UCLA trio makes Freshman of the Year watchlist

Shabazz Muhammad, Jordan Adams and Kyle Anderson all landed on the midseason watchlist for the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award — a 12-man group selected by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. The news isn’t a huge surprise given that the trio accounts for 52.7 percent of UCLA’s scoring and 45 percent of its rebounding.

Here’s the complete list in alphabetical order: Continue reading “UCLA trio makes Freshman of the Year watchlist” »

Happy birthday, Jackie Robinson

In case you haven’t seen this yet, here’s the Google Doodle commemorating Jackie Robinson’s 94th birthday. In addition to breaking baseball’s racial barriers, he lettered in baseball, basketball, track at UCLA, and was the last African American to lead the football team in passing until Brett Hundley.

You can also click through to the trailer for the upcoming biopic “42”, which anachronistically features Jay-Z as the backing soundtrack.

Also, an excerpt from a 1987 Sports Illustrated article, in which former teammate Carl Continue reading “Happy birthday, Jackie Robinson” »

USC 75, UCLA 71: Where to now?

Here’s the Daily News game story (with a USC focus), my sidebar on UCLA’s overtime loss, as well as Jill Painter’s column.

Now, on to some takeaways from arguably the most embarrassing outing of the Bruins’ season — one that also cemented them as the most vexing team in the conference.

Defensive lapses: UCLA shouldn’t have the excuse of youth anymore, not with more than half the season already gone. The loss to Cal Poly could be chalked up to growing pains. These Bruins made strides during a 10-game winning streak, and truly tapped into their potential with a win at Arizona.

Wednesday night undid any of that progress.

Again, UCLA’s interior defense looked soft and welcoming Continue reading “USC 75, UCLA 71: Where to now?” »