Baseball surpasses the stars 7-1 in annual Alumni Game to start season

Trevor Bauer was the biggest star on the field, but he got one-upped by a 20-year-old.

No. 5 UCLA baseball bested its alumni team 7-1 in the annual Alumni Game on Saturday behind four scoreless innings by sophomore starting pitcher Zach Pettway. Although he was going head-to-head with an MLB All-Star, Pettway allowed one fewer run than his counterpart.

Bauer didn’t seem to mind.

After Bauer was pulled five innings in, he went to the stands to sit with his parents for the remainder of the game. The Cleveland Indians righty was approached by dozens of fans, young and old, to take selfies, sign balls and teach a pitching lesson or two.

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Cleveland Indians starting pitcher and former Bruin Trevor Bauer shows a fan how to grip a cutter at the annual UCLA Baseball Alumni Game. (Sam Connon/Assistant Sports editor)

Even though Bauer wasn’t around in the dugout for the second half of the game, coach John Savage said he was happy Bauer was able to put the alumni on his back.

“We were just trying to get through nine innings on the other side,” Savage said. “(Bauer) saved us by going five.”

Freshman outfielder Matt McLain was also glad Bauer was there.

“That was awesome, you can only wish for that,” McLain said. “(Bauer is) one of the best pitchers in the world right now and to go up against him is amazing.”

But while one of UCLA’s newest players said he was happy to play against MLB talent, junior outfielder Jeremy Ydens was more focused on the familiar faces.

“(Right-handed pitcher Jake Bird) is a legend here,” Ydens said. “We haven’t got to see (Bird, catcher Daniel Rosica and center fielder Daniel Amaral) a whole lot the last couple months, so I’ll especially get to say hi to them and connect back with them.”

McLain got the start in center field, even though he was taken in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft as a shortstop. He’ll spend time with Ydens and sophomore Garrett Mitchell in the outfield this season – with sophomore Kevin Kendall holding down the starting shortstop position – but the Bruins’ eldest starting outfielder made sure to catch up with his last center fielder.

“It was … nice to see (Amaral),” Ydens said. “(I was) just kind of reminiscing of playing with him – him in center, me in left last year – so yeah, we caught up a little bit.”

Ydens said he and Amaral took a class together in the fall when the latter returned to Westwood to finish his degree.

It was an uneventful day at the plate for Ydens, but he made noise in the outfield after making a diving catch in the first inning, robbing a home run in the fourth, and starting a relay that would result in the alumni getting gunned down at the plate in the fifth.

Assistant coach and former Bruin closer David Berg had to pitch the ninth for the alumni when their bullpen was starting to look thin. Berg was one of four coaches to play in the game, and McLain said it was fun to play against them and the rest of the alumni.

“It was awesome to get out there and compete against a lot of the guys who started this program and the tradition it has,” McLain said. “I’ve heard amazing stories of (Berg) and to watch him pitch was cool.”

Men’s basketball breaks free from losing streak, soaring 21 points over Wildcats

This post was updated Jan. 26 at 10:28 p.m.

The Bruins were in the mood to break streaks Saturday night.

For the first time since 2016, UCLA men’s basketball (11-9, 4-3 Pac-12) defeated Arizona (14-7, 5-3) on its home court, this time by a score of 90-69. The win also ended the Bruins’ three-game losing streak, as well as their streak of 18 straight games without a 24-plus point scorer.

That scorer was sophomore Kris Wilkes.

The guard scored a career-high 34 points, the most by a Bruin not named Aaron Holiday since Bryce Alford dropped 37 on Jan. 12, 2017.

“I like that (Wilkes) wasn’t giddy about it. He was very professional,” said interim coach Murry Bartow. “He was really in a very confident zone.”

Wilkes was averaging 16.9 points per game coming into the matchup, but he had been shooting just 38.3 percent over his last three outings. On Saturday, he went 12-of-16 from the field and 5-of-7 from long range, including 8-of-9 and 5-of-6 marks, respectively, in the second half.

“Last game – after we lost – I was talking to the commentators and they were saying one game, it’s just going to fall,” Wilkes said. “I didn’t think it would be right now, but it’s just one of those times where it fell.”

Wilkes’ 75-percent shooting from the field was not much of an outlier either.

As a team, UCLA shot 57.9 percent from the field, compared to Arizona’s 33.3 percent mark. Freshmen guard Jules Bernard and center Moses Brown – who went 1-of-3 and 4-of-9 from the field, respectively – were the lone Bruins to shoot below 50 percent on the night.

UCLA went into halftime up by 13, but it rode Wilkes’ hot streak to a 26-point lead with 10:48 left on the clock and never looked back.

Sophomore guard Jaylen Hands notched his first double-double since Dec. 8 against Notre Dame, when he posted an identical stat line of 12 points and 11 assists.

“You can’t have an assist without your teammates making the shot,” Hands said. “(Wilkes) had a lot of them because he was on fire.”

Hands was not Wilkes’ only sidekick with a double-double, however.

Brown secured his with over 16 minutes left in the game, and he finished the night with 11 points, 15 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. The 15 boards were Brown’s most since the season opener, and Saturday was the second time he recorded multiple blocks, multiple steals and a double-double in one game.

Arizona center/forward Chase Jeter missed Saturday’s game with a back injury, leading Wildcat coach Sean Miller to match 6-foot-7-inch forward Ira Lee with the 7-foot-2-inch Brown, who said he enjoyed playing with a height advantage down low.

“Every time they threw it to me, I think something good happened,” Brown said. “I got a lot of offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds, but that was just a credit to me just being active on both ends.”

Brown led both teams in rebounds, and the Bruins outrebounded the Wildcats 47-30.

UCLA held second-half leads in each of its last three games entering Saturday, but Hands said the Bruins need to come out of halftime like they did against Arizona in order to be a consistent team moving forward.

“As long as we’re focused and playing hard and communicating, staying together for full 40 minutes, I think we can play with anyone,” Hands said.

The Bruins – who trailed for just 18 seconds Saturday – were able to hover back over .500 in conference play and are now three games out of first place.

Men’s basketball takes double-digit lead at halftime against Arizona Wildcats

Moses Brown may have lost the opening tip to 6-foot-7-inch Ira Lee, but he bounced back.

The freshman center recorded seven points, eight rebounds, two blocks and one steal to lead UCLA men’s basketball (10-9, 3-3 Pac-12) to a 38-25 halftime lead over Arizona (14-6, 5-2) in Pauley Pavilion. Brown was the Bruins’ third leading scorer and shot 50 percent from the field.

UCLA shot 50 percent as a team in the first frame, while Arizona shot just 23.5 percent. Only one Wildcat had over five points, while the Bruins had three – Brown and sophomore guards Kris Wilkes and Jaylen Hands.

Hands led UCLA with nine points and three assists. Hands’ highlight of the half was when the guard finished a one-handed dunk with contact with 1:53 remaining to put the Bruins up by 15.

Wilkes scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting, while both freshman guard David Singleton and redshirt junior guard Prince Ali hit catch-and-shoot 3-pointers to swing momentum in the Bruins’ favor.

Both UCLA and Arizona lost Thursday night, and both are fighting to avoid a Pac-12 weekend sweep.

The 1968-1969 UCLA men’s basketball team was honored at halftime for the 50 year anniversary of its championship season. NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lynn Shackelford were among the former Bruins in attendance.

Album review: Bring Me the Horizon’s ‘amo’ refreshes in raw instrumentation, metalcore subversion

“amo” proves emo angst and the sound of real instruments still exist in an era of overproduced pop hits.

Bring Me the Horizon’s sixth studio album, “amo,” released Friday, much to the anticipation of scene kids everywhere. Following up the band’s 2015 release of “That’s the Spirit,” the new album runs 13 tracks and continues the band’s recent trend of straying from their metalcore past. As the album progresses, lead singer Oli Sykes alludes in the lyrics to some of his fans who prefer the harder sound of their past, but the band does not seem afraid of diving into their pop-rock future.

Almost every song title on the LP is stylized in the same nonchalant lowercase format. The second song “MANTRA” strays from this pattern, and rightfully so, as its bold lyrics makes it stand out against the other tracks as an anthem. Listeners are immediately met with a jarring electric guitar intro that establishes the rock qualities of the record. Sykes’ sporadic screaming throughout the track also matches the intensity of the instruments playing behind him. As “MANTRA” carves its own path when compared to the repetitive sound of music in today’s charts, the lyrics critique the public’s tendency to blindly follow trends.

“nihilist blues” follows directly after “MANTRA” and features synth-pop singer Grimes. The more heavily produced beats in the track show its slight pop influences. Bring Me the Horizon’s deep lyrical style mixed with Grimes’ melancholic tone in the chorus creates a dark yet danceable feeling – similar to the vibe of a rave, if it took place Hot Topic. The song is almost six minutes long, but the mix of smooth vocals and fast and catchy beats make it enjoyable until the end.

Amidst angsty songs about the darkness of life and past relationships, “ouch” offers a break from the longer, heavier tracks. The faster, more electronic beats of the song offset the rock elements of the album to prevent it from sticking strictly to just one genre.

“amo” continues to uphold its modern take on an early 2000s rock sound with “medicine.” The track’s bold and resentful lyrics go well with the more polished instrumental sounds of electric guitars and drums. While the backing gives the song radio potential, Sykes’ gritty vocals and spiteful lyrics secure the band’s transition into pop-rock style as he sings, “Some people are a lot like clouds you know/ ‘Cause life’s so much brighter when they go.”

The album’s trend towards implementing heavier production continues through tracks such as “sugar honey ice & tea.” But the band is careful to cleverly address how much they have changed since their metal days. Sykes sings about the complicated relationship he has had with his fans as his band’s sound has changed throughout the years in “why you gotta kick me when i’m down?” However, the song maintains a confident tone while Sykes sings, “when all is said and done, my name’s still on your tongue.”

In “fresh bruises,” repetitive lyrics are balanced with a fun drum-led instrumental breakdown and serve as a transition into the record’s final phase. “heavy metal” follows after and lives up to its name. Full electric guitars dominate the track and the lyrics blatantly address the complaints of older fans about Bring Me the Horizon’s movement away from metalcore. Sykes sings, “some kid on the ‘gram said he used to be a fan/ But this shit ain’t heavy metal,” while cleverly contrasting his acknowledgement of the band’s new sound with a scream similar to prior albums in their discography. His ironic use of the band’s older style in this track shows that the band can still reproduce metal-inspired music but prefer to experiment with a new sound.

“mother tongue” and “i don’t know what to say” stand out as the most vulnerable songs on LP as it comes to a close. Sykes opens up into a sweet love song – “mother tongue” – and the ad-libbing in the bridge makes the track sound genuine and rough around the edges. Its catchy chorus makes it easily blend rock with pop, making the genre fit in with popular music of today. “i don’t know what to say” finds a way to combine strings with drums and a strong electric guitar solo. Sykes uses the song to end the album on a mournful note about a friend from his past.

The guitar and drum beats of “amo” are a refreshing taste when compared to other music produced today that often sounds computer-generated. Bring Me the Horizon is honest about their evolution throughout the album. By adding subtle pop influences on their new record, they set themselves up for success with music that keeps the band rooted firmly in the present while referencing the sounds of their past.

UCLA Technology Development Group president discusses research commercialization

A UCLA technology development expert said the public and private sectors should collaborate more with universities to encourage innovation and research on campus.

Amir Naiberg, president and CEO of UCLA Technology Development Group, compared the process of technology transfer between universities and the private sector in the United States and Israel on Wednesday at an event organized by the UCLA Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Technology transfer is the process whereby ideas developed in university research labs become products sold by for-profit companies.

Naiberg, who also leads the Technology Development Group at UCLA, said Israel has a more rigid, bureaucratic technology transfer structure while American companies have more flexible partnerships with universities. He said he thinks the U.S. and Israel share similar goals and principles in trying to strengthen the relationship between universities and the public and private sectors to promote innovation, research and entrepreneurship.

Technology transfer begins at the university level and ends with commercialization of research, Naiberg said.

“Research institutions like universities are innovation banks,” Naiberg said.

Before 1980, federal agencies, rather than universities, generated most of the capital for research meant to be commercialized in the United States, Naiberg said. He added most universities did not have technology transfer offices, which limited the commercialization of patents.

“As a result, only five percent of patents were ever commercialized, which led to very few products, jobs, or other public benefits,” he said.

However, a new federal policy in 1980 allowed researchers to profit from inventions, which also helped drive the economy and allowed for the production of new technology that protected public health, Naiberg said.

Naiberg added UCLA has since developed 900 forms of technology in areas such as entertainment and digital media, advanced transportation, aerospace and defense and biotechnology.

UCLA-affiliated medical products have saved or extended the lives of approximately 600,000 cancer patients, Naiberg said. He added he expects this figure to reach one million in the near future.

Naiberg said UCLA’s research is strong because of the collaboration between its various STEM departments. He added that federal funding can also effectively promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

However, Naiberg said there is a funding gap known as the valley of death between academic grants and industry investment as universities receive significantly less funding than private companies.

He said universities typically stop receiving academic funding once the basic research step of a project is completed. However, other sources like the UCLA Fund for Innovation aim to bridge this gap in funding so that researchers have the means to further develop their technology and eventually commercialize it.

Jack Schwada, communications manager for the Nazarian Center, said in an email statement that the center held the event so students could learn about the issue of technology transfer in the United States and Israel to see how innovation works in both countries.

Naiberg said it is important for UCLA students who are ready to join the workforce to understand technology transfer so they can keep up with a changing economy.

Andrew Dale, a graduate student at the Anderson School of Management, said he is interested in technology transfer and commercial research done at UCLA specifically because he is part of an investment group that looks for investment opportunities near UCLA.

“I am curious about the university’s plans for commercialization and how the revenues and partnerships from the Technology Development Group will be used to support the school with research and just more generally,” he said.

Dale, who is a vice president of impact investing at Anderson Venture Impact Partners, added he is always on the lookout for new early-stage companies to invest in and finds the idea of working within the UCLA community to find new opportunities very exciting.

Naiberg said UCLA is currently seeing a technology rush, as many people are moving to California to start small businesses based on research done on campuses like UCLA. He added 138 California companies have commercialized UCLA research.

“Being next to UCLA has amazing perks because of its great research institute, ” Naiberg said.

Week three: Trees fall, Bruin gymnastics rises, UCLA Extension employees resign

This Week in the News serves as The Quad’s space for reflection on current events at and around UCLA. Every week, Daily Bruin staffers will analyze some of the most significant stories to keep readers up to speed.

Trees fell. People gathered downtown for the third annual Los Angeles Women’s March. UCLA gymnastics received its highest total score of the season – and its third perfect 10.

Despite the fact that most of us only spent four days of the week going to class, things didn’t slow down much at all. Here are some of the biggest stories that came out this week.

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(Courtney Fortier/Daily Bruin)

 

Large tree falls down in front of Ackerman Union

Bruin Walk might be feeling a little bit bare this week, after the large tree in front of Ackerman Union fell down Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t the only one either: Another tree fell later in the three-day weekend, at Veteran and Levering, southwest of campus. Though the tree in front of Ackerman didn’t cause any injuries or damage, the tree on Veteran did damage two cars.

Tree fall this time of year isn’t particularly uncommon – back in February 2017, a tree fell on Kelton Avenue, smashing through the window of an apartment complex, raising concerns about the street’s safety. Just last April, another tree fell on the same street, damaging two vehicles in its path.

Experts believe trees are more susceptible to falling during periods of rainy whether due to the rainwater loosening the soil – with a little bit of wind, these trees are more likely to fall.

Employees leave UCLA Extension amid administrative turmoil and loss of deans

Just about a year ago, UCLA Extension announced it would lay off about 25 percent of its employees. Though UCLA Extension interim vice provost Tom Oser later stated that the layoffs planned for last year never actually happened, about 75 people voluntarily left their positions at UCLA Extension.

This mass resignation – nearly a third of the school’s staff – comes at a time of major administrative upheaval for the institution. Just last year, UCLA Extension had one dean and two associate deans, but by the beginning of 2019, all three had left.

A number of UCLA Extension employees spoke to The Bruin, remaining anonymous out of concern for job security. One employee alleged that the former dean, Wayne Smutz, was asked to retire after a number of dodgy moves, from unethically hiring former colleagues to mismanaging large amounts of money.

Amid the destabilization of UCLA Extension’s administrative structure, another employee said many staffers were concerned for their job safety. However, they are hopeful that the new administration will lead the institution down the right path.

Attendees of Women’s March 2019 discuss inclusivity of feminist movement

For the third year in a row, thousands of activists and protestors gathered downtown for the Los Angeles Women’s March.

Turnout for the protest was lower than the last two years’ marches, which were two of the largest single-day protests in American history, according to the Atlantic. Attendees focused their rhetoric around women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, racial equality and health care reform.

Amid recent claims of anti-Semitism made against the leaders of the national Women’s March Inc., NBC News reported local marches saw a sharp drop in support. The accusations are largely targeted at the organization’s co-president Tamika Mallory, who has shown support for Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who has been criticized for anti-Semitism. According to The New York Times, Mallory also allegedly claimed Jews are complicit in racism.

While some students told The Bruin they found the Women’s March empowering and positive, Justin Feldman, a fourth-year Middle Eastern studies student and member of Students Supporting Israel, expressed concern over the normalization of anti-Semitism in progressive groups like the Women’s March.

UCLA gymnastics receives highest total score of the season, third perfect 10

Coming off an injury from last season, junior Madison Kocian scored a perfect 10 on the uneven bars Monday at the Bruins’ second home matchup of the year.

With more than 10,000 Bruin fans packed into Pauley Pavilion, No. 2 UCLA gymnastics defeated No. 19 Arizona State, outscoring them 197.775 to 196.125. Kocian’s perfect 10 was the team’s third of the season, with senior Katelyn Ohashi and junior Kyla Ross both having scored perfect 10s at last weekend’s meet in Anaheim.

The Bruins’ score of 49.700 on the uneven bars was also their highest score of the season on the event, as well as their best event score at the meet. While Kocian scored the only perfect score of the afternoon, sophomore Nia Dennis earned a 9.950 on vault, while freshman Norah Flatley and Ross scored 9.975 and 9.950 on bars, respectively.

Come this weekend, the Bruins will face the Stanford Cardinal in their next meet Sunday.