I was walking toward Pauley around 5:30 on Wednesday night when I heard what will probably go down as one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard: the ringing of the Victory Bell.
I’ve never known a basketball game against USC where we had the Victory Bell; where we didn’t have to worry that, in the case of a catastrophe, we would hear those obnoxious chants of “just like football” (of course, it’s not an obnoxious chant when we do it).
I couldn’t really restrain a goofy smile when I walked past, and I think that’s really the beauty of having the Victory Bell. Like Kodachrome, it makes all the world a sunny day (oh yeah).
With that feeling, I wasn’t really too worried about the outcome of the game. I figured (rightly) there was no way UCLA would lose at home to USC. So when the Bruins fell behind by 10 points early on, I didn’t have a sense of desperation. At no point was the result of the game in doubt. UCLA would win; “Rover” would be played; I would go get two free hot dogs from the snack bar. (It’s really amazing. They just hand them out. For free. I can’t stress that enough.)
Sure, it’s maybe a little ironic that, considering my certainty about victory, the win came in the most unlikely of ways (UCLA winning the game at the free-throw line) but hey, a win’s a win.
Still, nothing about this game changed my mind about the rise of USC basketball. Yeah, Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt might be gone after this year due to the stringent academic standards of Figueroa Tech. Yeah, Taj Gibson, as a 21-year-old freshman, might join them in the ranks of those headed to the NBA to escape their professors. Regardless, I think Associated Press voters would be justified in putting USC in the top-15, top-10 range, and there’s a halfway decent chance they will be just as good next year with one of those guys returning and O.J. Mayo arriving.
But whatever.
If USC is good, fine. It makes these victories that much greater. And the victories will continue to pile up, if only because God appears to enjoy seeing Tim Floyd kick and stomp the court at Pauley. UCLA will almost always have greater stability in the program because the Bruins aren’t forced to take the academic casualties that the Trojans welcome with open arms.
The game probably wasn’t what I expected, considering my expectations are completely ridiculous in most respects. I didn’t expect the Trojans to be able to play the Bruins so close considering that Arron Afflalo and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute have been playing out of their minds, but they did. I doff my nonexistent cap to them.
I came to one sincere conclusion after the game: I really don’t want to see UCLA playing USC again this year, either in the Pac-10 Tournament or the big boy. The Trojans are good, much as it hurts my heart and soul and causes a strange itching sensation on my inner calf.
Oh, and those of you who think Young and Gibson wouldn’t be starting for UCLA are crazy.
E-mail Woods at dwoods@media.ucla.edu if you like what Andrew Green did with “O Fortuna.”