going to come out wanting to spoil the party. But for the reasons mentioned alone (not to mention the need to shore up a 1 seed out West) we have to win game. For more on the Senior Day game go here.
The tip off is set for 12:30 pm PST (ABC Regional). If you are not getting the game on television you can follow it via links provided at the official site.
As always, if you are watching, listening, following, or tracking the game online, post your comments here.
This is our Ben Ball Warrior open thread.
Fire Away.
GO BRUINS.
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Gotta love that fan support
39-31 USC at the half
by SuperBruinMan on Mar 8, 2008 11:55 AM PST up reply actions
anyone worried
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 12:06 PM PST reply actions
AND
Will someone there text what's going on pre-game?
Oh Shit -- It's the Lizard
Actually, he's saying good things about Howland and our tough D.
Lavin needs to complete his sentences
Hardin is out
Heh
That would be about 0.7 ppg and 0.3 rpg.
Let down
Can't let the same thing happen to us
by godblesstyus95 on Mar 8, 2008 12:52 PM PST up reply actions
pregame
omg
time to whoop the bears
luc comes up with the steal
blocked on our end. cal ball. cal scores. 2 all
RW missesa 3
shipp misses the layup sigh.
boykin makes the basket, 4-2 cal. RW is down again. ankle again?
crap
What's the rule on
They put the ball into play before he got back on the court. Is that right?
I think Stanford left it
In the parts of the sc game I was watching, they didn't look like the same team.
And, sc's full court press bothered them
Now or Never
Calm?
Just waiting for Shipp
shipp
by uCla on Mar 8, 2008 1:00 PM PST reply actions
we're looking a little sluggish today
we've been looking sluggish ever since destroying
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 1:03 PM PST up reply actions
so does this prove we're not playing
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 1:02 PM PST reply actions
be patient
by uCla on Mar 8, 2008 1:03 PM PST reply actions
just spent 10 munites w/Comcast
could be a first
kidding..........
love with another block!
love misses the 3.
Kareem wouldn't give me
It was
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 1:08 PM PST up reply actions
Sorry,
i dont think we're just sluggish today..
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 1:09 PM PST reply actions
Aboya
That seems to be his spot.
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 1:10 PM PST up reply actions
Aboya w/the long jumper
a famous coach once said
by uCla on Mar 8, 2008 1:10 PM PST reply actions
except
by uCla on Mar 8, 2008 1:10 PM PST reply actions
the problem is that Shipp
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 1:11 PM PST reply actions
sc 77, Stanford 64
Kenny Brown (9 mpg)
by SuperBruinMan on Mar 8, 2008 1:15 PM PST up reply actions
aboya picks up another foul
cal makes the first. aboya is out, collison is in. cal makes the second. 23-17 cal.
boykin puts it in with ahook
It's annoying
Correction
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 1:23 PM PST up reply actions
Importance
a W here, coupled with a Duke win at home tonight, and our Bruins likely go into the Pac10 tourney as #1 in the country.
Also, IMO, a 1 seed in the West is all but guaranteed.....
And, LoMa needs to go out with a W!!!!
Let's go!
luc's ankle is bothering him
collison for 3, SWISH! 30-27 cal!
love with a light rejection
Need to do better on defensive rebounds
Guh
anderson makes the FT
love for 3, bounces out. THAT WAS A TRAVEL!! HEY! cal keeps the ball.
Lavin and Mushmouth
It's non-stop gibberish.
I know I should turn them off. Masochism, I guess.
Problems in the First Half
- Loose defense - Cal is shooting over 50%.
- Too many three point attempts - Bruins are shooting 53% on twos, but only 27% on threes.
- Almost no offensive rebounding - UCLA has only one offensive board.
On #2
RW looks good when he slashes in, he needs to do that some more. When he does, he's getting good looks for himself or Love.
Exactly
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 1:37 PM PST up reply actions
The real first half problem
I want to win this game
We need to step up, play some D and run our offense better.
Yep
We control the boards, create turnovers, and run a patient offense, we'll win going away.
by godblesstyus95 on Mar 8, 2008 1:41 PM PST up reply actions
Not nearly as concerned as Thursday....
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 1:41 PM PST reply actions
LOL
two guys right behind lavin with a mini sign that says "Oregon state's next coach" and an arrow pointing at lavin.
and cal scores at the other end
First post
by BostonBruin09 on Mar 8, 2008 1:52 PM PST reply actions
cal for 3, misses
luc makes the first. misses the second. 41-36 cal
cal makes another shot
collison with the jumper
I'm only 34, grad in '97...
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 1:58 PM PST reply actions
We are being outrebounded
He's playing outside a lot.
We aren't getting steals or forcing turnovers. Those balance out high shooting percentages against us.
I want this game. Come on D down.
shipp with the rebound.
LET'S GO!
collison midrange misses
more of THAT!!!
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:01 PM PST reply actions
This defense is ugly
That's more like it.
RW makes a basket.
Nice!
by BostonBruin09 on Mar 8, 2008 2:01 PM PST reply actions
Luc, Westbrook, Randle...
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 2:02 PM PST up reply actions
We need a nice
luc to the basket
luc makes the first. makes the second! 50-42 cal
UCLA looks tired
RW for 3!
DC needs to assert himself a bit more.
Russell with a 3 pointer
Bad trend
Crowd is loud.
What's up with the lack of offensive boards?
Shipp missing the open 3
Cal's offense today: very balanced
Boykin: 12
Viernesel: 9
Randle: 9
Christopher: 9
um, this is still UCLA - Cal, right?
keefe is in
shot click winding down. keefe gets the rebound off the collison miss! love muscles it up but misses, and KEEFE puts it back in! 55-49 cal
Keefe with a good board and then a tip in
Cal offensively is playing great
lol
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 2:15 PM PST reply actions
i think we need a loss to get better
if we lose, we wont play like everything is just given to us. the 1 seed is there, they have to take it.
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 2:19 PM PST up reply actions
If there is logic in here somewhere
just forget it
things need to get mixed up. if we need one more loss, then so be it.. worked out for us last year.
by chourobin on Mar 8, 2008 2:25 PM PST up reply actions
Wait until the bandwagon
lavin says
"he's been under some heat lately."
i bet you can relate steve-o.
LET'S GO!!
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:16 PM PST reply actions
And now Love grabbing his ankle
Better win this game given all the bumps UCLA has taken (LRMAM, RW and KL).
ABC-ESPN Record?
What is our record this year when our Ben Ballers have had their games covered on ABC/ESPN?
westbrook misses
love makes the first. and the second. 60-51 cal.
UCLA still slow on defensive rotations
anderson scores
RW makes the first. makes the second. 62-53 cal
They finally miss a 3and LUC!
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:20 PM PST reply actions
cal finally misses from 3
Nice move by Luc
Russell showing great energy
need some stops...
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:22 PM PST reply actions
Cal getting a lot of points in the paint
love makes the first
Uggghh
The team is a step slow today. Collison and Shipp need to start getting more involved in the game because they haven't been much of a presence so far.
Cal shooting an amazing %
Down 7 with 7 to play
Bad defense by Mata
boykin draws a foul on lo
these guys
Tell me why they're the 9th place team in the Pac 10?
cal scores on a tap in
UCLA keeps getting close
UCLA needs to force some more turnovers to get early offense.
Back to back fouls
foul on luc
misses the first. makes the second. 72-67 cal
RW feeds love inside
makes the first! and the second. 72-69 cal.
Finally called a foul on that
Time
good free throws today
let's go defense! CAL IS STRIPPED!!!! rw dribbles it out and collison sets it up.
inside to love to RW, misses, luc taps and misses. and a foul somewhere on cal.
And, finally, a new energy level
Bruins crawling back slowly
Time to move KL under the basket
He's getting around KL on drives and there's no one underneath the basket to stop him.
But, what do I know?
Kevin Love said,
RW shooting FTs
During the TV timeout
Those who haven't tried it don't know what you're missing.
@#$ Shipp!
Cal with another easy bucket.
Shipp
Nice for us to get to score
I think hearing the whistles
by lildre on Mar 8, 2008 2:40 PM PST reply actions
not for me, thanks
Love makes both
Love shouldn't hedge
Shipp cannot hit anything today
let's go!!
cal shooting one and one.
he makes it. darnit. and the second. 76-72 cal.
I was thinking the same thing.
by Lakers Bruins Fanatic on Mar 8, 2008 2:46 PM PST up reply actions
UCLA only down 2 again
WE NEED A STOP!!
Anyone think the refs are taking it to UCLA?
RW commits his fourth foul
christopher shooting FTs. makes the first. and the second. 78-74 cal
SHIPP
fouling them won't help
by bruin78 on Mar 8, 2008 2:48 PM PST reply actions
MUST FOUL!!! IMMEDIATELY!!!
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:48 PM PST reply actions
LOVE FOR 3!!!
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:53 PM PST reply actions
going for the steal
a foul could have been called on us but the refs didn't call anything.
Clean steal
one tenth of a second left
With 1.5 on clock
Josh, instead of catching it punches it out of bounds.
Probably about 1 second left.
should've caught the ball
by bruin78 on Mar 8, 2008 2:56 PM PST reply actions
refs going over how much time
It's been :00.1 for an eternity
Shipp punched the ball out of bounds
OMG lavin and brent
Psst - turn the volume down
They're idiots
Shipp should've caught the ball...
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 2:58 PM PST reply actions
.7 left in the game
COME ON GUYS. NO GO! GAME OVER! 81-80 BRUINS!
they inbounded it
Yep!
by Lakers Bruins Fanatic on Mar 8, 2008 2:59 PM PST up reply actions
Holly
need to win 1st game of pac-10 tourney....
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 3:00 PM PST reply actions
BN is about a minute ahead of Yahoo
He shot it...
by Dexter Fishmore on Mar 8, 2008 3:01 PM PST up reply actions
That's why all the clutch shooters
absolute shot you see straight out of
he got the ball, dribbled, shot it, it went over the BACK of the backboard, and went straight down and in. beautiful rainbow shot.
can't hit his threes, but hit the most important shot of the game (along with love's 3 earlier to bring us within 1)
Don't forget
Tourney time....
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 3:00 PM PST reply actions
If I have to listen to whining
What a week...
by lildre on Mar 8, 2008 3:01 PM PST reply actions
Thursday we lead for 19 seconds
even less i bet.
If Josh Shipp doesn't end up in the NBA...
For Fox
On inbond play, we got ball and knocked it down. Their guy dove for ball and knocked it out of bounds.
we inbound and to go Shipp in corner. He drives and puts up a rainbow from behind he backboard and it goes over and in.
Cal has 1.5 on clock.
Throws long down court pass. Shipp could have caught it, but instead, exuberantly punches it out of bounds. Problem -- still time on clock. They put .7 on.
Inboud and quck 3 fails.
We win.
Ship's shot...
what a huge huge huge clutch shot for him to make. Awesome.
Gonzaga all over again
PS. Lavin and Mushmouth kept calling our play on
Replay shows Westbrook got ball and their guy knocked it out.
I know we can turn off the sound, but I love to hear howland yelling.
And, honestly, you can see Lavin eating his heart out. He is so disloyal it must kill him to see us pull out games, to see us come back in games in which his teams would have rolled over and lost by 30.
I agree
He was fired
by bruinofthenorth on Mar 9, 2008 12:12 AM PST up reply actions
Just another routine win
Great afternoon, brothers and sisters. Once again, I thank you all for the comments. It was almost like seeing it, and I didn't have to listen to the charlatan even once.
(By the way, do they have the big warning on these games about the replay or whatever of the official decriptions and accounts of the game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball and Kenesaw Mountain Landis being strictly prohibited? If so, there were a lot of felonies today.)
A bet that tomorrow's LA Times and or OCR's
any takers?
by BruinManDan97 on Mar 8, 2008 3:09 PM PST reply actions
Have they seen us play?
The key to that statement
That being said, what IS it with you? You just really don't seem to like our team very much.
I'm a perfectionist
Flaws
My observation. We have tons of flaws, but great UCLA teams always just find a way to overcome them to win this time of year.
I think the flaw is the bench scoring
Oh my over the backboard!
by Durant on Mar 8, 2008 3:12 PM PST reply actions
Ummm, he has sucked totally the last few games
Definition of "Totally Sucked"
Seems like there are two choices here. Either (A) Howland has no idea what he is doing and keeps playing somebody who has "totally sucked" in these games, or (B) Josh Shipp actually is a vital player who plays his role within the UCLA team concept, and does not actually "totally suck." I'll go with (B).
I never said he totally sucks in general
Josh
Thanks Tele!
you are the man
wow
gotta love the outcome though. go bruins.
We can at least hope
I think they're all going to be like this
What this translates to, in my opinion, is an advantage for us. We know that any team we play can suck it up and play us hard. We have the heart and the grit and the skill and the coaching and the karma and the mojo to be able to take the best that another team has and hang on. I don't think any of the other teams has that intangible quality.
This team reminds me of the teams of long long ago, when Coach was coaching. We didn't get behind often, but when we did, we still expected to win and in fact the other team also expected us to win. That was a little 12 year period in which we were 335-22 (and those of us who were there are still wondering how we lost 22 times in 12 years.)
No team, either college or pro, has the history that we have, and the guys have bought into it. They know that when the time comes, Edney will show them how to go coast to coast for the win. They know that Steve Patterson will show the center hot to go outside and sink the shots. They know that Wicks and Big Lew and the Redhead will be there showing them how to block the shot when it's needed.
Guys, this karma is tangible. I feel it.
Hope they don't use up all their luck now!
LMR
Lorenzo Mata-Real Senior Day....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KqvlE8pXOhs
I also caught K Love's 3 and Josh's game winner, but please excuse the camera work after those baskets. It was INSANE in there as you can see! GO BRUINS!!!

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