Hammered

UCLA loses a physical game.

Looking at the score sheet, the difference really comes through in the rebound category: 41-29 in Villanova's favor. Then you see that, despite having similar field goal percentages, the Wildcats attempted over 20 more shots than the Bruins.



Goodbye to the UCLA seniors--they've given four years to this program, and it's a shame they were outplayed so far from home.

Ballsy Plays

The towel boys at Wachovia are a little strange.

Ok, the towel boys everywhere are a little strange. They have to be. These are the kids who run onto the court in between plays and wipe the sweat off the floor. They tend to travel in groups of 3, and shoot baskets during halftime when the teams havn't come back out yet.

Don't get me wrong, they do a very important job, and they do it well. True scholars. The NBA has taken to hiring guys who are short to do this job, but for the NCAA, these little buggers are a crown jewel of free labor.

But at the Wachovia center, one little kid just lodged his broom/swiffer against his crotch and used forward momentum to get that sucker across the floor. At one point he even extended both arms up in that universal gesture of 'look ma, no hands!'

That to me is strange. Oh, and Aboya got hit in that same region last game. Let's hope it just makes him angrier.

Explanation Meltdown

When I talk to most people about UCLA's opening round scare against VCU, they'll immediately talk about how the Bruins, leading by 11 at one point, let the Rams crawl back to within one point and posession of the ball with 13 seconds left.

Granted, this is not the sort of meltdown you want to see in your home team in the first round, especially when you have a tough game against a good Villanova team playing at home. However, I think I can explain it.

The most obvious starting point, of course, is VCU guard Eric Maynor. He led all scorers in the game with 21, and got to the line for 13 free throws attempts, many coming in that last run. He undoubtedly sparked his team's near-comeback.

But there's more than that. We're gonna work backwards.

Maynor essentially ran circles around the UCLA defense all night, cutting into the lane, dishing out, and getting fouled. But that last, important run really started when Darren Collison, who had been guarding Maynor all night, sat out on the bench.

Collison went briefly to the bench in the second half. In terms of game time, he really didn't sit on the bench for that long; however, two consecutive time-outs were called during that period, each of which took a good CBS NCAA-coverage-like few minutes or longer.

So Collison essentially stepped out, sat through about five minutes worth of time-outs, a minute or so of game time, then sat on the sideline for another minute before going back into the game. What started as a quick break for a veteran point guard turned into a very long time of inaction, certainly enough to get cold.

And what happens when you go back into a game cold, trying to guard a streaky, veteran point guard? You make little fouls. Maynor hits 10 of 13 free throws, gets confident, knocks down a shot or two, then boom. 1 Point down and running up the floor to victory.

Of course he never made that last step, but it's a scary possibility, and all a result of some long time-outs.

Cliff in Rearview

The bad news first: dailybruin.com is going through site renovations, so my slideshow won't be going up anytime soon. With that in mind, here's the shot that everyone wants to see (and hoped they wouldn't)



Maynor ran the Bruins into the ground all night, got VCU within one and sent UCLA fans into flashes with 13 seconds left--but couldn't finish the job.





2 keys to the game: UCLA attacked the lane and went hard at VCU's star center Larry Sanders. Sanders got a lot of blocks, but the Bruins opened up the 3-ball for themselves, shooting 75% from beyond the arc on 6 of 8 in the first half.



...And Aboya went hard and drew fouls in the post, while staying out of foul trouble himself--and he played almost the entire game.

Memphis Escapes part two: UCLA Escapes

Full thoughts and a slideshow to come.

Memphis Escapes

Memphis is now up by seven points, with less than two to play. Statistics argue that when your team is down by more points than there are minutes left to play, there's so little chance of a comeback you might as well stop watching.

Too bad, Cal State Northridge.

Just sat down in a hotel room in Philadelphia after 15 hours on the road. This sort of 2 seed 15 seed business is far too harsh for my fragile mind to deal with right now.

To Face The Gunfire, Annually!

In the game of college basketball there are very few observers with better vantage points than the game photographers. To get closer to the game, its players and coaches, and the incessant pounding of noise, you either have to be wearing black and white stripes or be named Dick Vitale, neither of which are that appealing.

And yet, like any sporting event so infused into clogged arteries and veins of red-hot damndest-to-be-proud Americans, actual game time pales in comparison to the ridiculous amount of resources and effort that the media expends on coverage.

How ridiculous? Well for that we start small, and at this late stage in the game there are no present media outlets smaller than the Daily Briun. Consider that UCLA has to fly across the country, travel farther than any other team in this field of 65, and play on a hostile court against an inconsistent team that's shown pickles at worst and NBA-level talent at best. Now consider that in this first round, 6th-seeded UCLA is going down to 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth University in many people's brackets, including President Obama, The New York Times, and 90% of the remaining US population once you adjust for optimistic UCLA students and alumni.

Suffice to say, team odds are bleak, and it shows. Student interest is way down compared to previous years. But despite all these obvious boo-boos, the fact remains that here I am in an airport with two writers, all contemplating the best way to fall asleep for the longest period of time on our upcoming 15-hour itinerary from Los Angeles to Providence, Newark, and finally Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Virginia Commonwealth sleeps in their beds at home, just a three-hour bus ride away from their first-round match-up against those silly kids from LA. All of this, of course, is just around the corner from Villanova, and they've already started drinking there. The crop of UCLA's finest student newspaper, out to cover what everyone thinks will be the chopping block beheading of UCLA's proud three-peat of Final Four Appearances.

The three of us account for roughly $500 each in round-trip airfare. A hotel costs a little more than $600 while a rental car will run up $400 more at least. Then add $17 per person per day for food and the $50 we already spent on airport parking, and you're looking at well over $2750. It cost our debt-strapped student newspaper $2750 to send three 21-year-olds to cover 4 hours of basketball. And on the off-chance that UCLA escapes Philadelphia unbeaten, the team goes to Boston and guess who goes with them? Jason, probably the smartest out of the three of us, who decided on Nyquil as the best way to induce sleep; Andrew, an avid fan of Sports Illustrated and the 3-D goggles that came with the current edition; and myself, who drank two beers before I got to the airport; that's who.

Honor and Pride, fellas! Tonight we ride for Honor and Pride! Tip the valet, get the steak and not the fish, plate your cameras in gold! Tonight we charge with the Light Brigade!

...This is all to say, of course, that I will be blogging from.Philadelphia, making good use of my valuable vantage point as photographer. Read on, and spit on your monitor when I miss a day! I SPIT ON YOU! ...You'll say!