Much has been made of the 2003-2004 UCLA men’s basketball
team. Los Angeles-area writers, talk show hosts and television
personalities have made a head coaching position in Westwood look
about as appealing as extracting teeth from a lion or being Jabba
the Hutt’s dinner.
One year ago, Slick Steve Lavin and Papa Bear Toledo were on
Westwood’s most wanted list. Now coach Karl
Dorrell’s approach to football has been called boring and
dull by Los Angeles Times writer T.J. Simers. Talk about the pot
calling the kettle black.
However, some people in Los Angeles actually have enough
knowledge and basketball savvy to make intelligent arguments about
UCLA basketball ““ women’s basketball, that
is.Â
I caught up with Alex Zalkin, Matt Mossanen and Jon Milgrom,
three UCLA students who are on the women’s basketball scout
team who consider themselves masters in the field of debate when it
comes to UCLA basketball.Â
From them I learned that there’s another basketball team
on campus, sports fans. They wear sports bras instead of jock
straps, and according to the guys on the women’s basketball
scout team, this year they’ve come to play.
The scout team is a group of students who emulate future
opponents’ playing styles, suiting up against the women
several times every week. The basketball team runs drills and
controlled scrimmages against the scout team in preparation for
their next game.Â
I know what you’re thinking:Â The scout squad?
Please.
Well, imagine being Laila Ali’s sparring partner, racing
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, taking batting practice against Amanda Freed
or wrestling Chyna. Try pitching to Stacy Nuveman, blocking a Mia
Hamm penalty kick, or digging Gabrielle Reese’s spikes all
day. It’s no walk in the park.
Just ask Milgrom, Mossanen and Zalkin.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Zalkin said, showing
off a gruesome scratch on his wrist. “I have a background in
basketball, but they’re rough, they’re physical. They
bang inside and all that stuff.”
A typical day includes full-court 3-on-2 drills, transition
offense and transition defense, perimeter or post drills (depending
on a player’s position) and conditioning. But only the
players do the conditioning, so by the time they take on the scout
team, they’ve been worked pretty hard.Â
“There’s no way I’d be able to do the
conditioning that they do,” Zalkin said.
By Friday, the girls were 2-1 this year, with their sole loss
coming to the No. 2 Lady Longhorns of Texas.Â
So far, the scout team threesome has enjoyed watching
UCLA’s team improve.
“Since we started, they’ve definitely
improved,” Zalkin boasted. “That’s a result of
our presence, but mostly their hard work. They’re in really
good shape.”Â
One feature of the women’s team that has stood out in the
minds of all three scout squad sallies is the physical nature of
play employed by the lady Bruins.Â
“They’re pretty physical. Every day I play I come
home with a new bruise on my head or a cut on my face,”
Milgrom complained. “I got knocked in the head pretty badly
once, and I thought I was going to die. I didn’t die,
though. I’m talking to you now. But it really
hurt.”Â
“They’re good man,” said Mossanen. “They
can all compete and they’re all tough. I have scratches on my
head. I get fat lips all the time.”
As proof of the team’s toughness, I was told the following
story: “I went up for a lay-up, and one of them took a
charge. I kneed her really hard in the stomach, and she went
down,” Mossanen said. “I never would have taken a
charge during practice in high school, not in a million years. I
would have just let the guy score.”
At first, the scout team was unsure of the legitimacy of their
role. That quickly changed. “As the practices went on, I
realized a lot of the girls are really talented,” Milgrom
said. “They are very fundamentally sound, and they play at a
very high level.”
So it appears there is another talent-laden team roaming Pauley
Pavilion this winter. But don’t take the scout team’s
word for it.Â
Stop by and check it out for yourself.
After watching a UCLA victory, Karon hopes someone tells him
he plays ball like a girl. E-mail him
at ekaron@media.ucla.edu.