What an incredible game that was! It had everything: inspired
play, lead changes, and in the end, a giant that was somehow still
left standing.
No. 1 Stanford hung on to win another close one last night, a
63-61 victory over unheralded Washington State in Pullman. This
time Matt Lottich was the hero, as he beat the buzzer to leave the
Cougars stunned.
But for some reason, I didn’t get to see it.
Instead, some genius at Fox decided that people would rather see
UCLA play Oregon State. Frankly, I can’t imagine who those
people would be. I don’t know who could possibly take any
enjoyment from seeing bad basketball.
But that’s exactly how two hours of my Thursday night were
spent. It was me, Steve Physioc, Marques Johnson and probably six
other people with little else to do. So we watched together, and
the Bruins played more uninspired basketball, drawing themselves
ever closer to the misery of last season. And with a little help
Saturday, the team’s misery will all be over.
Get this: If UCLA loses to Oregon, USC loses to Oregon State and
Washington State beats California, then Bruin fans can do nothing
but wait for Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo
Mata to arrive in Westwood next fall.
With a little help, the Bruins’ tournament dreams will be
dashed. No, not that tournament. UCLA would finish in a tie for
sixth place in the Pac-10, and they would be left out of the
eight-team conference tournament by virtue of a tiebreaker.
And that probably wouldn’t be an entirely bad thing.
Because this team just doesn’t seem to care.
You would think that the chance to play big-time Division I
basketball at one of the finest institutions in the land would be
motivation enough to work hard. But no. T.J. Cummings looks sad.
Cedric Bozeman looks lost.
Brian Morrison looks hurt. And Ben Howland just looks worn
out.
Howland knew this season would be difficult, but no one could
have expected it to be this bad. Especially after the 5-0 start to
Pac-10 play. But somehow, somewhere, it fell apart.
And it just seems to get worse. Going into Thursday
night’s game, all UCLA needed to do was get a win to
guarantee itself a place in the Pac-10 tournament.
But it happened again, and a regional audience got to see
it.
Seriously, why was this game on television?
And why would anyone have watched it? There were plenty of other
options. I saw them during the commercials.
There was the latest installment of “Survivor:
All-Stars” on CBS. Richard Hatch was walking around naked.
Jeff Probst was acting self-important. And the Bruins were losing
to the Beavers.
There was “Wheel of Fortune” on ABC. Vanna White was
turning over vowels. Pat Sajak was acting self-important. And the
Bruins were losing to the Beavers.
There was Sway interviewing Jay-Z on MTV2. Jay-Z was talking
about retiring from the game. Sway was wearing something funny on
his head. And the Bruins were losing to the Beavers.
So, yes, there was much variety on the television set last
night. But there was also a constant. And it involved the Bruins
losing to the Beavers.
While I was watching last night, I think I figured out this
team’s problem.
And it’s not so much that the Bruins are just bad.
It’s more that they’re just not very good.
Or maybe they are just bad. I guess I’m still trying to
figure it out.
But fear not, Bruin fans. There is probably only one more
televised game left. After all the pieces of the puzzle fall into
place this Saturday, it will all be over.
And then we can wait until next year and all pray together that
Stanford is on television.
The Dodgers are 2-0 in spring training. But no one cares.
E-mail Regan at dregan@media.ucla.edu.