by Paul Casey Gotham
When various media outlets released their pre-season rankings for this year’s NCAA Men’s basketball, I could understand why the UCLA Bruins earned a spot in the top five.
After all Ben Howland has been leading the denizens of Pauley Pavilion to the Final Four the last three years. Only eight other schools have made the Elite Eight multiple times in the past five years (UNC, Memphis, Florida, Xavier, Louisville, Kansas, Texas, and UConn).
It seemed only logical that the Bruins would grab one of the top spots – at least coming out of the gate.
So when the Bruins trimmed Miami of Ohio 64-59 at Pauley – a game that the Red Hawks led with less than 5:00 remaining – it seemed like nothing more than an anomaly.
UCLA would rebound, re-focus, and move on.
Right?
Any signs of re-focusing were quickly dashed when John Beilein’s Michigan Wolverines clipped the Bruins 55-52.
Not to worry. Michigan downed Duke also. The Wolverines must be hot or must be good.
UCLA recovered. They knocked off Southern Illinois and Florida International.
Hey! At least the Salukis have made some noise in recent tournament appearances. It was a good win. The Bruins were back on track.
Ooops. Along came the Pac 10 – Big 12 Hardwood Series and a loss to the Texas Longhorns 68-64.
No problem. The Longhorns are tough. That game was in Austin. It was a close loss.
Ummm….yeah – currently Texas is 17-7 and have fallen into the category of – ‘Others Receiving Votes.’
But the big, bad Bruins took care of business from there with seven consecutive double-digit wins…over Cal State Northridge, the DePaul ‘Carps,’ Loyola-Marymount, Mercer, Wyoming, and Louisiana Tech. I think they worked in a scrimmage during that streak against the Sisters of the Poor.
UCLA opened conference play with a bang – knocking out both Oregon State and Oregon on the road. Of course the Beavers are 10-13, and the Ducks are 6-18 – quack quack.
But wait the Bruins kept things going with wins over USC and Arizona.
Okay the REAL Bruins were showing up now.
Right?
Then came a three-point loss at home to Arizona State. Hey! C’mon the Sun Devils get after it.
Five days later the Bruins topped Washington State…by two points.
Two days later UCLA completed their tour of Washington with a nine-point loss to the Huskies – another team relegated to the category of ‘Others Receiving Votes.’
No matter. The Bruins learned their lessons and reeled off four in a row against California, Stanford, USC, and the swooning Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish.
The Bruins appeared to be catching their stride just in time for another run in March.
Snap! Arizona State 74 UCLA 67.
Arizona 84 UCLA 72.
For those of you keeping score at home UCLA is 19-6 overall and 8-4 against the Pac 10 – and two of those conference wins have come against teams with first-year coaches (Mike Montgomery at Cal and Johnny Dawkins at Stanford).
Of course the Bruins have a record of 0-3 against ranked teams.
Against Pac 10 teams with a winning record? 6-4.
So as we spend our time figuring out who should go dancing and who shouldn’t – tell me again: Why is UCLA in the top twenty?
There’s no good reason, Casey. UCLA should drop out on Monday. Looks like they may be only the 4th or 5th best team in the Pac 10.
It’ll be interesting to see how many teams the Big East gets into the Big Dance when the dust settles. Certainly won’t be the 9 that some folks were predicting a few weeks ago. Might be 7 … tops! You’re gonna have to be at least .500 in the conference and have no more than 12 losses in all, including the one you’re likely to get in the conference tournament. Notre Dame, Georgetown, Providence and Seton Hall are definitely on thin ice right now and finish the home stretch REAL STRONG. Boy … how good has Villanova become????
yeah – Villanova looked good until they got ROCKED in Morgantown last night.
Wally – the crazy thing is I am seeing some places that are projecting up to four teams from the SEC. The SEC?!?! Tenn has lost just about every non-conference game they have played. Ooops! I am wrong. They beat Georgetown. Yeah and the Hoyas are gonna finish under .500 in their conference and need a conference championship to make the Dance. The SEC with more than two teams in the Dance would be a crime?!? LSU is in 1st place. Xavier went into the Maravich center and won by 10.
And I just heard the talking heads for ESPN in Madison (Bilas, Knight, Phelps, et al) say that the Big 10 could get 6-7 teams into the Dance. WHAT?!?!?!?! R U kidding me????!?!?!?!
Picture me with my face in my hands.
Thing is – the last time I dismissed the Big 10 they ended up with 2 teams in the Final Four.
That group is pretty funny though. I love the way Knight rips on Hubert Davis any time the topic of defense comes up.
The same reason D.Howard got a 50 on his first dunk attempt.
Ryan
Welcome to ‘The Pine.’ You’re gonna have to fill me in on D. Howard. I did not watch the dunk competition; I was too busy getting my fill of Miami-Ohio / Western Michigan. Went right from that into Marquette / St. John’s.
Casey —
I do love watching Wisconsin play. It’s like going back in time. At any point, you’re thinking they could run the Swinging Gate play from Hoosiers.
Basketball the Bo Ryan way – all for one and one for all – set some screens, work the ball around, find the open man. Above all else – play defense!
Casey —
I’m gonna hunker down and take in this tripleheader: Duke at BC, NC at Miami, USC at Arizona State. The girls are all out and about … it’s me and little Audrey in the basement with the remote. Suh … weeet.
Hey, let’s hear it for the Pac-10 refs. When AZ goes 23 for 30 in FT and UCLA 5 for 7, it seems the refs are a little one sided – to say nothing about the Collison charge call during the last minute of the UCLA-AZ State game.
BC – isn’t that the team that lost to Harvard? Oh yes, they are the team that beat UNC.
This UCLA squad is not last year’s team; nonetheless, on a good day when Collison and Aboya are healthy, I’ll take their hustle and defense.
AlphaEd – welcome to the Pine. Great comments.