Answers, Part IV

Here is today’s fourth set of answers:

UCLA baseball – contender or early-season pretender?
Got me. But from folks on the in-game chat during Thursday’s basketball game, it sounds like UCLA can contend.

How about that Liverpool win in Madrid, your thoughts?
Great, great result. With Steven Gerrard only playing the last few minutes, I would have been ok with a 0-0 draw. However, getting that away goal, and keeping Real Madrid off the board, was huge going back to Anfield.
And, by the way, if anyone wants to feel a few chills, check out one of my favorite youtube videos.

Having covered UCONN and Coach Calhoun, you seem to be the perfect guy to provide insight on last weeks controversy. Your thoughts??
I didn’t have a problem with what Jim did. First of all, the guy asking the question had a photographer’s pass, and shouldn’t be asking questions. Calhoun said he would talk to the guy on the side, and that wasn’t good enough. Plus, he makes money for the program.
Now, I think Jim’s figures were a little off, based on what I read, but that was not the forum to ask those questions. Do it on the side, or after practice, or at some other point.

Around signing day, you mentioned that the football staff would be going hard after some early commits for the 2010 class. How is this effort going? Do they expect any commitments soon?
The staff is working hard on recruiting the 2010 kids, but I don’t get the sense there is a commit coming. That doesn’t mean someone won’t commit, but the possibility of it isn’t very high right now.

Can you shed some light on the role that summer camps play in the football recruiting process? Have the UCLA camps changed at all since Neuheisel took over?
The camps haven’t changed that much, although there is much more interaction between Neuheisel and the players than with Dorrell and the players, simply because of personality. But the idea of the camps are to make money, evaluate talent (even though the NCAA says such camps should not be used for talent evaluation) and make connections with underclassmen.

Who is the strongest player on the football team? Who is the fastest player?
I don’t know about the strongest now that Brigham Harwell graduated, but I will go with Darius Savage. As far as fastest, I’m going with Johnathan Franklin.

Can we get a old school classic East Coast Dohn family recipe?
Ok, I’ll make it a simple one. Get some Taylor Ham and fry it up with onions, potatoes, salt and pepper. Fry an egg. Get a nice big Kaiser roll and put everything on there with some ketchup. Yum!!! My mouth is watering.

If you were the UCLA basketball coach right now, who would be your starting 5?
The same as it is now. Holiday, Collison, Shipp, Dragovic and Aboya. There really aren’t many other options.

The Associated Press reported that after the game against Washington, former UCLA coach Jim Harrick visited with Lorenzo Romar. Do you think UCLA will ever publically acknowledge Harrick during a half-time ceremony the way they do past Bruin players and coaches? How does Dan Guerrero feel about Harrick?
I don’t know how Guerrero feels about Harrick. I never asked him, but Harrick is always made to feel welcome at UCLA. I don’t think UCLA will do a halftime acknowledgement of Harrick, but I think they have introduced him during timeouts of games.