A full range of emotions run through you when you watch a game
like that.
First I was pissed. There were so many other places I wanted to
be, so many other shows (The OC?) I wanted to watch. I felt UCLA
was going to win the game, but it was a bad game, an ugly game, and
I don’t like that.
It’s not fun.
That’s how I felt until the final minute of
regulation.
That’s when I got really pissed. Not only was it a bad
game, it was a bad game the Bruins were going to lose.
Lose!
After being up six points with a couple of minutes to play, the
season was effectively over. Down three with six seconds left, UCLA
was going to lose a bad game to a bad team, and then we’d
have to wait for next year.
But there’s no next year for Dijon Thompson. This is his
final season as a Bruin, and Pullman, Wash., would have been a
horrible place for it to end.
But thanks to Thompson, the Bruins are still alive, and believe
it or not, in a pretty darn good position to make a run at the NCAA
Tournament.
When Thompson hit that three at the buzzer, my pissed-off-ness
immediately transformed into near-ecstasy. It’s going to take
me a long time to forget that play, because it really was the play
that saved the Bruins’ season.
Then it set in that UCLA would have to play overtime, and I got
pretty nervous.
Yeah, the Bruins are a better team than the Cougars, but they
were on the road, and it was still a very losable game.
But like they’ve done so many times before, the Bruins
didn’t lose a game they easily could have lost. Come to think
of it, pretty much every single conference game has been like that.
And that makes this a fun team to like.
Then the game ended. Washington State’s Jeff Varem missed
that ridiculous shot at the buzzer, and I felt incredibly
relieved.
The Bruins had dodged yet another bullet.
And once again, they didn’t play a very good game. But
they won. So I guess there isn’t too much to criticize.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. We don’t want to
criticize these guys. We only criticize them because it makes us
feel better about ourselves, and that’s wrong on a whole lot
of levels.
And really, how could we criticize these guys? So much has
changed in just one season ““ this team has transformed into a
bunch of winners.
Last year, there’s no doubt in my mind that UCLA would
have lost this game.
Even tonight, I would have bet a substantial sum of money that
UCLA would lose after Jordan Farmar made that crucial turnover late
in the second half. That would have been a stupid bet, because they
didn’t lose.
That probably sounds pretty repetitive, but I can’t help
repeating it: THEY DIDN’T LOSE! I don’t know if this
team so much wins games as they don’t lose them. But then
again, maybe that’s one and the same thing.
My emotional roller coaster has now entered a stage of relative
exhaustion. This team has put Bruin fans through a lot, and this
game wasn’t any different.
At first they were bad, then they were a little better, then
they were terrible, and then they inexplicably pulled out a win. Or
a non-loss.
Whatever.
I think that’s enough for one night, because I don’t
feel feelings anymore. And for that, we have UCLA basketball to
thank.
Regan is a basketball columnist for the 2004-2005 season.
E-mail him at dregan@media.ucla.edu.