My in-box seemed pretty tame today ... Kevin Love is in a new documentary ... Terry Donahue is named alumni of the year (more on that later) ... Ben Olson officially decides to have surgery on his foot ... Chace Stanback is transf... Wait. What?
According to UCLA, the freshman swingman who came in with a ton of potential has decided to leave after the spring quarter. He hasn't decided where he's going, but he isn't coming back to Westwood. He didn't see a lot of action last year and there's one heck of a recruiting class coming in, but with all the other departures I'm a little surprised. It'll be easy to speculate that he might have been influenced by the return of Darren Collison, but Collison only has one more year left. Stanback has three.
The full Stanback news release is after the jump.
Also, what appears to be the NBA's final list of early entries to the draft appeared on NBC today. No surprises for UCLA.
There was a time, a time before cable, when the home uniform reigned
supreme. When teams wore anything that contrasted. This was an
age when college football meant tradition. And in Los Angeles, one
tradition was more colorful then the rest. It was shared by USC and
UCLA. They were
like gods walking amongst mere mortals. They had fight songs that could
make
a wolverine purr and unis so fine they made Sinatra look like a hobo.
In other words ... I've seen "Anchorman" too many times.
What I haven't seen enough of is the tradition in which UCLA and
USC wear their home uniforms when they play for the Victory Bell. Both
used to hold home games in the Coliseum, so naturally they would wear powder blue and cardinal when they faced off. Shortly after the Bruins
moved to the Rose Bowl, the NCAA changed the rules and visiting teams
were forced to wear white.
710 ESPN's Dave Dameshek
recently got Rick Neuheisel and Pete Carroll on the record to support a
return to the good ol' days. Unfortunately, there's more to it. The schools will need to ask the NCAA for a waiver, and you know how
red tape can be. Instead of sticking cheerleaders outside some
administrator's door, Dameshek (with help from Joyless Joey) is building support with a petition. I'm on board.
Sign it! Share it with friends! There's no "magic number" ... the more people that sign it, the more likely we'll be heard. Click here and get to it!
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: I've received a lot of emails saying
that the petition requires a donation to vote. It does not. After you
sign it, you MIGHT get a screen that asks for donations to keep the
site running. However, at the top of the page it says "Your signature
has been recorded." You do not need to give them money.
The University of Colorado put together an attendance survey of all the spring football games this year (two yet to be played) and found that more than 1.3 million people attended 96 games for an average of 14,331 per scrimmage. Subtracting the top and bottom 10, the average dips to 10,710 — about the size of a small tailgate party in the SEC. For complete results, you can download the PDF here.
If you read the full chart, notice how different schools approached
charging for admission. Locally, UCLA was free while USC was $10 (free
for students and children age 12 and younger). The only school with a higher
gate fee was Notre Dame, which ranged up to $15 (or about $5 per win
last season).
These numbers aren't exactly certified (the survey warns "If marketing people are involved, some numbers could be inflated") and many seem to round to the nearest 100 or 1,000. Still, it's a good way to measure just how important football is to different communities. Note that the combined attendance of UCLA and USC would still only rank 8th in the nation.
This year, UCLA easily had its highest attendance in the last decade — 15,052 at the Rose Bowl. Previously, games were held on campus at Spaulding Field (holding maybe 3,000) or Drake Stadium (holding maybe 11,000). There were a lot of signs that interest in Bruin football is rising under new Coach Rick Neuheisel. This year's attendance was particularly impressive considering the game was held on a busy Saturday night in Los Angeles and the top two quarterbacks were out with injuries. An info clinic called Lady Bruin 101 sold out well before the game and taught about 150 people the fundamentals of football.
Injury updates: Glenn Love suffered a mild bone bruise of his
right knee during Saturday's scrimmage. The school hasn't released any more
info, but that sort of injury doesn't seem likely to affect the fall campaign
... Ben Olson still has to meet with doctors before taking further
action on his broken foot.
NFL updates: Two more Bruins are headed to NFL mini-camps. Michael
Pitre will be with the Kansas City Chiefs and Brian Abraham will be
with the New Orleans Saints.
Let's be honest. You didn't do a lot of draft-watching this weekend
and you didn't get in much quality keyboard time. This is Los Angeles
— we don't even have an NFL team. You probably were at the beach. Or
watching the Lakers. Or getting down in Coachella. Or ogling celebrity
parents at your niece's middle school musical.
But now it's Monday and you're back in the office. You're about to run into that pretentious punk from accounting who can name 45 undrafted players
from BCS all-conference teams. Fear not! We've got three posts this
morning to brief you on what's happening with your favorite players.
Coming up, we'll have a double dose of draft news (NFL and NBA). For
now, it's your morning hot links ...
We've heard a lot about NBA and movie stars shooting hoops on campus but it doesn't end there. Apparently, Andrew Bynumenjoyed himself at a UCLA frat party
last week ... incidentally the same place that held a Sigma Nu-heisel
party earlier this year. Maybe he'll be back in time for the Western
Conference Finals.
Josh Shipp has put his name in the 2008 NBA draft, but will not hire an agent so as to retain his eligibility. He is the fourth Bruin to do so this month, joining Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.
With UCLA's top two quarterbacks out for the spring scrimmage, it seemed tough for the Bruins to make a pass. With all that goes on in Los Angeles on a Saturday night, it seemed easy for fans to take one.
Instead, an announced crowd of 15,052 fans showed up at the Rose Bowl — impressive, all things considered. Coach Rick Neuheisel had a few things to say to everybody, but had to improvise with an official's mic. He joked later, "It's the first time you can grab a referee by the throat and get away with it!"
At one point he got people on their feet for injured signal callers Patrick Cown (who said today that he will not be back in 2008)
and Ben Olson. After the game, Neuheisel told
reporters that Olson "is going to have to make those two months really
productive by
getting in the film room and studying ... it's pivotal that he spend
that time productively."
As for the guys he had available in the scrimmage, UCLA's coach said, "I know everybody was riveted to watch the quarterbacks, who hadn't been with the first and second teams. 'Rusty' is fair to say. But we're going to play that position well."
Kevin Craft took most of the reps but only managed to go 11-of-24 for 95 yards with one touchdown and one interception. "He's just going too fast. He almost is hyperventilating he's trying so
hard," Neuheisel said. He added that Craft is new to UCLA
(he'd only been on campus two days before spring camp started) and needs time to calm down. Asked about the center-quarterback exchange, he acknowledged, "It's just young kids and it's a disappointment. We've gotta' really, really focus on that in the fall."
The defense was impressive with seven sacks, a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery. The first hard hit of the game was by Brian Price — definitely a guy to watch this season. Mike Schmitt led the way with seven tackles.
Glen Love hurt a knee and the extent wasn['t known yet. No other injuries were reported.
Pics from Saturday night are after the jump. If you just can't get enough, we've also got ...
UCLA point guard Darren Collison will be back in blue and gold next season. The junior announced today that he will return for his senior season and forgo the NBA draft, which many had expected him to enter.
Adam Rose grew up in a house divided between UCLA and USC ... now he's writing about both. He served as Sports Editor for LAist (covering a wide range of local action) and is also a regular on KNBC 4's News Raw. Adam manages special events in the sports community when he isn't participating himself (he staggered through the LA Marathon and can often be found on local soccer fields). If you have a question about the Bruins, Trojans, or just want to give him a piece of your mind, email: adam@laist.com.
Subscribe to this Blog What is RSS?