Author Archives: Jack Wang

UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton makes All-Pac-12 second team

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UCLA junior Isaac Hamilton earned an All-Pac-12 second-team nod on Monday. No Bruin made the first team for the first time since 2011-12. (Steve McCrank/Staff)

UCLA junior Isaac Hamilton earned an All-Pac-12 second-team nod on Monday. No Bruin made the first team for the first time since 2011-12. (Steve McCrank/Staff)

For the second time since conference expansion, no UCLA men’s basketball player made the All-Pac-12 first team.

Isaac Hamilton led the Bruins — who finished 10th in the league — with a second-team selection, while fellow junior guard Bryce Alford earned an honorable mention. Hamilton is the Pac-12’s third-leading scorer at 17.1 points per game and has hit double figures in 27 straight outings. The last UCLA player to hold a longer streak is former league MVP Kevin Love, who scored at least 10 points in all 39 games as a freshman in 2007-08.

The Bruins had produced five all-conference first-team picks in the last three years: Norman Powell, Jordan Adams, Kyle Anderson, Larry Drew II and Shabazz Muhammad. Lazeric Jones led UCLA with a second-team spot in 2011-12, the first season after Colorado and Utah joined what became the Pac-12.

The league has included 10 players in its first team since 1979-80, only departing from the tradition when it named three five-member teams in 2007-08.

Utah center Jakob Poeltl is the Pac-12 Player of the Year, while Oregon’s Dana Altman was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the third time in four years. He is the first to be named the conference’s top coach in consecutive seasons since Stanford’s Mike Montgomery 12 years ago. Oregon State guard Gary Payton II became the first-ever back-to-back Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Colorado’s George King is the conference’s most improved player, while Utah’s Brandon Taylor was honored as the top scholar-athlete.

See the rest of the All-Pac-12 teams below. All awards are voted on by coaches, who cannot select themselves or their own players. Continue reading “UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton makes All-Pac-12 second team” »

John Savage wins 400th game as UCLA baseball coach

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Arguably the most successful baseball coach in UCLA history, John Savage has reached a new milestone: 400 wins.

The 12th-year head coach earned that victory in dramatic fashion on Sunday night, as the No. 14 Bruins (6-5) pushed past USC, 5-3, in a 14-inning thriller. Senior outfielder Christoph Bono batted in UCLA’s go-ahead runs with a bases-loaded chopper in the top of the final frame at Dodger Stadium.

Savage now has a 27-14 record against the Trojans, more wins than he has against any other opponent. The two teams will meet again on May 13 to start a three-game series at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The 51-year-old now is the fourth active Pac-12 coach to hit the 400-win threshold, joining Stanford’s Mark Marquess, Oregon State’s Pat Casey, and Cal’s David Esquer — and is the only one except Marquess to do it in fewer than 12 full seasons.

He remains the Bruins’ third-winningest coach behind Gary Adams (985) and Art Reichle (747), but holds a higher winning percentage (.592) and brought back the program’s only national title in 2013. Savage is under contract through 2025.

UCLA’s loss to Oregon State sets up rematch with USC

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UCLA lost their fourth straight game on Saturday, an ugly 86-82 decision against Oregon State that came despite the Beavers being without starting forward Tres Tinkle.

The Bruins finished the regular season with a 15-16 record and 6-12 in the Pac-12 — their worst conference mark since 2002-03, which was the final year of the Steve Lavin era. This loss also sets up a rematch in the Pac-12 Tournament against seventh-seeded USC.

No. 10-seed UCLA, which has already lost twice to the Trojans by 33 combined points, will tip off against its crosstown rival again on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

UCLA bolsters OL depth with commits Kanan Ray, Will Farrar

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On Friday afternoon, UCLA landed the first offensive lineman in its 2017 recruiting class. Less than 20 minutes later, it landed a second.

Four-star tackle Kanan Ray and three-star guard Will Farrar both announced their commitment to the Bruins, giving the program a pair of solid additions to the trenches. The 6-foot-4, 275-pound Ray had 17 offers in hand, while Farrar — a Houston-area native — had over 20.

The former is entering his senior season at Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, where he is coming off a selection on the Los Angeles Daily News All-Area first team.