UCLA 77, Stanford 73

The commentators talked of Honeycutt, Reeves, and Michael Roll knocking down free throws late in the game. However, I'm taking full credit for this marvelous victory. At halftime, with the Bruins down -- what was it, 6? -- I donned my UCLA sweatshirt and put on my ugliest old-school Bruins cap in corduroy(!) baby-blue as a rally cap, cracked open a beer, and went to our outside room where I could smoke, yell and cuss without disturbing Jen, and carried them through.

Seriously, they're starting to make a believer of me. And it's worth noting that while the Pac-10 may be a bit down as a power conference this year, a consequence is that the teams are fairly evenly matched and prone to lose games you would think they should win. That makes for generally interesting games, especially if you watch, as I have several non-Bruin Pac-10 games, without a particular favorite in your heart, almost all the games will be tightly contested and generally won by 5 points or less. An example: Cal lost to USC 66-63 tonight, and I think that puts the Bruins, improbably enough, in a tie for first. Those are the kinds of games that, as a generic basketball fan, I most enjoy watching. Every team has one 0r two really top-notch players -- Landry Fields on Stanford was amazing tonight. Of course if you have a favorite in the game, as I did tonight, it can make for tense experiences too.

Will the Bruins have a real team yet this year?

The UCLA basketball team has shown me a bit over the last week with wins over Washington and Washington State. But the Pac-10 is profoundly unpredictable this year. Everyone says it's a down year for the league -- some sportswriters have speculated it may get only one invitation to the dance -- and it seems to be. But almost every school is at a similar level, which means that unless somebody busts through and wins 4 or 5 in a row, it could be close until the end, with nobody having an especially impressive record. It makes for interesting, competitive games from top to bottom. Cal is probably the class of the league at this point, but it's not beyond imagining, despite inconsistency thus far, that the Bruins could be that team. A handicapper would probably make them favorites at Oregon and Oregon State this year -- except that they've been terrible on the road and both Oregon schools have arenas thast are especially unfriendly to visitors. Looking forward to Thursday.

Obama's Baracketology as good as his stimulus program

On the eve of his trip to Southern California, Barack Obama took some time out to go on ESPN and pick winners in the NCAA tournament (for which he took some criticism I thought was unwarranted) -- and picked both USC and UCLA to lose in the first round and the Pac-10, widely considered a relatively weak conference this year, to go 1-5 in the first round. So much for the First Fan's powers of prognostication. USC and UCLA both won (if a little close for comfort in the Bruins' case) and the Pac-10 went 5-1 -- and Cal really should have won too; don't know why they were so listless. He also picked Ohio State to beat Siena, which didn't pan out either. UCLA plays Villanova tomorrow morning, in Philadelphia, in a building where Nova plays at leasst three games a year. I'm hoping the Bruins recover from an inconsistent performance Thursday and really show something.

Pac-10: The right B-ball game

Been away a couple of days. One of the things the Register still does even in these lean times of reinvention is a dinner each year for those who have reached the 25-year (and 30, 35 and 40) mark with the company (Freedom Communications; some started at other papers). They invite all those who have reached the mark, which I did a few years ago. Anyway, that was Thursday. Nice event. Terry Horne, publisher since September, who is supposed to lead us into the new era, did a nice job as MC and passed my wife's sincerity test.

I'm doing chores here so I can settle in like a couch potato to watch the Pac-10 basketball championship game at 3 pm PST in proper style. I have a variety of UCLA hats and shirts in case they need the rally-cap treatment.

It's unusual that the higher seed won every single game so far in this tournament, but the final game, between UCLA and Stanford, is the right one. I hope UCLA takes control early, as it did against Cal Thursday to leave no doubt that a close (and perhaps tainted; that last foul to get Collison to the line was dubious) game last week indicated a lack of focus by UCLA rather than a lack of ability to win the big ones decisively. It could be dicey, however. Stanford, with the twin Lopezes, is pretty formidable; if they get Love in foul trouble early it could be a long afternoon.