You can imagine my surprise when former USC wide receiver Mike
Williams announced that everyone at UCLA ““ except for
students of the “prestigious medical school” ““
wants to be at USC. That’s right ““ USC’s
All-American wide receiver, based on the Trojans’ win over
the Bruins in November, assumed all at UCLA wished they attended
USC.
Well, here’s a message to Williams: Screw you and the
Trojan horse you rode in on.
This is the same guy who at the end of the season entered the
NFL Draft and went on a rant about how there is no such thing as
the Trojan family, only to beg to be reinstated after the courts
ruled he couldn’t be drafted. Payback sucks, doesn’t
it?
No matter what Williams thinks, there’s more to college
than football. While sports can add to your college experience, it
is much more important to put it in perspective ““ Life is not
all about sports.
There are more important things than winning, despite what UCLA
alumni say. Losing isn’t the end of the world.
If it was, some UCLA fans wouldn’t get up in the
morning.
Covering the football and men’s basketball teams
hasn’t exactly exposed me to championship-caliber play. You
see what happens on-the-field or on-the-court, but it’s an
entirely different story behind-the-scenes.
Losing has a certain aura about it that can bring down anyone in
a room.
Football has had its share of difficulties recently. We’ve
seen it go from a national championship contender to USC’s
whipping boy in a matter of a few years. The program has seen its
share of turbulence, including troubles with the law and the firing
of a head coach. The struggling, grind-it-out, barely mustering any
yardage offense all too familiar to Bruin fans doesn’t
exactly make it easy to watch, either.
Basketball wasn’t much better.
It still remains to be seen how much effect the Steve Lavin
years will have on the program.
With Ben Howland at the helm, UCLA is in much better hands, but
it still remains to be seen how long the rebuilding process will
take. This past year was a difficult one, as the transition period
took its toll. No one expected a quick fix.
But for every missed free throw (and chance to be the hero) by
Dijon Thompson, there was the tough-it-out, grind-it-out win on the
day UCLA dedicated Pauley Pavilion’s court to Nell and John
Wooden.
And along with the demoralization of a loss to USC, there was
the glory of victory with a game-winning field goal by Justin
Medlock.
And isn’t that what sports is about?
Sports is about emotion, about the highest of highs and the
lowest of lows. It’s about passion, and the thing is, anyone
can understand that.
Take a random fan off the street, stick them in the middle of a
UCLA-USC basketball game, and the fan can easily discern who plays
hard and with heart, and who doesn’t.
The losing hasn’t been fun, but you grow to see the people
behind the athlete.
Yeah, there’s no national championship in Westwood, but at
the same time, it’s hard not to root for a player like wide
receiver Craig Bragg when you watch him stay after practice
everyday to catch extra balls.
While you may not like the results of what happens on the field,
you grow to respect what most of these guys do. After all, juggling
a sports schedule with an academic workload is an underrated
task.
I’ve had the opportunity to see what it takes to put the
product that the average UCLA fan sees on the field or court, and
for that, I am grateful.
And, for the last time, Tran is not Diamond Leung. E-mail
Tran at btran@media.ucla.edu.