Like rest of you the loooong off-season without any hoops or football action to follow is an insufferable one for me. However, there is a little sliver of silver lining to enjoying the off-season. We don't get to be subjected to Diane Pucin and rest of her clueless colleagues basketball related drivels in the TrOJan Times. Their latest piece of work once again serves up an example how LA's paper of record have some of the worst sports writers in the entire country.
So Diane Pucin and some lady named Lisa Dillman wrote up an article feigning their concern over how UCLA basketball program (along w/ Floyd's JustSC hoops team) will be sweating out a possible one-and-done season of Kevin Love and Juice Deuce. Completely ignoring facts and depth charts Lisa and Diane go on to discuss the two programs as if they are similar situated that are going to deal with the loss of their blue chip recruits the same way.
Just look at the concern pouring out of the keyboards of these two wankers:
With Ohio State's Thad Matta and Texas' Rick Barnes feeling the hurt.
Next year it could be Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo ...
So get ready to wince, coaches Ben Howland and Tim Floyd.
Seasons of gain are followed by losses and pain in the new one-and-done era of college basketball.
We are all so agonizing here in Bruins Nation about the prospect of Kevin Love leaving us after one season. Uh yeah right.
Let's take a quick look at our depth chart. Shall we? Assuming the worst case scenario at the end of 2007-08 season, which is a massive departure to the NBA from Westwood - Collison, Shipp, Luc Richard, and Kevin Love - here is how the UCLA depth chart right now looks for 2008-09 season taking Anderson, Lee, and Gordon's commitment into account:
| Senior | Junior | Sophomore | Freshman | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russell Westbrook | Jerime Anderson | ||
| 2 | Michael Roll | Malcolm Lee | ||
| 3 | Nikola Dragovic | Chace Stanback | ||
| 4 | James Keefe | Drew Gordon | ||
| 5 | Alfred Aboya |
Again this depth chart is based on the absolute worst case scenario.
Chances are either Shipp or Luc (or may be both of them) will be coming back for their senior season. Then you have the ongoing recruitment (and perhaps a pending commitment) of superstar Jrue Holiday. And there are recruits like PF Tyreese Breshers and C Ralph Sampson who are lurking around the UCLA basketball scene, in case a possible 5th scholie opens up for that 08-09.
Either way Howland has set up the foundation of UCLA basketball in such solid footing. Even assuming the worst case scenario of a massive departure to the NBA he will have a line up full of savvy and experience battle tested veterans sprinked in blue chip All American freshmen who will have UCLA contending (and possibly defending) their back-to-back-to-back Pac-10 Championship (and something more). No wonder he laughed off the faux concern of Pucin and Stewart when they tried concern trolling over Love’s possible "one and done" season at Westwood:
"I think Oden and Durant will be better pros right away for having played in college," he said. "They've spent a year maturing and improving their skills."
The UCLA coach added, "I think it was great for college basketball for having these kids in the game."
Meanwhile, Timmeh on the other hand is in a little different situation. He is a desperate little man who will apparently do anything such as fill his program w/ recruits of questionable character to get a little edge. So yeah he is sweating his one and done thing with his thug baller. And also taking a quick look at his roster will give us a picture how pathetic his program really is:
Here is a list of recruits coming in for the TrOJies this year and next:
2007:
- OJ Mayo (pg) – by all accounts it sounds like this is a semi professional basketball mercenary who changed high school every year, Calling this goon a ball hog with be kind in terms of describing his game.
- Angelo Johnson (pg) – Apparently this dude is not even qualified yet. Just like other TrOJan flunkies in Timmeh’s program he failed his SAT in his first try. He still needs couple of courses to qualify. He is supposed to be a quick but can’t really shoot. So whatever.
- Marcus Simmons (sg) – A 3 star recruit who is supposed to be quick but not a great shooter. "not qualified needs 2 summer courses and failed to pass the SAT on his first attempt, supposed to be lightning quick but can't shoot."
- Leonard Washington (sf) – Not sure if this clown has even qualified yet. One of those mercenaries who seem to play for a different school every year. He is probably 2 years away from seeing court time at Southern Cal.
- Mamadou Diarra – c – Again. No one really knows. Apparently a pretty athletic kid who may have a shooting touch. But has "Mike Fey" problem aka … look ma no hands!
- Demar Derozan (sg) – the only notable TrOJie get. And his "commitment" seems just about as solid as the previous "commitment" of Arizona’s newest "standard"
- Percy Miller and Malk Story would probably get their rear ends kicks at the Dykstra courts (do they still have basketball courts near Dykstra).
So tell me once again how exactly UCLA and Southern Cal basketball programs are similarly situated?
How can the TrOJan Times write a BS story about these two programs without taking into account how night and day the state of these two programs are and how the coaches from these two program view the situations involving Kevin Love and Juice Deuce through completely different prisms?
Again the mendacity shown by these so called sports reporters from LA’s paper of record is beyond breath-taking.
I understand the sentiment that we should totally ignore their sports section and not pay any attention to it. However, it’d be nice if the clowns who run this sports department who once featured legendary reporters such as Jim Murray would wake the **** up, and do something to restore the credibility of their dying sports section.
Writing reports based on facts and reality would be a good start. Clearly wankers like Pucin and her colleagues aren’t getting it done.
Anyways … we are hear. We will be watching these wankers and continue to set the record straight.
GO BRUINS.