***9:03 PM UPDATE: With the Angels win, the magic number is now 1.

The Angels can clinch home-field advantage in the first round tonight with a win and a White Sox loss.

My reasoning:

The Angels are 93-59, the White Sox are 84-68. If the Angels finish ahead of the White Sox, the worst they can possibly do is be the #2 seed in the AL, because:

* The Halos would have a better record than any AL Central team
* If the wild card comes out of the East, the Angels would play the wild card team, and the wild card team never gets home-field advantage.
* If the wild card came out of the Central, even if the Angels had a worse record than the AL East winner, the Angels would still have a better record than the Central winner, meaning the Angels would have home-field in the first round.

Game 1 will either be Oct. 1 (Wednesday) or Oct. 2 (Thursday).

Note: I first posted this at Bugs & Cranks. I'm usually not one to promote my stuff, but I hadn't seen anyone else mention this here. (I didn't want to start another epic post like Hostility Abounds a couple of days ago.)

 

 

Bumped. Folks if you haven't done it yet, please join us in  giving Gilbert a huge thanks for his incredible effort last two weeks. Of course it goes without saying congrats to all our Bruin men and women for their amazing efforts in Beijing. GO BRUINS. -N

(Cross-posted from my blog.)

UCLA medal winners: Dawn Harper, gold (track, 100m Hurdles); Monique Henderson, gold (track, 4x400m relay); Lauren Cheney, gold (USA soccer); Mark Hunter, gold (rowing, lightweight double sculls); Sheena Tosta, silver (track, 400m Hurdles); Andrea Duran, silver (USA softball); Tairia Flowers, silver (USA softball); Stacey Nuveman, silver (USA softball); Natasha Watley, silver (USA softball); Adam Wright, silver (USA men's water polo); Brandon Brooks, silver (USA men's water polo);  Natalie Golda, silver (USA women's water polo); Jaime Hipp, silver (USA women's water polo); Kim Vandenberg, bronze (swimming, 4x200 relay); Tanya Harding, bronze (Australia softball).

WEEKEND UPDATE:

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner. I was gone and/or busy all weekend. This is my final scheduled update of this post. If I have time this week, I'll put up a special post recapping the medal winners.

Track and Field: Saturday, UCLA's Monique Henderson ran the third leg for the USA 4x400 relay team that won the gold medal. It was Henderson's second gold medal, she was also on the team that won in Athens. The team ran in 3:18.54. Congrats to Monique.

Men's Water Polo Gold Medal game: Hungary 14, USA 10 -- Hungary was the heavy favorite, as they've now won three straight gold medals. The U.S. team battled and kept it close until the fourth quarter. One bright spot for the U.S. was UCLA's Brandon Brooks, who was the backup goalie but came into the game when the starter was struggling and made several big saves to keep the game close. Bruin Adam Wright had an assist. It's USA's first medal since 1988.

FULL LISTINGS BY SPORT (aftter the jump)

Continue reading this post »

I've professed my love of tiebreakers here before, so I decided to work out all the possible scenarios on where all the Pac-10 teams finish at my own blog.

Now that UCLA has clinched the #1 seed at the Pac-10 Tournament even if they lose today, I thought some of you would be interested in who the Bruins will play on Thursday, especially since there's a chance Washington could be involved, and some of you have said you want revenge after the Tim Morris incident.

The quick answer is, the #8/#9 game on Wednesday will feature Cal vs. Washington (if UW loses today), or Cal vs. the Arizona/Oregon loser. And UCLA will play the winner of that #8/#9 game.

The explanation behind how I figured that out below:

Continue reading this post »

Brian Dohn has annoyed me before, but never as much as today, when he wrote: (emphasis mine)

I always thought DeWayne Walker should be the guy because he is bright, he loves to compete, he relates well to the players and he has a son their age, he wants to be in SoCal, he understands the intricacies involved in recruiting to UCLA and he has proven he can hire a very good defensive staff, because he's done that. And he has a great personality to give sound bites and make people feel interested during an interview.

Sure, every sports reporter has sources they go to for good quotes, but that doesn't mean those sources are more qualified for certain jobs.

Since I was ticked off and Menelaus mentioned me by name in the intro of his post, I decided to analyze Dohn's journalistic ethics by using the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics (the SPJ is highly regarded among many journalists). I read Dohn regularly, but not as closely as many of you on here, so feel free to point out specific cases where Dohn's journalism ethics have been questionable.

I'm going to blockquote parts of the Code of Ethics, then put my thoughts below them.

-Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

Naming a coach you'd prefer is a huge conflict of interest, no matter who it is, when you're a beat writer for a team and covering the coaching search story. That's obvious.

- Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable

He clearly didn't do that with Dorrell.

- Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
- Always question sources' motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.

Obviously, reporters need to use anonymous sources sometimes to report news. But Dohn seems to do this more than the other UCLA reporters.

- Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.

Dohn seems to mix commentary and reporting on his blog. Most readers should be able to tell the difference, but some won't.

It wasn't that long ago that I thought very highly of Dohn. But Dohn fell victim to something that happens to many writers who cover one team for a long time. They become friends with the coaches, players and other people in the program, and form an emotional attachment to them which kills objectivity.

Full disclosure: I'm guilty of this too. I was Gary Adams' biggest fan at UCLA, and never wanted to see him retire. Then I covered the baseball team last year and realized how wrong I was. I still say Adams is one of the best human beings I have ever met, but he wasn't as good at winning baseball games as he should've been. Sometimes, you learn the hard way. But you would think a professional reporter should've learned that by now.

I had never considered June Jones coming to UCLA as a realistic possibility until today because I thought I had heard that he really liked it in Hawaii and would only maybe leave for the NFL.

But with Dohn's report (in which the part about DeWayne Walker needing to be retained better not be true), I decided to take a look at Jones' record.

His nine seasons at Hawaii, 1999-2007:
9-4
3-9
9-3
10-4
9-5
8-5
5-7
11-3
12-0
TOTAL: 74-40

That's much more impressive when you look at how how bad Hawaii was before Jones was hired:

'94: 3-8-1
'95: 4-8
'96: 2-10
'97: 3-9
'98: 0-12
TOTAL: 12-47-1

Yes, in Jones' first year, Hawaii went 9-4 after being 0-12 the year before. That's ridiculous.

Jones has completely turn around the Hawaii program, which, despite the weather, has to be really hard to recruit at. Hawaii is not in a BCS conference, they're really far from the mainland, and their facilities are horrible.

Among the top complaints about Jones is his team's defense. Well if you look at the NCAA's 2007 defense stats:

33. Hawaii  348.9 yds/game
    
34. UCLA    349.8 yds/game

Yes, that's better than DeWayne Walker's legendary defense. Plus, Jones has NFL head coaching experience, which recruits might like more than DeWayne Walker's NFL assistant experience.

If there's any chance we can get June Jones, we have to do it.

To me, he's the best candidate left on the board among those who have been rumored as possibilities. Even if you don't agree with me about June Jones being the best guy out there, we should all agree that Jones would be a much better hire than DeWayne Walker -- and there's no way in hell we should lose someone with a great head coaching record to keep Walker.

If for some reason you need another reason to hate USC and its fans, here it is. From today's LA Times (emphasis and ellipsis mine):

The bitter standoff between USC and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum intensified Thursday as members of the stadium's governing board reported getting death threats from angry fans while legislators worked behind the scenes to revive negotiations.

...

A Coliseum Commission executive said his office received scores of "incredibly threatening" phone calls after USC posted a letter on its website urging fans to complain.

Some of the commission's nine members said they had been harassed too, and at least one has canceled plans to attend the regular-season finale against UCLA on Saturday.

"I've gotten many, many calls along the following lines: 'Hey, Mr. Chadwick, hope our paths don't cross. Understand you're married, you've got three little girls,' " Commissioner Bill Chadwick said.

This is classless and uncalled for. Plain and simple. Add this to the list of reasons why USC fans are intolerable.

Continue reading this post »

Many of us want Pat Cowan to be the starter the rest of the season, but I hadn't actually seen a player say it publicly until I read this:

"Yes, Pat should be the starter," said senior wide receiver Brandon Breazell, who became one of the Pac-10's premier playmakers seemingly overnight. "He's earned the job. He played with so much energy (Saturday) and he did everything the coaches asked of him. He should be in there."

The author of the article, Adam de Jong of the Daily Bruin, also keeps Saturday's win in perspective.

Beating the likes of Cal at home means nothing if the Bruins can't beat their next two opponents, the eminently inferior Washington State and Arizona, on the road. The Bruins need to be 7-2 (6-0 Pac-10) heading into their game against No. 7 Arizona State, otherwise this last win is just a mirage.

What made the Bruins' win on Saturday so annoying is that it didn't look like they caught lightning in a bottle by playing a good team at the right time. It wasn't a fluke. The Bruins can compete with the upper echelon of the Pac-10, but they also find a way of playing down to their competition. And a team is ultimately measured by how they play in the games they should win, not the games they can win.

It's good to see someone keep the win over Cal in perspective compared to the big picture. Also, if you forgot, it was de Jong who wrote the critical piece about the handling of Osaar Rasshan last week.

Before this article, I had never seen anyone in the media (outside of Bruins Nation) write anything about how Osaar Rasshan has been misused, like not being switched back to quarterback after both Ben Olson and Pat Cowan had injury problems.

Well, Daily Bruin football reporter/columnist Adam de Jong wrote the following:

"On Tuesday, he practiced with the first unit for the first time in his UCLA career. The term "career" is used loosely, because the mismanagement of Rasshan's talent reflects a lot about the chaotic direction of the UCLA football program." Later, de Jong also criticizes the coaching staff for not turning Rasshan's talents into a productive player on the field. And for the record, I don't think de Jong means that UCLA should be a midlevel program, but means that midlevel is where UCLA is at right now. "This is not to suggest that there's a conspiracy to keep Rasshan from playing. But it's disconcerting that UCLA, a midlevel program that could desperately use some playmakers, has put unnecessary obstacles in his way. Programs that climb the ranks don't usually do it instantly by recruiting well. They do it by recruiting gifted athletes, and coaching them into better football players. Rasshan sounds like a nice guy in the article, and is careful not to say anything negative.

It amazes me that he wasn't at the very latest practicing at quarterback the day after the Washington game when Bethel-Thompson had to play. It's even more mindboggling that Rasshan had never practiced with the first team until Tuesday.

I'm fully aware we don't know for sure what Rasshan can do at quarterback. For all we know, he could be worse than Bethel-Thompson. But Rasshan should have been at least practicing at quarterback, just to show off what he can do. The quarterback is kind of important for an offense -- more important than a backup wide receiver.