In this space I have already paid my personal tribute to King Ed. So I won't go through that again. But this will give us a little taste and reminder what many of us were fortunate to experience as students in Westwood:
We have heard a lot of chatter about being a "Leader" of a basketball program. Seems like we have been missing one since the departure of AA.
I think the "Leader" of this team is going to be someone who has gone through adversity, battled his way out of it, and then inspired all of his team-mates not through just words but action. Ed O (& Tyus Edney) was the ultimate example of those traits who battled his way out of heartbreaking and embarrassing losses against Michigan (1993) and Tulsa (1994) to toughen up, and lead us to the promise land in 1995.
IMHO this band of Bruins are still finding themselves. Majority of them have had it easy because until this season they had been riding the leadership of JF and AA who went through their growing experiences in their freshman year. It will be interesting to see how the current edition of Ben Ball warriors come out in next 7 games. I have this feeling that they might hit a rough patch tomorrow night. However, even if that happens they cannot afford to get down on themselves and slump their shoulders. They are going to need to battle every min of every game through rest of the season.
I think it will be up to DC and Shipp who are going to step up and provide that leadership through rest of this season. Both of them have gone through personal high and lows in terms of injuries. They have also had their share of experiences in terms of dealing with the ebb and flow of a grinding Pac-10 season. So it will be up to them to keep this team steady and guide it through the stretch run. I am counting on them to be next Ed O (and Tyus) giving us a whole new set of shining moments we are going to play again and again in the coming years.
GO BRUINS.
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