Roughly 78 percent of my brain is devoted to sports, and this
causes me to see my life in those terms.
Take my quarter, for instance. If it were a basketball season,
then the first few weeks are out-of-conference play where ideally I
would like to pick up a few wins (nights of studying), but in
reality I’ll take the two chapters previously highlighted and
consider it progress.
As the quarter moves forward, I pick up the intensity and make
sure I’m hitting my stride in time for the mid-season
conference tests.
Next week, I have two midterms. And probably, despite my two
days a week of class and my demanding job that involves watching
sports and then writing about them, I’m not ready.
If I come out above the curve on the easier of the two and have
a decent showing in the tough one, I’ll consider it a
successful week because I’ve positioned myself well for the
end of the season.
I could ramble on with this and then break out an analogy
between football and my love life, but I actually do have a
relevant point.
UCLA just finished their toughest test of the season at the
Washington schools and did exactly what it needed to do ““
beat Washington State and play Washington respectably.
Realistically, it was the best-case scenario, and Bruin fans
should be encouraged.
After Dijon Thompson supplied his signature moment as a Bruin in
leading UCLA to a win over Washington State, Saturday’s game
became an opportunity rather than a necessity.
That’s why, in the bigger picture, the loss isn’t
something to fret over.
UCLA (12-7, 6-5) is tied for third in a Pac-10 conference that
will probably send four teams to the NCAA tournament. The Bruins
have eight games left plus the Pac-10 tournament. They are in solid
position to get 18 wins, which would presumably guarantee a ticket
to March Madness.
Analyzing Saturday’s game with the big picture in mind
gives me this pearl of wisdom ““ Washington won because it was
simply the better team.
Even though UCLA has taken seven of the last eight from
Washington, this Husky team is too athletic and has too many
weapons for the Bruins. The Huskies rely exclusively on
upperclassmen and have the sort of cohesion that will take another
couple of years for this young Bruin core to gain.
In the grand scheme of things, winning one of two from them this
season is a victory.
If we were to microanalyze just this game, we could start
breaking down why Jordan Farmar played so poorly, how the Bruins
can’t win with the bench providing only eight points, or how
many obscenities about boxing out were screamed in Westwood.
We could also laud Dijon Thompson’s reliable 22 points,
Josh Shipp’s smooth offensive game and the team’s
persistence in cutting a 15-point deficit to four.
But neither the game’s positives nor negatives are
important enough to discuss anymore.
The bottom line is that the Bruins got over the season’s
biggest hump with reason for confidence and optimism for the end of
the year.
And in my experience, confidence and optimism are hardly a given
following the biggest test of the season.
Peters is a 2004-05 basketball columnist. E-mail him at
bpeters@media.ucla.edu.