Westmont College.
Anyone ever heard of it?
Because I haven’t.
Apparently, it’s a Christian, liberal arts college in Santa Barbara. It also happens to be the institution the UCLA men’s basketball team opens its season against Thursday night. I’ll bet you’re thinking: Wow, basketball season is already starting? But don’t stress, folks. We can use “starting” very loosely here.
The game against Westmont is the Bruins’ one and only exhibition game of the year, a chance for them to iron out all of their kinks before they take on the actual, grueling start of their schedule. They’re going to need all the help they can get when they get to the first game of the regular season against … Cal State Los Angeles.
Hmm, weird. Must be one of those guarantee games in which UCLA pays a small school to come get beat up in Pauley.
Where was I? Oh yeah, ahem, they’re going to need all the help they can get when they get to the next game of the regular season when they take on … Cal State Northridge. That’s right. The Mats are going to motor down the 405 freeway to shock the world. Wait, that can’t be right. Don’t they play in the Big Sky Conference?
Whew. To review, the UCLA basketball season doesn’t actually “start” until Nov. 15 when UCLA hosts Pepperdine as a part of the 2010 Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off. Yeah, I said it. Unless you want to see how the Pauley renovation is coming along or see Tyler Trapani get a few good looks at the floor, don’t bother coming.
You won’t catch those first three games on TV, but that’s ok. You won’t need to.
Now it may sound like I’m knocking coach Ben Howland and Athletic Director Dan Guerrero for scheduling a cupcake to open the season, but that’s not what I’m here to do at all. Most teams that don’t have to prove their worth to the tournament committee do this, and I don’t like it.
I think every team needs at least one game to empty the bench and see how players work together in a game situation. We saw as much last year when it took a Mustafa Abdul-Hamid buzzer beater to beat Concordia.
But I thought that’s what exhibitions were for. The Bruins are going to shake the rust off against Westmont whatever-it-was-called on Thursday. After that, I want to see some real competition. For a program like the one we’ve got here at UCLA, it shouldn’t take more than a half to get acclimated to a game situation for the young guys. Not three games. I’m not saying that UCLA should bring in Duke and Oklahoma, but it certainly shouldn’t be bringing in the Cal State coalition. When the season begins, so should the competition.
Why not play a mid-level program from the Western Athletic Conference or Mountain West Conference? A team like San Diego State doesn’t really ruffle my feathers, but it at least allows me the opportunity to learn something about this team. I won’t learn anything about the team that I don’t already know until that Nov. 15 matchup with Pepperdine, and even then, it’s iffy. I expect the young guys to flash some pretty moves, but my intramural team could hang with Westmont College.
I want to have some of my questions answered about this team, but I just can’t see how that’s going to happen in the next two weeks.
Happy “start” to the basketball season. Kind of.
Strong co-hosts the Daily Bruin Sports Show, which airs every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on uclaradio.com. E-mail him at sstrong@media.ucla.edu.