The UCLA men's athletics program has won only 1 national championship for 5 years. Think about that for a minute. Our most recent national championship from men's side came courtesy of the golf program in 2008. The volleyball team won in 2006. Other than Dan Guerrero has nothing to show for on the men's side.
To cover up the disappointing and often times unacceptable performances of our two major revenue programs in this past decade, Morgan Center repeatedly trots out the "First to 100" line. We appreciate the achievements of all of our programs. I don't think there is another site on the internet (besides the official site) that spends so much time talking about UCLA's non-revenue sports than this one. This community gets behind our softball team, the soccer programs (both men and women), water polo and anything else that features UCLA on their uniforms. So we think we have some ground to stand on when bringing up the disturbing fact that under Dan Guerrero's "leadership" UCLA's men's program has only produced 1 national championship in last 5 years.
Things do not look all that hot this year. The baseball team is picking up steam but the odds are against it that it will finally win a championship. May be there is an outside shot to another CWS run but I personally don't have my hopes up. Tennis and volleyball programs are OKAY. May be they could get "hot" and make a run, but odds are against them.
I realize that just measuring a program by number of national championships is bit unfair because it does take a luck, circumstances such as favorable matchups for NCAA teams to get to the top. But it is Morgan Center that always hides behinds "We are UCLA" mantra and pushes out the propaganda of "First to 100" to cover up the underachievements of both of it's major revenue program and numerous boondoggles that have become the norm under Dan Guerrero's weak leadership at the dysfunctional UCLA athletics department.
Even if you were to compare him against his widely panned predecessor - Pete Dalis - there has been a marked drop off from where the program was 10 years ago. Back in January KSBruin ran some numbers on Dan Guerrero vs. Peter Dalis:
Under Dalis
1994-95: men's basketball, men's volleyball, women's softball - won on field but vacated due to scholarship issues, women's volleyball
1995-96: men's volleyball, men's water polo, men's tennis, women's gymnastics
1996-97: men's water polo, women's gymnastics, men's volleyball, women's softball
1997-98: men's soccer, men's volleyball
1998-99: women's softball, men's tennis
1999-2000: men's volleyball, men's water polo, women's indoor track and field, women's softball
2000-01: men's water polo, women's gymnastics, women's indoor track and field, women's water polo, men's volleyball, women's soccer, women's softball, women's individual gymnastic all-around champion
2001-02: women's gymnastics, men's water polo, women's water polo, women's individual gymnastics all-around champion
Under Guerrero
2002-03: men's soccer, women's gymnastics, women's softball, women's water polo
2003-04: women's golf, women's gymnastics, women's softball, women's outdoor track and field, men's tennis, women's tennis
2004-05: men's tennis, men's water polo, women's water polo, men's volleyball, women's soccer, women's softball, women's individual gymnastics all-around champion
2005-06: men's volleyball, women's water polo, men's soccer, women's soccer
2006-07: women's water polo, women's tennis
2007-08: men's golf, women's tennis, women's water polo, men's individual golf champion, women's individual gymnastics all-around champion
2008-09: women's water polo
2009-10: women's gymnastics, women's softball, men's baseball, men's water polo
The totals for men's championships are:
Dalis (in his last 7 years): 14
Guerrero (since he arrived): 56
This doesn't take into account under Dalis UCLA football went to Rose Bowl twice, Cotton Bowl once during that time period while under Guerrero UCLA has yet to play a football game on or after January 1. Ben Howland did take us 3 Final-4s but in the world of college athletics, like it or not, college football is king.
If we were to distill the state of our men's program here is how they stack up:
- Football- Crap
- Basketball- Slightly above average in Pac-10, kind of a question mark heading into next season
- Baseball- Great last year, this year a question mark
- Golf- National title contender good
- Soccer- Not elite up to previous "UCLA standards", but very good
- Tennis- Not elite, but very good
- Track and Field- Respectable, but not near national title good, a question mark
- Volleyball- No title since 2006, unclear if they are "very good," also a question mark
- Water Polo- Still top five, but no longer the consensus one or two each year
- Cross Country- Has never been very good, still isn't
So UCLA men's program feature just one real national title contending program with a handful of other very good ones who are capable IF they get hot. Meanwhile, four don't have a prayer of competing for a national title any time soon. One program that also comes into mind is our soccer program which hasn't been a contender for a while. They are a mystery for sure. Salcedo hasn't been able to build the program to an "elite" status. Most of the elite programs are in the ACC nowadays and all those programs have facilities far better than us. Hell, with the exception of water polo/swim/dive, everyone has better facilities than us.
A little drop off was may be expected because other schools are committing more and more resources to non-revenue sports but that is UCLA's problem. Other schools are being able to commit more revenue to their non-revenue programs because of the dividends they are reaping from the success of major revenue programs such as football. At UCLA on the other hand, the administration is too focused on tuning out its current and future donor base (that would be alums and students), while ramming through ill advised, dishonest, and poorly planned boondoogle.
Something is not right with this picture. The way it appears our athletic programs under Dan Guerrero's leadership keep falling and currently are in serious danger of being banished into obscurity. We appreciate the fact that our women's team could make a title run in softball (and we will get behind them if members of this community keep playing them up). But that doesn't make up for the fact UCLA is no longer contender in so many programs it used to dominate and build up a storied tradition.
It increasingly appears that Dan Guerrero is not who we thought he was - a visionary athletic director, who would bring UCLA up to par in a new sports landscape - get the Bruins out of the morass under Peter Dalis. Instead, he has done what no one imagined almost a decade ago - Guerrero has made Dalis look competent.