Some friendly advice for all those down-and-despondent blue
Bruin football fans out there.
Don’t worry about spiraling into a deep funk or testing
the limits of despair any longer.
It’s UCLA basketball season. Just typing that brings a
smile to my face.
The Bruins open the 2006-2007 basketball season Thursday night
with an exhibition game against Cal Poly Pomona, and not a moment
too soon.
Being a UCLA football fan has never been a fun proposition.
Even with Red Sanders or Dick Vermeil at the helm, Bruin fans
couldn’t revel in the success because both didn’t stay
long enough to establish the powerhouse program that UCLA football
should be.
Back in the Terry Donahue era we got the occasional good season
interrupting a long string of mediocrity.
Bob Toledo’s top-notch recruiting and winning streak
against USC masked the problems welling up within the program, and
eventually led to his total loss of control.
Now Karl Dorrell’s 10 wins from last season look more and
more like a fluke. Dorrell is 6-7, 6-6, 10-2 and 4-4 over his
career. Which year doesn’t belong?
With the Trojans having returned to their dominant ways, UCLA is
just fighting to keep up.
The football program is mired in “the gutty little
Bruin” syndrome.
But enough about football. It’s UCLA basketball season.
(You just smiled didn’t you?)
With Coach Ben Howland in Westwood, you’d better jump on
the bandwagon now while there’s still room. Now in his fourth
year, Howland and his Bruins are expected to win, and I have no
doubt they’ll win big.
Even though three starters are gone from last season, this team
is still loaded.
Darren Collison takes over the controls at point. Arron Afflalo
is back as the best all-around player in the Pac-10. Josh Shipp
returns from injury to remind everybody just what kind of an impact
player he is. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will force the rest of the
country to learn to pronounce his name.
The new kids on the block, Russell Westbrook, James Keefe and
Nikola Dragovic, can definitely play, and we’ll get to see
them debut Thursday.
Remember back to last season how much better Mbah a Moute,
Collison and everybody else kept getting as the season went on? I
can’t wait.
And the guys that are gone (Jordan Farmar, Cedric Bozeman and
Ryan Hollins) look like they might stick in the NBA this year.
Could anybody have imagined that two years ago? One year ago?
Howland made it happen. Now he has a roster full of his own players
who know nothing else but sound fundamental basketball.
Last year’s Pac-10 Championship and run to the Final Four
were only the beginning.
Howland has proven he can mold good players into better ones,
individuals into teams, and good teams into great ones.
So what if Thursday is just an exhibition? I need my basketball
fix.
Just sit back and relax, Bruins. Don’t be sad and just
concentrate on the positives. Remember that UCLA never was a
football school anyway.
Thank god it’s basketball season.
E-mail Lee at jlee3@media.ucla.edu.