He’s not exactly muscular, and he probably has no
jump-shot to speak of, but Dwight Ward might be the key to UCLA
turning its woeful season around.
Ward, a UCPD officer, accompanied the team on the Georgetown
trip and sat on the Bruin bench during the game because some
overzealous message-board psycho in the D.C. area reportedly wants
Steve Lavin dead.
As if there aren’t tens of thousands in the Los Angeles
area who have had similar thoughts.
That makes Ward an Ed Kezerian-like 1-0 on the Bruin
sidelines.
I’m no math major ““ heck, I haven’t set foot
on South Campus in months ““ but 1-0 with Ward sounds an awful
lot better than 4-14 without him.
Maybe Ward slipped Lavin a better game plan or maybe he shot
free throws with Cedric Bozeman in practice, but this guy better be
on the bench again tomorrow night in Tucson.
“(Ward) is going to have to travel with us full-time
now,” Kapono said. “Not only to protect and serve, but
to bring good luck to the program.”
Kapono’s right.
Forget sticking pins in your Luke Walton voodoo dolls or
conjuring up the ghosts of the John Wooden era ““ Ward is just
what the Bruins need to turn their luck around.
Dress him up like the Lucky Charms leprechaun and call him the
volunteer assistant coach in charge of blind luck.
Give him a jersey and slide him into the starting lineup.
Whatever.
If Dwight Ward is on the sidelines tomorrow in Arizona, we could
have an upset in the making.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Watching Cal ascend the Pac-10 standings conjures up images of
those scraggly guys with razor scooters who zip up and down Bruin
Walk.
Sure the Bears are still sailing along for now, but you know
it’s a matter of time until you hear the sound of that
sickening crash.
After sweeping through the Oregon schools on the road, Cal finds
itself alone in second place, within striking distance of
first-place Arizona.
While the Joe Shipp-led Bears are undeniably plucky, seeing them
nearing the top of the conference standings is like watching Brad
Miller and Zydrunas Ilgauskas play on the Eastern Conference
All-Star team.
I’ll come right out and say it ““ if this team full
of UCLA rejects wins the Pac-10, Dan Guerrero should be sitting on
the Telegraph Avenue sidewalk with a cup full of coins in hand,
collecting money to pay off Ben Braun to come to Westwood next
season.
Then again, Braun has secured arguably the nation’s top
recruiting class for next year, so Guerrero might have to promise
him the Taj Mahal to lure him to come to UCLA.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Another coach who Guerrero ought to have on his short list once
the season ends is Stanford’s Mike Montgomery.
Despite losing half of last year’s All-Pac-10 team to the
NBA and its starting point guard to a broken foot, the surging
Cardinal finds itself in third place in the Pac-10 and in good
position to secure a protected seed in the NCAA tournament.
Eisenberg will pose as the Lucky Charms leprechaun if the Bruins
sweep the Arizona schools in the desert this weekend. Email him
with costume ideas at jeisenberg@media.ucla.edu.