Answers, Part II

Have you heard anything from the football coaching staff on why Darius Savage has jumped up to the 1st-string at OG for spring practice?
Yup. Because there is nobody else to put there right now. The offensive coaching staff hasn’t seen anybody even practice yet, and someone had to be listed on the depth chart first.

If the UCLA basketball team wins its games this weekend, will either you or Jill be covering the first week of spring practice for football?
Somebody will be out there. I’m not sure if Jill will be coming to San Antonio or not. If not, she will be at spring practice. If she is in San Antonio, someone else will be at spring practice.

I believe you've alluded to this in the past, but what is your opinion of Josh's slump and everyone's claims that he is still confident? Has he lost the fire in his eye from where you're standing?
I got the sense his confidence was down considerably, although he will never say it, so no one with the program will say it publicly. However, he told me last week he was deferring on his shots, which tells me he lost some confidence. Otherwise, why defer?

Brian, the purpose for this blog isn't really for fun, is it? I believe the purpose for the blog is to create a lot of hits for the Daily News under your name and make you look good to your publishers.
I disagree. The purpose of this blog is to provide information to UCLA fans, ans also give people a fun, low-stress place to trade ideas about UCLA. Yes, my bosses love how successful this blog is, but the success, to me, is secondary to providing information and encouraging a civilized exchange of ideas. Hits on the blog is a by-product of running a respected blog.

Assuming that UCLA wins the basketball championship, can the school use that to promote the football program?
Always, if the school knows what it is doing. Success breeds success, and UCLA should be working on some way to tie a basketball championship into football promotions, and not wait until after a title is achieved to start speaking about it.

Who was the tall, dark-haired woman who came out of the stands at the Honda Center to accompany Coach Howland after both games?
I didn’t see her, but it may be his wife. She has been at all the games, and I know she was on the court at the end of the game.

Does the basketball team during the regular season or during the tournament see a sports psychologist?
Not that I’m aware of. When I covered the Dodgers, they had a sports psychologist (and needed one) who seemed to be omni-present.

Do you think the reason why Ben Howland doesn't give his players more offensive freedom is because they might exhaust themselves to much and not have any energy to play his type of defense?
No, I think it is because he is a control freak (like 99.99999 percent of coaches) who wants to monitor everything, and he doesn’t want them to stray from his system. I also think, to some degree, offense is an afterthought when compared to defense.

When do you believe UCLA will get its next football commit? Are there any prospects you expect to commit?
I don’t know. I thought for a while it could be Byron Moore, but I now think he will wait a while. As for the next commit, who knows?