There’s no need to fear, basketball is here
Being a UCLA sports fan will be fun again with start of Howland’s fourth season Thursday
Some friendly advice for all those down-and-despondent blue Bruin football fans out there.
Don’t worry about spiraling into a deep funk or testing the limits of despair any longer.
It’s UCLA basketball season. Just typing that brings a smile to my face.
The Bruins open the 2006-2007 basketball season Thursday night with an exhibition game against Cal Poly Pomona, and not a moment too soon.
Being a UCLA football fan has never been a fun proposition.
Even with Red Sanders or Dick Vermeil at the helm, Bruin fans couldn’t revel in the success because both didn’t stay long enough to establish the powerhouse program that UCLA football should be.
Back in the Terry Donahue era we got the occasional good season interrupting a long string of mediocrity.
Bob Toledo’s top-notch recruiting and winning streak against USC masked the problems welling up within the program, and eventually led to his total loss of control.
Now Karl Dorrell’s 10 wins from last season look more and more like a fluke. Dorrell is 6-7, 6-6, 10-2 and 4-4 over his career. Which year doesn’t belong?
With the Trojans having returned to their dominant ways, UCLA is just fighting to keep up.
The football program is mired in “the gutty little Bruin” syndrome.
But enough about football. It’s UCLA basketball season. (You just smiled didn’t you?)
With Coach Ben Howland in Westwood, you’d better jump on the bandwagon now while there’s still room. Now in his fourth year, Howland and his Bruins are expected to win, and I have no doubt they’ll win big.
Even though three starters are gone from last season, this team is still loaded.
Darren Collison takes over the controls at point. Arron Afflalo is back as the best all-around player in the Pac-10. Josh Shipp returns from injury to remind everybody just what kind of an impact player he is. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will force the rest of the country to learn to pronounce his name.
The new kids on the block, Russell Westbrook, James Keefe and Nikola Dragovic, can definitely play, and we’ll get to see them debut Thursday.
Remember back to last season how much better Mbah a Moute, Collison and everybody else kept getting as the season went on? I can’t wait.
And the guys that are gone (Jordan Farmar, Cedric Bozeman and Ryan Hollins) look like they might stick in the NBA this year.
Could anybody have imagined that two years ago? One year ago? Howland made it happen. Now he has a roster full of his own players who know nothing else but sound fundamental basketball.
Last year’s Pac-10 Championship and run to the Final Four were only the beginning.
Howland has proven he can mold good players into better ones, individuals into teams, and good teams into great ones.
So what if Thursday is just an exhibition? I need my basketball fix.
Just sit back and relax, Bruins. Don’t be sad and just concentrate on the positives. Remember that UCLA never was a football school anyway.
Thank god it’s basketball season.
E-mail Lee at jlee3@media.ucla.edu.
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