Firstly, let's get to some post-game thoughts about the men's basketball game. This is my thought about the game. Honestly, if I was Neuheisal, I'd be upset. The UCLA basketball team does a better job at scoring 7 points in 1 possession than your football team. It's not often that a basketball team outshines a football team at scoring touchdowns.
But that's your 2008 UCLA Bruin football squad for ya! Their passion bucket, not quite as "runneth over" as the basketball team.
And to make matters worse, it was Cal doing its best Kevin Craft impersonation with 14 turn-overs on the day (and, IIRC, 12 in the first half).
A few more thoughts:
1. PC has 16 points on the day. Certainly, not a bad offensive day against a rugged UCLA D, right? But IIRC, he scored about 11 of those in the earliest part of the game and then got 2 quick fouls. So, for the vast majority of the game, he scored 5 points.
2. Collison, excuse me, DC led all scorers with 22. You have to give him great respect. He's been one of the best players of the Howland era and the clear leader of the UCLA team this year. He was, in particular, a beast in the second half. Cal played much better in the second half with far fewer turn-overs. But Collison by my count scored 17 of his points in the second half. Ouch. Cal only lost by four, so limit the first half turn-overs and limit the second half Collison and you can make up 4 points pretty easy there. This was a winnable game, but Collison just took it over in the second half.
3. Finally, Dragovic's facial hair leads me to believe he has a large store of roofies somewhere in his house. He must be an extra from Deuce Bigalow 3: Eastern European Adventure. And what's up with the accent over the C? I'm going to need a guide as to which consonents do and do not allow accents over them. Soon, we'll have tilde's over Ls and umlauts over an S. I can't handle this modern work a day world.
"Nicola Dragovic celebrates his touchdown!" via seattlepi.nwsource.com
Also, don't forget, there is also the woman's game today against UCLA. Cal is coming off of a brutal, but significant victory over USC. Win out and Cal would win the Pac10 title! Here is the broadcast information:
Sunday, Mar. 1, 12:00 p.m.: No. 4 Cal at UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif. (Radio: KALX 90.7-FM, TV: FSN)
And behind the fold, there is more information regarding the UCLA woman's team.
SCOUTING UCLA The UCLA Bruins are also trying to erase the memory of a stunning upset, theirs coming at the hands of Washington in Seattle last Friday in a game without their leading scorer, Doreena Campbell.
The Bruins have only won two of their last eight games, but have won four of their last six games at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins own a 12-3 record on the home court this season, the most wins a UCLA team has posted in Pauley Pavilion since the 1998-99 team went 13-3.
The Bruins are a strong rebounding team, ranked second in the Pac-10 and No. 8 in the nation in rebound margin, outrebounding their opponents by an average of 9.7 per game.
In the first meeting of the season between the two teams, the Bears trailed, 23-22, at the half, but opened up the second period on a 7-0 run. Ashley Walker's 17 points fueled the comeback with the Bears outscoring the Bruins 42-25 after halftime. Devanei Hampton had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. The Bears outrebounded the Bruins 36-26 in the game.
UCLA leads the all-time series 39-14 with Cal winning the last four meetings including a dramatic 73-70 overtime victory at Pauley Pavilion last season.
STARTERS IN LAST GAME
Ht.,Yr. 08-09 GP/GS PPG RPG
11 F Atonye Nyingifa 5-11, Fr. 24 GP/9 GS 6.0 ppg 4.3 rpg
31 C Moniquee Alexander 6-6, Jr. 24 GP/7 GS 5.0 ppg 5.0 rpg
2 G Tierra Henderson 5-10, Sr. 18 GP/16 GS 6.4 ppg 4.2 rpg
10 G Allison Taka 5-8, Jr. 24 GP/1 GS 2.8 ppg 0.3 rpg
13 G Erica Tukiainen 6-0, Jr. 24 GP/23 GS 8.5 ppg 3.4 rpg