Bruins will destroy Jerry Rice’s alma mater by a lot. I wont waste your time or mine by going in depth on this one.
A few thoughts going into the tourney:
- Josh Shipp will get some open looks today. You would think he could make a few and perhaps get his mojo back.
- Texas A&M scares me a little. Hard nosed team with a beastly young center (Deandre Jordan). They could beat UCLA probably 1.5 out of 10 times on a neutral court. I will be rooting for BYU. When in doubt, always try and play the team with the most white guys.
- My friend sent me a link to forums from other schools (UNC, Kansas, Duke, etc). First off, I think people that have entire threads about other teams are losers and I’ll take it as a compliment that they fear the Bruins. While most of these idiots that post on these forums don’t know anything about UCLA and are not worth responding to, I do want to refute one thing:
Kansas, UNC, Duke fans : that “UCLA is not that talented and that it is the sum of the whole parts that makes it good. And since they aren’t as talented as some of the other schools, that they don’t have a good shot to win it.”
My rebuttal: You guys are idiots. It doesnt matter how many McDonald’s guys we have or how many 5 star guys we have you idiots. When you are evaluating current talent, why would you look at how the players were rated 2-4 years ago? Britney Spears was rated very high before too, a 5 star recruit, a top 10 player in her class. Right now, I would much rather have Mandy Moore, a 3 star recruit who has blossomed into a solid, versatile player and is not divorced, not insane, and and hasn’t yet showed her fur burger to the entire world.
Bottom line: UCLA has 3 potential lottery picks (Love, Collison, Westbrook) and all 5 starters are projected NBA players. THERE IS NO OTHER TEAM IN THE COUNTRY WITH MORE NBA TALENT ON THEIR CURRENT ROSTERS. Does this ensure that UCLA wins the national title? No, because luck plays a big factor, but we do have a lot of Mandy Moores. Guys that are going to be NBA players who will have long last careers because they have talent AND substance.
The reason why the Bruins do not blow a lot of people out is not because of a lack of talent, but because of the coaching system. Once UCLA gets a lead, we go into a grind it out, milk the shot clock, be smart with the ball, play good D type of style. I am not a big fan of this, but you can’t argue with the results. I would compare UCLA to the Pittsburgh Steelers of a few years ago. It was hard to come back on them because they had a solid D, and they had a great running game. Other teams do not have this philosophy but that’s also why Georgetown beats them in the Elite 8 after being down 10+ points.
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