The Daily Bruin looked back on the year and compiled these 10 moments to represent the highs and lows of UCLA sports. Whether good or bad, these moments were some of the most memorable of the 2010-2011 season.
Highs
1. Trapani makes last basket in Pauley Pavilion
The last home game of the season is always a big deal for UCLA basketball, but this year’s finale was epic.
It was the last game for UCLA in Pauley Pavilion before renovations took place, the Bruins were playing to tie the Arizona Wildcats for first place in the Pac-10, and with the help of a sold-out crowd, there was magic in the air.
Arizona star Derrick Williams was completely shut down and utterly outplayed by Reeves Nelson, who dropped 27 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.
With UCLA up big late in the fourth quarter, walk-on Tyler Trapani, the great-grandson of UCLA’s legendary coach John Wooden, checked into the game.
With 25 seconds left in the game, Trapani caught a miss from fellow walk-on Jack Haley and put it back up to give UCLA its final bucket of the game and its final bucket in the building.
It was a special moment for UCLA basketball to see Wooden’s flesh and blood score the last-ever basket in Pauley Pavilion (aka “the House that Wooden Built”).
It put the cap on a special night for the program and Wooden’s family.
Compiled by Jacob Ruffman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
2. Women’s golf wins NCAA Championship No. 107
As each of UCLA’s seasons came and went throughout the 2010-2011 school year, many thought the year might be devoid of a championship title for the first time since 1994.
Then, along came the women’s golf team.
After taking a disappointing sixth place in the previous year’s championship, the team was ready and raring to go for a competitive NCAA Championship title fight with the other top teams in the nation. Five Bruin golfers got off the plane in Texas with one goal in mind: the title.
The Bruins’ win was anything but a sure thing ““ any of the top-five ranked teams had a viable chance at the title. The Bruins had often battled No. 1 USC and No. 4 Purdue for top finishes at tournaments throughout the season.
However, when it came time for the championships, all other teams fell behind, and the Bruins finished every single day at the top of the leaderboard.
The team took a four-stroke win over defending-champion Purdue, securing the 107th title for UCLA and the third for the women’s golf program.
Compiled by Emma Coghlan, Bruin Sports contributor.
3. Football gets bigger in Texas
A UCLA team with a lot of question marks headed into Austin, Texas, to take on the No. 7 Texas Longhorns in front of a nationally televised audience. UCLA didn’t just come away with a victory; they left with Texas’ dignity.
UCLA rushed for 264 yards while forcing five Texas turnovers on their way to a 34-12 beating of the Longhorns.
The offense was propelled by a driven offensive line, which controlled the line of scrimmage all game by simply being more physical than a shell-shocked Texas team.
Redshirt junior linebacker Akeem Ayers, who had a career day with six tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, a forced fumble and an interception, led an excellent effort defensively, holding Texas out of the endzone until there was only 2:28 left in the game.
Many saw this as the turning point for UCLA’s football program, but injuries and inconsistency plagued the Bruins for the rest of the season on their way to a subpar 4-8 record.
Nevertheless, this game was still a high point for UCLA athletics, as UCLA football put its name back into the national college football scene with this victory.
Compiled by Jacob Ruffman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
4. Men’s volleyball triumphs over UC Irvine
Renovations in Pauley Pavilion were on the horizon, and the final event held before the venue closed for a year was a UCLA men’s volleyball match against UC Irvine on March 24.
While there were major Mountain Pacific Sports Federation ramifications in this match, the real meaning of the match came from the fact that the men’s volleyball program won 19 national championships for UCLA, nine of which were won in Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA dominated an excellent Irvine team that ended the season as the No. 4 team in the nation. The Bruins held the Anteaters to a sub-.200 hitting percentage on their way to a 3-0 victory.
The night retroactively gained even more significance when coach Al Scates announced that next season would be his last, meaning the match against Irvine was his last ever in Pauley Pavilion.
Scates has coached the Bruins for 49 years and has led them to all 19 NCAA titles and two others that were pre-NCAA.
The evening concluded with a gathering of players and alumni from all over who came back to celebrate the legacy that had been built by Scates in what would be his last match coached in Pauley Pavilion.
Compiled by Jacob Ruffman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
5. Women’s water polo upsets Stanford
With the momentum of a first-round win over crosstown rival, No. 5-seeded USC behind them, No. 4-seeded UCLA handed top-seeded Stanford its first loss of the season in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.
After closing the first quarter at a 3-3 tie, UCLA’s disciplined defense shut down every attempt by Stanford in the second period, leaving the Bruins with a 5-3 lead at halftime.
Although a late-game surge by Stanford cut the Bruins’ lead to one goal, UCLA emerged with a 9-8 victory. The star performance of the game came from sophomore attacker Brooke Martin, who clinched a hat trick for the Bruins in the fourth period.
Three additional goals from senior standout Priscilla Orozco and five saves by junior goalkeeper Caitlin Dement helped earn the Bruins a spot in the championship match, where they were edged out by No. 2-seeded California in a nail-biting 7-6 loss.
Compiled by Liz Schneider, Bruin Sports contributor.
Lows
1. Gymnastics unable to defend title
UCLA gymnastics started the season looking nothing like a team that had won a national title a year ago. The Bruins struggled on the balance beam and floor, recorded multiple falls and dropped their first four meets of the year.
However, a score of 197.475 on Feb. 21 against North Carolina laid to rest any doubts that the Bruins would not be contenders for a national championship this year.
The team placed first at the NCAA regional tournament and propelled themselves into the Super Six finals in Cleveland, Ohio, where they found themselves neck and neck with Alabama until the final rotation.
On their weakest event, the balance beam, the Bruins just could not keep up. They completed all six routines to earn a 197.375, but the Crimson Tide’s 197.650 was higher than any team total UCLA had scored all year.
It was a disappointing end to a season that had quickly turned from a washout into a pleasant surprise. But for the majority of the team, they still have next year to return to dominance and reclaim that national title.
Compiled by Mansi Sheth, Bruin Sports senior staff.
2. Caldwell leaves women’s basketball
It was Nikki Caldwell’s team. But that was in early, early March.
The Bruins had set a school record with 26 regular season wins and boasted a stout defense that conceded fewer than 56 points a game. Caldwell’s Bruins seemed poised to make a deep run in the postseason.
Then came the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where UCLA was rewarded with the enviable task of playing a true road game at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Gonzaga’s All-American point guard Courtney Vandersloot would take advantage of the opportunity to play one last game in front of her home crowd, shredding Caldwell’s trademark full-court press.
The No. 3 pick in the 2011 WNBA draft led the NCAA with more than 10 assists a game but had 17 against the Bruins, just one off the tournament record.
Caldwell’s team did not show, the season ended, and the Bruins are graduating their starting backcourt.
There was still a firm faith in the team ““ Caldwell’s team ““ but it only lasted a week, as Caldwell departed Los Angeles to accept the head coaching position at Louisiana State University.
Compiled by Chris Chen, Bruin Sports reporter.
3. Men’s basketball loses to Florida
After barely winning a stressful first-round game against Michigan State in which the team missed 17 free throws and managed to weather a 52-point second half explosion from the Spartans, UCLA basketball was ready to bounce back against Florida.
Junior Malcolm Lee and sophomore Tyler Honeycutt played 39 and 37 minutes, respectively, and the Bruins saw balanced scoring, with four players in double figures.
Freshman center Josh Smith grabbed five offensive boards and sophomore forward Reeves Nelson recorded his 14th double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bruins played well but didn’t have the legs to overtake the Gators. Hampered in the second half by poor 3-point shooting, UCLA left the door open for Florida point guard Erving Walker to take over down the stretch.
The 5-foot-8-inch junior made shot after shot in the final minutes of the game, scoring 21 in all, and 10 of Florida’s last 12 points.
The dagger came with 1:14 on the clock, after Lee was unable to steal a lobbed inbounds pass to Walker, who stepped into a 3-pointer that closed the door on UCLA’s Sweet Sixteen dreams.
Compiled by Eric Peck, Bruin Sports senior staff.
4. Baseball falls victim to no-hitter
Losing is never a desired result, but getting shut out is even worse.
The UCLA baseball team incurred the worst fate of all on April 30 at Jackie Robinson Stadium when Oregon State left-hander Josh Osich pitched a complete game, no-hitter in a 2-0 over the Bruins.
It was the first time that UCLA had been no-hit since 1994. The loss was made even worse by the fact that UCLA wasted a gorgeous outing from junior pitcher Trevor Bauer, who pitched a complete game while giving up only two runs and striking out 15.
The Bruins were able to bounce back the next night and defeat the then-No. 3 Beavers 5-2, but there is no doubt that a little bit of UCLA’s pride was taken that day by Oregon State’s 6-foot-3-inch left-hander.
Compiled by Jacob Ruffman, Bruin Sports senior staff.
5. Softball ousted in NCAA Regional
Cautiousness was the word immediately, and perhaps there was too much of it.
The defending champion softball team blistered through the 2010 postseason undefeated, capping off a 50-win campaign.
Yet, at the outset of the 2011 season, position and utility players alike acknowledged that this year’s squad was nothing like last year’s team that brought home UCLA softball’s 12th national championship.
It wouldn’t become a team that set single-season school records. The Bruins finished under .500 in Pac-10 play and didn’t host NCAA Regional action for the first time in eight years.
Then came the postseason, where coach Kelly Inouye-Perez would “hope that (their) best softball (was) yet to come.”
It was a far-reaching hope, and the tentativeness showed: The Bruins were patient at the plate, but perhaps too much so, and consistently got into two-strike counts.
Both junior catcher Dani Yudin and freshman catcher Alyssa Tiumalu went down with injuries, and Inouye-Perez had run thin on options.
NCAA Regional host Florida promptly took advantage, and it took all but one cautious nine-run outburst to quickly mute any chance for the Bruins to defend the title.
Compiled by Chris Chen, Bruin Sports reporter.