Bruin Bites-Stanford Basketball Edition

Along with Aaron Gordon of Arizona and Joseph Young of Oregon, Kyle Anderson was the third PAC 12 named to the "Wooden Award Midseason Top 25, released Wednesday, features a variety of standout athletes who remain in the running to win the national honor at the end of the season."  It is a well-deserved honor for Anderson who I think he should be considered the front runner for PAC 12 player of the year.  More details here.

Of course the scary thing for UCLA basketball fans is who is going to replace Kyle as point guard.  After losing local product Jordan McLaughlin to Just SC, the newest must have local recruit is Justin Simon.   Simon is the real deal and UCLA is recruiting him "hard" according to this article but one problem is he is not eligible until 2015.

While there is no point guard to replace Kyle next season, there is some serious rebounding to replace Kyle.  In addition to top-rated Kevon Looney, Jonah Bolden was impressive recently in the Hoops Hall Classic.  If Tony Parker continues to improve and Wannah Bail can develop as a basketball player, UCLA may be loaded in the front court next year.

As far as the game tonight, Cal's face-plant last night against Just SC gives UCLA a chance to tie for second place, oh wait we lost to Utah, to tie for second place if we beat Stanford and Cal at home this week.

While UCLA has had trouble with some bad teams in the Howland II era, UCLA has owned Stanford.   As the official press release notes:  "Last season, UCLA won both contests against the Cardinal. Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, the Bruins have won 14 of 17 meetings against Stanford."

Let's close with a note of the one Seahawk even 49er fans can root for.  Ex UCLA RB Derick Coleman is more than a player in the SuperBowl he is an inspiration.  As two identical twin sisters wrote him a heartfelt letter telling him how he inspired them.

Go Bruins.