Let's start with baseball today. The team finally ended a 5 game losing streak last Sunday (at WSU) and are getting ready to take on Oregon State (last year's NCAA champion) in this year's last home series. Here is a little preview from the Beavers' pov:
OSU visits UCLA (29-24, 13-8) for games Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 12 noon. The vagaries that can surface in the selection of the 64 teams for the NCAA Regionals are myriad, but it is likely that the Beavers - the defending national champions - need to win at least two games at UCLA to have a chance at being included in the field.
"As far as this weekend goes, the only thing we can afford to have on our minds is what we can control," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "And that’s how we play these three games. We can control our execution, our intensity and our effort, and that has to be our focus. Do that, and we have a chance to come home with some good results from this series; then we have to wait and see what happens."
Oregon State goes into the weekend tied for seventh place in the Pac-10, but just three games separate fourth through eighth places. Arizona State (17-4) has wrapped up at least a share of the conference title and is followed in the standings by Arizona (14-7), UCLA (13-8), California (11-10), Washington (9-12), Washington State (10-14), OSU (8-13), Southern California (8-13) and Stanford (6-15).
The Pac-10 can make a case for being perhaps the nation’s strongest conference in 2007, as every team in the conference has an overall record of at least .500 with the exception of Stanford.
"Every team in this conference is a quality team," Casey said. "You get into a lot of conferences and maybe there are one or two teams that are really struggling that season, games that you really figure you can count on winning. But you look around the Pac-10 this year, and there’s nobody that you can count on beating in a series unless you play very, very well. When it comes to consideration for places in the postseason, that ought to weigh heavily in our conference’s favor. Now we have to go down there and play well enough to give ourselves a chance."
Let's hope Bruins can close out their home stand strong and have the Beaver look forward to next season."As far as this weekend goes, the only thing we can afford to have on our minds is what we can control," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "And that’s how we play these three games. We can control our execution, our intensity and our effort, and that has to be our focus. Do that, and we have a chance to come home with some good results from this series; then we have to wait and see what happens."
Oregon State goes into the weekend tied for seventh place in the Pac-10, but just three games separate fourth through eighth places. Arizona State (17-4) has wrapped up at least a share of the conference title and is followed in the standings by Arizona (14-7), UCLA (13-8), California (11-10), Washington (9-12), Washington State (10-14), OSU (8-13), Southern California (8-13) and Stanford (6-15).
The Pac-10 can make a case for being perhaps the nation’s strongest conference in 2007, as every team in the conference has an overall record of at least .500 with the exception of Stanford.
"Every team in this conference is a quality team," Casey said. "You get into a lot of conferences and maybe there are one or two teams that are really struggling that season, games that you really figure you can count on winning. But you look around the Pac-10 this year, and there’s nobody that you can count on beating in a series unless you play very, very well. When it comes to consideration for places in the postseason, that ought to weigh heavily in our conference’s favor. Now we have to go down there and play well enough to give ourselves a chance."
Meanwhile, the success of this year's team hasn't gone unnoticed. Eight, count them eight Bruins received Pac-10 honors this week including five of them who were named to the All Pac-10 team:
Freshman outfielder Gabe Cohen captured Pac-10 Co-Newcomer of the Year honors and accompanied senior Tyson Brummett and sophomores Brandon Crawford, Jermaine Curtis and Cody Decker on the All-Pac-10 Team, the conference announced Wednesday.
Five Bruins were named to the 20-player All-Pac-10 team, the most selections from UCLA since five players earned the prestigious honor in 2000. Junior Alden Carrithers and sophomores Ryan Babineau and Tim Murphy earned all-conference honorable mention accolades.
Congratulations to all of them. Yet another evidence of how this program is truly turning around under the leadership of John Savage. They are not actually just "growing" and "learning" through bullsh!t coachspeak, they are getting it done on the field and getting due props for it off it.Five Bruins were named to the 20-player All-Pac-10 team, the most selections from UCLA since five players earned the prestigious honor in 2000. Junior Alden Carrithers and sophomores Ryan Babineau and Tim Murphy earned all-conference honorable mention accolades.
Switching gears to hoops a little amusing note from recruiting. Gerry Gittleson of the Daily News has a story on junior prep point guard Larry Drew (son of former Laker) committing to UNC with a little note on UCLA:
Taft High of Woodland Hills junior point guard Larry Drew Jr. has given an oral commitment to North Carolina after turning down offers from some of the nation's other top college basketball programs, including UCLA.
"It feels great. I felt all along that North Carolina was the best situation for me," Drew said. "Coach Roy Williams is a great guy and a great coach. I visited in December and really liked Chapel Hill. It's a college town, and everyone knows who you are and respects you. It's just a great place to be."
Drew, a 6-footer, averaged 14 points and four assists this past season. He's the son of Larry Drew Sr., a former 10-year NBA guard who played his final two seasons with the Lakers through 1991.
Aside from UCLA, Drew said he also strongly considered Arizona, Gonzaga, Illinois and Duke.
Uhm, I am glad that Mr. Drew feels great about committing to UNC but that little of having offers from UCLA is really not true. Bruins never really officially offered Drew. If Gittleson actually talked to a recruiting experts who are really plugged into the prep scene around Southland, he would find out Coach Howland gave Drew an option to commit to UCLA early in the process. When Drew wanted to go through to the recruiting trips, Howland quickly snapped up Jerime Anderson, who is just as good if not better than Drew. And then Howland followed up with getting a commitment from Malcolm Lee. And after that Drew still badly wanted to come to UCLA. However, when Jrue Holiday dropped UNC narrowing his choice to UCLA and Washington, it was pretty clear to everyone that there wouldn't be a spot for Drew in UCLA's roster. So Drew committed to UNC, which is great for him, but it is totally disingenous for anyone to spin it as if he chose UNC over UCLA. That is just total BS and frankly ignorant reporting on Gittleson's part."It feels great. I felt all along that North Carolina was the best situation for me," Drew said. "Coach Roy Williams is a great guy and a great coach. I visited in December and really liked Chapel Hill. It's a college town, and everyone knows who you are and respects you. It's just a great place to be."
Drew, a 6-footer, averaged 14 points and four assists this past season. He's the son of Larry Drew Sr., a former 10-year NBA guard who played his final two seasons with the Lakers through 1991.
Aside from UCLA, Drew said he also strongly considered Arizona, Gonzaga, Illinois and Duke.
Lastly, speaking of ignorant or rather retarded, the sexist Trojan clown from OC Register offered up a pathetic defense of his joke of a column from last week. Pretty clear at this point this guy is trolling for hits and trying to milk the little attention he got from us last week. Obviously he has no clue about sports and on top of it he is a horrible writer. Let this guy recoil in his own BS.
GO BRUINS.