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UCLA Basketball Irrelevant In Game #1

There was a game last night?

By Tydides
@bethharrisap

Schools across the country kicked off the college basketball season last night, and if local sports bars are any indication, most of them featuring horrible mismatches like Duke vs. Roadkill U.

That didn't stop the excitement in Lexington, where Kentucky drew 22.5K against Grand Canyon.

Nor did it dim the enthusiasm in Lawrence, where 16.3K showed up to watch the Jayhawks take on UCSB.

Similar deal in Tucson where 14.6K saw the Wildcats go up against Mt. St. Mary's.

Hell, even the illustrious program up at UC Berkeley dredged up 7212 for the Bears vs. Alcorn St.

And then there's Old Pauley Under Glass, where just 6500 turned out to get out of the cold or get something to eat or drink while a basketball game went on against something called a "Montana State". If that doesn't drive home the apathy and disinterest in TIARA's #Daddyball program, there was the double shock of waking up this morning and seeing a postgame summary for a game you didn't even know happened, paired with the fact that there was some guy in the front page picture for said postgame summary wearing a UCLA jersey but whose name is a complete mystery.

I go to the roster page on the official site and I have no idea who these people are, and it looks like outside of 6500 sad souls, I sure as hell wouldn't be alone. This would have been unimaginable back in the days of Farmar, Afflalo, Collison, and The Prince.

Sure, you'll get people who try to make excuses:

It ain't the start time, it's TIARA. Sorry to break it to you Beth, but this is a recurring theme under TIARA, where last year, the Bruins drew an average of 8136 to their games, good for 57th in the country. Take that, UTEP!

And now, with only a couple of holdouts left from the Howland era that fans actually liked watching and supporting, it doesn't look like things are poised to get any better.

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