From uclabruins.com:

Mon., Nov. 3, Cal Baptist (Exhibition), uclabruins.com, 7:30 p.m.
Fri., Nov. 7, Biola (Exhibition), uclabruins.com, 7:30 p.m.
Wed., Nov. 12, 2K Sports Classic First Round, ESPNU, 4:15/7:00 p.m.
Thu., Nov. 13, 2K Sports Classic Second Round, ESPNU, 5:15/8:00 p.m.
Thu., Nov. 20, 2K Sports Classic Semifinals, ESPN2, @ Madison Square Garden, 4:00/6:20 p.m.
Fri., Nov. 21, 2K Sports Classic Final, ESPN2, @ Madison Square Garden, 2:00/4:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 29, Florida International, FSNPT, 4:30 p.m.
Thu., Dec. 4, @Texas (Pac-10/Big 12 Series), ESPN, 7:00 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 7, Cal State Northridge, FSNPT, 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 13, DePaul @ Wooden Classic, KCAL, 4:00 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 17, Loyola Marymount, FSNPT, 8:00 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 20, Mercer, FSNW, 7:30 p.m.
Tue., Dec. 23, Wyoming, FSNPT, 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 28, Louisiana Tech, FSNPT, Noon
Fri., Jan. 2, @ Oregon State, FSN/FSNPT, 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Jan. 4, @ Oregon, FSN/FSNPT, 12:30 p.m.
Sun., Jan. 11, @ USC, FSN/FSNPT, 7:30 p.m.
Thu., Jan. 15, Arizona, FSN/FSNPT, 8:00 p.m.
Sat., Jan. 17, Arizona State, CBS, 12:45 p.m.
Thu., Jan. 22, @ Washington State, FSN/FSNPT, 6:00 p.m.
Sat., Jan. 24, @ Washington, FSN/FSNPT, 1:00 p.m.
Thu., Jan. 29, California, FSN/FSNW, 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Jan. 31, Stanford, ABC, 12:30 p.m.
Wed., Feb. 4, USC, FSNPT, 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 7, Notre Dame, CBS, 10:00 a.m.
Thu., Feb. 12, @ Arizona State, ESPN, 6:00 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 14, @ Arizona, CBS, 10:00 a.m.
Thu., Feb. 19, Washington, FSN/FSNW, 8:00 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 21, Washington State, FSN/FSNPT, Noon
Thu., Feb. 26, @ Stanford, FSNPT, 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 28, @ California, ESPN, 6:00 p.m.
Thu., Mar. 5, Oregon State, WC 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 7, Oregon, WC, TBD
Mar. 11-14, Pac-10 Tournament @ Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Mar. 19-22, NCAA First and Second Round
Mar. 26-29, NCAA Regional
Apr. 4 & 6, NCAA Final Four

Not many surprises here. We owe Texas some payback.

From scout.com:

Tyler Honeycutt, UCLA's big wing target for the 2009 class, who recently was ranked the 21st best player in the nation for 2009 by Scout.com, verbally commmitted to UCLA today...

UPDATE (T):

Dohn has a rather amusing side note to the commitment:

"He has committed to UCLA," his mother, Lisa Stazel said. "He just called (USC coach) Tim Floyd to tell him."

UPDATE II (N):

Note the pointer re rebounding and defense in the LA Times story (HT bruinbabe2000):

Howland and his top assistants, who are prohibited by NCAA rules to comment about Honeycutt until he officially signs, closely followed the player's progress during a club tournament last July in Las Vegas and were convinced of the impact he can make. Despite his size, Honeycutt can shoot three-pointers as if he were a guard and he has improved his rebounding and defense.

Rebounding and defense ... music to Bruin Nation.

Welcome to Westwood, Tyler.

Quick analysis of the Tennessee win from Stewart Mandel (who has been on point before regarding our team despite being a national writer). Given how quickly he recognized the looming disaster that was last season before it unfolded, he has earned quite a bit of trust in football related matters in my book. A reader asks whether Clemson losing or UCLA winning shocked him more, to which he replies that the Bruin victory was more shocking. In addition:

While I'm sure they're still partying in Westwood, I wouldn't get too ahead of myself if I'm a UCLA fan. Monday night's win seemed like one of those perfect storms, with the Bruins feeding off the energy and excitement surrounding Neuheisel's debut and where every conceivable break (except maybe Tennessee's field goal to force overtime) went in UCLA's favor. The Bruins are still going to take their share of licks this season, but their future hasn't looked this bright in a long, long time.

I'd argue that the 4 picks in the first half are not breaks in our favor, but those aren't really breaks at all, but rather simply a result of decisions we made. Besides, CRN says that we were lucky as well, and the man was much closer to the situation than I was. The rest of the paragraph sounds quite familiar. Perhaps like things we have been reading here on BN for a while. Mandel was right about the Dorrell disaster when many of our local writers just didn't get it. If he says the future is bright, well, let's hope that he goes 2 for 2 in his predictions for UCLA coaches.

The NBA's New Orleans Hornets are following an all too common trend among professional sports franchises: The Changing of the Jersey.

Before:

via dsp.imageg.net

via ecx.images-amazon.com

And After:

via Ball Don't Lie

Now, I'm no marketing genius, but I like the direction they're going. They aren't quite there yet though. I'm thinking we widen the trim a little, change the font, and lose the pinstripes...

via i.cdn.turner.com

Perfect.

The Olympics are supposed to be about sportsmanship and honest competition. At a time when our faith in the purity of athletic endevors is supposed to be renewed, we are once again reminded of the ugliness lurking in the shadows, and the incompetent and toothless organization that enables this behavior. No, not the NCAA, although this description could just as easily apply to them, but the International Olympic Committee.

It is precisely because the NCAA has been so absolutely negligent in addressing the elephant in the room that I find this behavior intolerable, and with the IOC, it is the same sad pathetic story. Imagine my surprise when I found myself in lockstep with a former hitman on our basketball legacy:

Jacques Rogge is so bought, so compromised, the president of the IOC doesn’t have the courage to criticize China for telling a decade of lies to land itself these Olympic Games.

All the promises made to get these Games — on Tibet, Darfur, pollution, worker safety, freedom of expression, dissident rights — turned out to be phony, perhaps as phony as the Chinese gymnasts’ birthdates Rogge was way too slow to investigate.

One of the most powerful men in sports turned the world away from his complicity. Instead, he has flexed his muscles by unloading on a powerless sprinter from a small island nation.

Wetzel is talking about Rogge's criticism of Usain "Lightning" Bolt regarding his celebration during one of his races. While I am somewhat ambivalent about his showboating, I don't see Mr. Rogge pointing out that the rest of the field would have done the exact same thing in his position. How do I know this? Because the silver and bronze medal winners were hamming it up on the track as well. 3 for 3 is a pretty damning sample size.

So what? What does this have to do with UCLA? Replace Rogge with Miles Brand, China with SUC Football, small island nation with Donnie Edwards or even John Wooden (contacting Kevin Love). It's the same sad story. And in this sad story, we may have a depressing glimpse of the future: Rogge attempting some terrible slight of hand by criticizing Bolt, for gestures that no one else seemed to be offended by.

American sprinter Shawn Crawford, who crossed the line fourth in the 200 but was upgraded to the silver medal after the disqualifications of Wallace Spearmon and Churandy Martina, said he saw nothing wrong in Bolt's showboating celebrations.

"I guess there's mixed feelings among athletes," he said. "To me, I don't feel like he's being disrespectful. If this guy has worked his tail off, every day, on his knees throwing up like I was in practice, he deserves to dance."

In our analogy, let's say this is Brand coming down "hard" on SUC's already decrepit basketball program due to the OJ2 Scandal. He'll go for the low hanging fruit and hope that it is enough to satisfy the masses.

I hope Mr. Brand is watching carefully, because the end of Wetzel's piece puts him on notice (with the appropriate parallels applied):

Apparently, Rogge would prefer 12-year-old gymnasts too frightened to crack a smile.

It got better when, in the same press conference, he pretended to forget all the lies China (SUC) told him to get this bid, all the troubles, all the challenges, and praised the host nation. Yes, these have been an exceptionally well-run Games from a tactical standpoint, and the Chinese people have displayed otherworldly kindness.

None of which denies the promises broken (recruiting violations), the innocent jailed (assault, rape, roids), the freedoms denied (FREE HOUSES FOR REGGIE BUSH) — the kind of issues someone with Jacques Rogge’s (Miles Brand's) standing should be talking about.

He has no spine for that. Not for China (SUC). Not for any big country (football moneymaker). He had to criticize someone (Wooden), he had to make headlines, he had to show he was a tough guy (SUC Basketball?). So who better than someone from somewhere that can’t ever touch him back?

Yes, Usain Bolt is the problem of the Olympics. He’s the embarrassment. He’s the one who needs to learn.

Why do we have rules if no one is willing to enforce them? Why would anyone play by the rules at all? China sure doesn't. Neither does SUC. And the honest programs are left in the lurch.

(And the similarities keep on coming. The IOC has "ordered an investigation" into China's 12-year-old gymnasts. Given Rogge's Brand-like behavior so far, where do you think this "investigation" is going to go?)

...Assclown.

When Rich Perelman stepped down as the LA Times blogger for "What's Bruin", many eyebrows were raised when they chose a SUC hack like Adam Rose to take over. He tried to maintain that he could be objective, and while he may be able to do so from here on out, this was certainly not the case two years ago, when he displayed a propensity for lying and spinning worthy of a trOJan, but certainly not worthy of a journalist. In the interest of fairness, from the Anals (yes, one N) of bad writing, we present you with Adam Rose's Verbal Diarrhea.

I will not link the article, as it is better not to reward his mental deficiency with hits at "laist", but I will block the relevant points that show why Rose is just another typical trOJan SCumbag. He calls this dreck "Why (SUC) Haters Are Lame".

FLAME #1: USC breaks all the rules.

USC has faced lots of allegations over the past year, but that's due to the increased scrutiny that comes with the national spotlight. Notice that I didn't say "convictions" or "violations." The team has managed itself far better than Thug U and they didn't demonstrate the same handicap that plagued the Bruins. As for Reggie Bush, nothing seems to stick to him (kinda' like most college defenders over the past three years). If anything shady happened, look to his step dad. This is the same guy who alienated USC fans when declaring that Reggie would go pro several weeks before Reggie made his decision official. There won't exactly be any tears shed in the land of Troy if he goes down for something.

Willful. Ignorance.

Adam is allegedly a journalist, which means that technically he should be just as capable of digging up any of the items on the laundry list of transgressions under Pom Pom, Timmeh, et al. Keeping in mind that this "article" was written in 2006, I wonder how his clairvoyance regarding the Bu$h situation is working out. Last time I checked, Reggie is still on the hook and the justice department is now involved with SUC's cheating because of Mayo's shady entourage setting up a fake charity. Great call, Adam. Maybe you can pick the Patriots over the Giants in this past year's Superbowl too.

FLAME #2: USC fans are bandwagon.

Of course there are bandwagon fans in Los Angeles. Does anybody else remember what Laker car flags looked like? They were yellow. I remember some very empty stands while the Trojans slumped through a 5-7 season in 2000. I even traveled hundreds of miles to watch a squad dubbed "the worst football team in USC history." Why would anybody subject themselves to that sort of loyalty? Because when I wasn't sitting in the stands I was sitting in class with a much maligned Carson Palmer (a so-called underachiever before he took home the Heisman). Students are the best fans (followed closely by alumni) because they are more dedicated, more passionate, and more connected with the student-athletes. As a student-fan, I appreciated the support from non-student diehards when we were loosing, but I couldn't be upset with the large bandwagon that came shortly after USC's last non-bowl loss in 2003 (and yes, I was on the road for that game, too). The students and alumni have always been there. To everybody else, welcome aboard.

Use. Google.

By that I mean a simple google search for football attendance reveals that the season Adam talks about was when the trOJans drew 57 thousand per game in Paul Hackett's final year. Even a bumbler like Karl Dorrell drew 76 thousand in his final year as a lame duck coach (although those numbers were likely inflated due to ND). Bob Toledo as a lame duck? 65 thousand. Yes, lame duck coaches are a good metric, because by that time, the bandwagon fans are gone and the team hasn't had success in a while. So is Adam arrogant enough to say that his sole presence in 2000 offsets this difference of thousands? Well he is a trOJan isn't he? Seems that he doesn't even have a point in this paragraph except to namedrop Carson Palmer like a giddy schoolgirl. Although he's right in his implication that Palmer has gone on to do great things, like this:

via cache.deadspin.com

I suppose the thousands fewer fans that the trOJans drew than the Bruins did in similar situations is evidence that trOJans aren't bandwagoners...oops? Adam: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

FLAME #3: USC is an ivory tower dynasty. Damn Yankees, errr, Trojans.

USC's fans are actually cheering for something that has taken shape over just the last 5 years. Pete Carroll has built something from nothing, taking over a team that had just recaptured the Victory Bell after 8 long seasons, and did it all while being looked down upon as an NFL retread. Unlike other sports dynasties which do it with money (ahem, Yankees), Carroll energizes the team with his own youthful enthusiasm and energy. Other coaches don't take snaps with the team in practice, and that attitude is part of the reason he was able to recruit the best players despite the modern era of NCAA scholarship parity. While the NFL's version of parity gives the best team the last draft pick (and only one per round), Carroll takes future top NFL draft picks into his program en-mass.

Ivory. Tower?

"Today, ivory tower usually describes a metaphysical space of solitude and sanctity disconnected from daily realities, where certain idealistic writers endeavor and even some scientists are considered to reside."

That phrase. It does not mean what you think it means, Adam. Given what has transpired since then regarding Bu$h and Mayo, his line about sports dynasties not doing it with money is particularly hilarious. Even if we ignore that, the Yankees are a professional franchise and are within their rights to build their team however they want, SUC is supposedly an amateur football program. Criticizing the Yankees for building a team with money and holding up SUC as virtuous because they "don't" is one of the most fallacious arguments I've ever heard. I've never heard anyone flame SUC as an "Ivory Tower Dynasty". You know why? BECAUSE THAT PHRASE DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. The rest can only be described as brainless fluff, much like Petey the "Humanitarian" or Petey the "Physical Genius". "HE TAKES SNAPS WITH THE TEAM, OMG." Hope you didn't cream your shorts, Adam. I'm sure those snaps are the reason that they want to go to SUC. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the free flatscreen TVs in their dorm rooms or free houses. I'm sure no one at SUC knew anything about that.

FLAME #4: USC is the University of Second Choice.

Stay classy, Bruins. I'm sure those erudite scholars of Westwood realize this is an ad hominum, or "straw man," attack (the last cry of a desperate orator). Different institutions are going to be better at different things (USC gets the gridiron, UCLA gets the hardcourt, USC gets film, UCLA gets medicine). When painting the schools with a broad brush, remember that USC was recently named Time-Princeton School of the Year, and that the incoming Freshman class has a 3.7 GPA and middle 50% SAT range of 1290-1430. Once somebody becomes a Trojan, they become part of a network so strong it's known as the USC Mafia. And if sports are your thing, USC and UCLA are neck and neck for the national lead once football championships are factored into the NCAA rankings (which don't officially crown a champion). When it comes down to it, which championship is more impressive, football or men's gymnastics? (Sidebar: After (UCLA and SUC), Stanford is third. With Cal ranking just outside the top 10, California is by far the top college sport state in the nation.)

Spell. Check.

I don't know what an ad hominum attack is, probably because it's spelled ad hominem. The point of this is not to be a Grammar/Spelling Nazi, but to point out that in a paragraph meant to illustrate how the gap isn't as big as people think it is between SUC and UCLA, he only shows that the gap is as wide as ever with his bumbling of the English language. He's the ice skater that goes for the big jump and falls flat on his ass. If you're going to assert your "smarts" by throwing out Latin phrases in a smug tone, I humbly ask that you SPELL IT CORRECTLY. Furthermore, an ad hominem attack and a straw man attack ARE NOT THE SAME. This guy is a journalist? Are you freaking kidding me? How is an an "argument against the man" the same as "intentionally misrepresenting an opponent's position"? He probably thinks this is an ad hominem too without realizing that intelligence and understanding are the central focus of his paragraph.

I looked up this supposed Time-Princeton thing (from the year 2000), and all I saw was references to helping out in its immediate community (and yes, that area needs PLENTY of help). This is certainly admirable, but it doesn't advance his argument. UCLA is a University Of The People. Our public status ensures that our accomplishments advance the interests of our immediate community, the State of California, and beyond. SUC, once again, is left playing catch up.

He talks about the trOJan mafia like it's a good thing, nevermind that it doesn't travel well. UCLA is worldwide. My UCLA degree will be respected the world over. SUC degrees are only worth something in Los Angeles, and most of the time not even then. How's that trOJan mafia working out in paragraph 1, where he throws Bush's family under the bus? That's some good old fashioned trOJan loyalty.

Then there's the pathetic "if we count football championships" argument. I don't see him mentioning that SUC awarded themselves championships from 7 decades ago that they never actually won. No, this, like everything, has caveats. That's the SUC way. "SUC would be as good as UCLA, IF YOU COUNT..." We don't need caveats. We're UCLA. We are better than SUC. That's why we had the most applicants in the country once again for the hundreth straight year (I've lost count). It goes without saying that I got into both SUC and UCLA. That's what we UCLA students have in common: rejecting SUC. It's so common that we don't even have to mention it as Adam does in reverse (a claim, given his writing, that I am quite skeptical of). That's just the way it is.

See, I can write a flame piece too, except my piece is grounded in facts and logic. I sure hope Adam didn't go to journalism school to put out this kind of garbage, because I've already done him one better, and that's with an Engineering degree (let's just say we are not known for our writing). Looks like Shakespeare was wrong: A Rose by any other name actually smells like sh!t.