Just like the Fair and Balanced crew over at FSN are still preaching to 29-31 percent of the nation how there still may be WMDs somewhere in Iraq, the Trojan Times is still working OT to convince the average, uninformed sports fans that somehow there is gap closing going on between the basketball programs of UCLA and Southern Cal.
Today it is Robyn Norwood's turn to pimp a basketball program, which hasn't sniffed the NCAA tourney in half a decade, and elevate it to the level of Duke, North Carolinas of the world. Ms. Norwood writes up an article saying somehow the gap between UCLA and Southern California basketball program is closing despite the fact this year Trojans lost to UCLA in their brand new gym against a Bruin squad that was playing without its second leading scorer. Riddle me this. How can you claim a program is closing gap with the defending champion of the conference after it lost to the same program it beat on its home floor last year?
Moreover to argue the point that Timmeh is leading some kind of gap closure between Southern Cal and UCLA basketball program, one would have to point to facts there must have been a giant gap between UCLA and Southern Cal basketball prior to Timmeh took it over. That is of course not true. In fact Lavin flushed down the UCLA program so far down the toilet that at times it even fell behind Bibby's program. In fact from 1999-00 to 2003-04, Southern Cal was actually 6-4 against UCLA, winning 2 less conference games than UCLA.
If anything, Howland has actually come in and reopen the gap between UCLA and Southern Cal, if not UCLA and rest of the Pac-10 conference. Sure Howland has done it with UCLA's incomparable tradition at his disposal. But he has also built a program the right way by bringing in the perfect mix of elite and solid (academically grounded) athletes, who have bought into the team first concept from the get go. By contrast it is obvious Timmeh is so desperate to close the gap, he is doing it with players who are academically challenged, and have questionable baggage, as a result of which are not really being recruited by any one else except for Bob Huggins of the world.
And yet you have to read rubbish from the Trojan Times about how Timmeh and Southern Cal is closing some kind of gap (when it is actually being widened) by pointing to some kind of moral victory (over a team playing without its second leading scorer) as sign of progress, when the same team actually won the previous before.
For Robyn Norwood to even write this article, one would think she is assuming Southern Cal will finished ranked not only this season, but for next 5-6 seasons, and will win the conference at least once and advance to the Final-4 in next 5 or 6 years. Yet we are looking at a program which may lose Young and Pruitt to pros (both of them had serious academic issues in past), and there are questions about an academically challenged 21 year old freshmen (who by his own admission took years to qualify for a D-1 institution of higher learning of the caliber of Southern Cal) who may put his name in the draft as well. I mean there is no question Timmeh is going the Bob Huggins route of program building, and we have all seen how that turned out in Cincinnati (don't expect Trojan fans to know about it though considering they are clueless about this game). Where is Norwood getting her facts before writing up her articles?
Like I mentioned whatever. I am sure Coach Howland and his team will never take any opponent lightly and they will always go out of their way to make sure they give proper respect to every team. However, that doesn't mean we should stop from pointing out the obvious when we have to read such nonsense in the main newspaper of our home town.
Only in the eyes of a fair and balanced news sources like the Trojan Times and the delusional, clueless Trojan fan base (who don't know anything about this game) going from winning to losing can be considered a sign of progress, a move towards the right direction. Up is down. Down is up.
GO BRUINS.
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