Kings 1; Sabres 10

Sometimes, you just get the ever-living crap kicked out of you.

Washington 69; UCLA 65

Get used to this. I fear that this is pretty much what we're going to see for the rest of the season. A tremendous effort, but in the end, the Bruins simply don't have enough bodies to compete with the best teams in the conference. And it only gets worse, as Alfred Aboya was forced to leave the game with an injury.

The Bruins came out on fire, with tremendous shooting by Mike Roll and Aaron Afflalo as they built a big first half lead. Washington cut into a bit, but the Bruins executed their offense as well as they have all season, and they were able to push it back over double digits at the half. In the second half, the Huskies picked up the defense and the rebounding, the Bruins began to wear out, and with a few minutes to go, Washington took it's first lead, which it wouldn't relinquish, due in part to mistakes made by the young Bruins, including failing to rebound a missed front end of a one+one. In the end, it was a poor decision by Jordan Farmar with under five seconds to play trailing by two that did the Bruins in. He drove the lane and tried to dish to LRMAM running at full speed, who in my opinion was fouled before he travelled, but the refs (pathetic yet again, just ask Darren Collison) only saw the travel.

That makes two straight games in which the Bruins have opened big leads and let their opponents back into the game. This is completely opposite of they did last season. But this isn't a problem with nerves. It's a problem with depth. They simply have too many guys out, and if Aboya is forced to miss significant time, than this team is a wounded animal, bleeding, and other teams can smell that blood. The Oregon trip goes from possible to sweep, to probable split, to "oh God, I hope we can manage a split". The series with u$c? I'd take a split right now. At this point you just hope they finish .500 or better in conference, win a game in the conference tournament, and hope that the tournament committee shows them some love.

I usually write these posts right after the game, so the negativity is still flowing pretty strong, but honestly, I think the injuries are going to end up being too much to overcome. You can't have three of your top six out of the lineup for a significant period of time and hope to compete. No team can do that. And let's not forget, of the guys not out, there's Jordan Farmar playing on one leg. This team's window is next year, and all of this experience is going to prove very useful, so maybe there's a silver lining.

Man, I hope I'm wrong.

UCLA 63: Wazzu 61

Well, that was a little scary. I'm starting to get the feeling that this team is cursed. You're best off staying far, far away. I almost went to a home game while I was in LA at Christmas, and now I'm thanking my lucky stars that I didn't, as I likely would have left with a broken leg and a collapsed lung. Lorenzo Mata went down with what looked like a hyperextended knee with just under four minutes to play and the Bruins still leading handily (I was at a bar watching with no sound, so I don't know if they gave an injury update), but at that point, you could see the electricity go out. It followed a missed layup, and it was a springboard to a WSU run, as they came back from a 17 point deficit in the second half.

The first half was a little ragged. The Bruins were excellent defensively, but when the game opened, it looked like everyone was trying to make up for the lack of Josh Shipp, as there were numerous ill-advised drives to the hoop. But the first half ended with the Bruins up 14. They led by 17 with just over 7 minutes to play when Wazzu became unconscious, making everything they put in the air. They led by 9 with 3:47 to go, when Mata went down, and everything went south. Josh Akognon just went nuts, and the Bruins couldn't find an answer on the offensive end. The last two minutes were nuts, as Aaron Afflalo tipped in his own missed layup for a four point lead, after which Akognon was fouled at the other end shooting a three, and made all three free throws. The Cougars either forgot to play defense at the other end, or decided their best bet was to give up a basket and take it the other way, because Darren Collison went the hoop uncontested to make it a three point lead with under 30 seconds to play. That was when the officials decided to make their mark. Aaron Afflalo tipped the ball away from Akognon, then was held going for the loose ball. Inexplicable (or rather, explained only by the utter incompetence of Pac 10 officials this season) Afflalo was whistled for the foul. Akognon made both free throws, cutting the lead back to one. At the other end, Afflalo hit one of two, after which Kyle Weaver choked on an easy layup that would have sent the game into OT. Clock ran out, Bruins won, some dude bought me a beer.

By the way, I just watched end of the Lakers game, and does Marv Albert have the world's worst hair piece or what?

Anyway, the Bruins' season basically rides on Lo Mata's health right now. Mike Roll, in my opinion, was excellent in the unexpected start, not trying to do more than he was capable of. LRMAM led the team in rebounding again, and in my opinion, the Bruins overcame some really poor officiating to hang on. But the fact is, they're running out of bodies. They need to start getting some guys healthy, and yes, that includes FeLlins, much as I hate to admit it. But a win is a win, and with Arizona's loss at OSU tonight (and boy aren't they starting to step up on their home court), the Bruins lead the conference by a half game. Tomorrow's injury report should be very interesting.

Kings 6: Bruins 0

I'll admit, I completely ignored the game the other night against the Sucks. I watched it, of course, but I refused to write about, or even ever discuss again, save for the beginning of this post where I'm talking about not talking about it. But anyway. Fantastic effort tonight for the 2+ periods that I saw (early start meant that I missed a little of this one).

I got home in time to see Corvo's goal, and really, he did what a lot of people have been wanting for a long time. He put the puck on net. Not fancy, he didn't pick a corner, he just floated it towards the net hoping that something would happen. And sure enough, it did. Two Bruins skated in front of Andrew Raycroft, who never saw the puck flutter over his left shoulder.

More good work on power play in the second period as the Kings kept the puck moving toward the net, and Michael Cammalleri was able to bang home a rebound for a two goal lead. That led to some momentum, and the Kings ended up dominating the shot chart in the second period, if not the scoreboard. The Bruins had their chances, but Mathieu Garon really rebounded from whatever happened in that game that I'm ignoring and made some excellent saves to maintain the advantage.

That's when the floodgates opened. A deflection by Frolov, who hadn't scored in a decade. A rocket wrist shot by Dustin Brown. A penalty shot goal by Frolov yet again. Then the hat trick for A-Fro on a breakaway (a little cheap to be cherry picking with a 5-0 lead, but who am I to complain).

The good news was that a) the Kings were able to put their two game losing streak behind them, and b) they took such a big lead that they were able to rest some regulars and keep the guns out of harm's way over the last ten minutes or so. That was great because the fans who had driven over from Manchester got to root for all of the Monarchs on the ice in Kings jerseys.

Big two points tonight, and a great way to start the East Coast trip. Even better, they netted another power play goal, and didn't allow any on the PK. Now let's get through the Buffalo game unbruised and go on a little run.

Tragic

*Update* - Good piece in the National Review on the same subject. And that's the last time I'll ever use the phrase "good piece" to describe an NRO column.

Via this post over at Planetsocks, I just got some horrible news. Bryan Harvey (not that Bryan Harvey), former lead singer of the Richmond rock band House of Freaks and his family were found murdered in Richmond on New Year's Eve.

Harvey, 49, and his family were discovered after Johnny Hott, formerly the drummer for the defunct band, arrived to attend a New Year's Day party and discovered the house was on fire. Firefighters called to the scene discovered the bodies. Local news outlets reported that the victims' throats had been cut and their bodies bound.

Suspects have been taken into custody. Two 28 year old guys who are also suspected of murdering three more people about a week later. The motive, as I initially suspected is robbery. Just random chance.

House of Freaks was Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott. That's it. Those two guys. They were signed after playing a gig somwhere, and I vaguely remember reading the story (I think it was in the LA Times) where the A&R guy said he couldn't believe the sound was coming from two guys with no bass.

They released four full lengths and an EP over the course of their career, and later formed Gutterball, a college radio supergroup which also featured Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders.

They've always been sort of special to me because I first heard them when my brother would play their albums around the time I was in the sixth or seventh grade. My freshman year in high school I had a cassette with a recording of Camper Van Beethoven performing on the late Dierdre O'Donahue's show on KCRW. At one point in their set, Dierdre played "Cactusland" from Monkey on Chain Gang, and the more I listened to it, the more I liked it, and eventually recorded my brother's record. Sophomore year in high school I bought Tantilla the day it came out. I had to ride my bike down Rosemead Blvd. to Moby Disc on Colorado to get it. A couple years later, the released their EP "All My Friends", which was soon followed by the full length Cakewalk. After they'd kind of faded off of even my radar, they released Invisible Jewel, which I finally picked up on ebay not even a year ago. "White Folks Blood" off of Tantilla even holds the distinction of having a spot on the first mix tape that my buddy and I made to listen to on our way to San Diego to play in hockey tournaments, which still stands as maybe the best one we ever did (all told, we have probably 14 hours or so of those tapes). If you go to Amazon, you can buy Tantilla with the six tracks from All My Friends as extra tracks.

They weren't anything groundbreaking. They played pretty strightforward rock music. But they had really smart lyrics, with all sorts of symbolic references that were really cool for a high schooler just starting to learn enough to pick up on those sorts of things. Lyrically, a lot their stuff tied back to their Richmond roots, with songs like White Folks Blood, Family Tree, and Big Houses all revolving around the Civil War and Antebellum South. It seems hard to believe that "40 years" from Monkey on a Chain Gang, which was written in rememberance of the 40 year anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb was written 20 years ago. Dark'N'Light in New Mexico was another song from that album that touched on the same subject.

Anyway, this is really bumming me out, and I'm probably going to be listening to these guys non-stop for the rest of the week.

When I lay down my head
Bound for heaven or hell
After all said and done
Please remember me well

You can dance on my grave
You can ring out the bells
You can drink to my health
But remember me well

Sing a soldier's lament
Hear the stories he tells
If you all shed a teaer
Please remember me well

When my ship's going down
And the band plays its knell
And the mast dissappears
Please remember me well

In a hundred years hence
With the worms I will dwell
When I'm gone from this world
Please remember me well

You can dance on my grave
You can ring out the bells
After all's said and done
Just remember me well

May Bryan and his family rest in peace.

The MSBM

That's "mainstream baseball media". Sometimes they say things that aren't very bright. Take today for example. Although most of the recent news about the Angels lately has dealt with the now underway trial to determine exactly what the Angels will call themselves next season and beyond, Steve Bisheff of the OC Registers actually wrote about some on the field issues. Good reporting, actually, as Bisheff writes that despite their failure to acquire a bat for first base, the Angels are still planning on starting Spring Training with Erstad in center field. This is good news for most of the in the halosphere who have been hoping that the team would go in this direction. He adds the following:

If Erstad is in center, leadoff hitter Chone Figgins becomes the third baseman, and where does that leave Dallas McPherson, the kid who was the power hope of the future as recently as a year ago?

Probably on the bench, at least until Scioscia and his coaches are convinced he's 100 percent healthy after that serious hip injury kept him out for most of 2005.

"McPherson could DH for us," Scioscia said, "and if Erstad got hurt and Figgy had to play center, Dallas could play third."

That's certainly one direction, although personally I'd be in favor of D-Mac playing third with Figgins moving around the field giving occasional days off while keeping his bat, and more importantly his legs, in the lineup. But then Bisheff starts to get a little weird:

All things considered, the Angels would prefer to keep the team's intense, unofficial captain at first base, but at this point they need any semblance of offensive help they can find.

Especially since Stoneman has spent most of the past three months either dozing off in his office or heeding the orders of a boss who is no longer Anaheim's happiest businessman.

You would be tempted to say Moreno has put a lock on the team's payroll vault, except that it wasn't so many weeks ago that Paul Konerko almost accepted a reported $60million offer to hit his home runs in Angel Stadium.

But once the postseason MVP opted to stay with the White Sox, who purportedly matched those dollars, it was as if the Angels shrugged and decided to take off the rest of the winter.

As shrewd strategies go, that one ranks right there with USC wasting its last timeout on a Texas two-point conversion with less than 20 seconds to play in the Rose Bowl.

Or have Stoneman and his cronies somehow forgotten how absolutely anemic Scioscia's offense looked in the postseason?

Has Bisheff forgotten that the post-season is a small sample size? By his logic, the Angels ought to trade Vlad while they're at it. No one is suggesting that, of course, but Bisheff disregards the fact that the Angels offense, especially bad in the playoffs, was fairly average in the regular season, finishing seventh in the AL in runs despite missing Vlad for a month, giving far too many at bats to Steve Finley, and getting virtually nothing out of the DH spot. Moving Erstad to center, which frees up first base for Kotchman and his 124 OPS+, already improves the offense. So does the return of Dallas McPherson, assuming he's healthy, which is a pretty safe assumption at this point. One place the Angels could have made a big improvement offensively was left field, but as long as Garret Anderson is around, he's the starter, even with is 99 ERA+, which is horrid for a left fielder.

So with one move, Angels have improved their offense at two positions (CF and 1B), and they have the power bat that they lacked in 2005 returning from injury. This team is already better offensively than the 2005 team, and that's with no acquisitions. Then Bisheff gets really loopy. In one paragraph he really destroys his credibility. He sets it up by slagging Juan Rivera:

If the manager were to write out a lineup card today, the No.5 hitter in his order probably would be Juan Rivera, the incumbent DH. Sorry, but that's just not going to cut it, especially in an AL West where everyone else seems to have improved in the offseason.

Got that? Juan Rivera = wrong answer for DH. That's cool. Reasonable people can disagree. He's entitled to his opinion. So tell us, Steve, who would you prefer at the DH spot?

Seattle has taken Jarrod Washburn off the Angels' hands, signed Carl Everett, precisely the type of DH Scioscia needs, then paid big dollars to lure Konji Johjima, Japan's best catcher, to the Northwest.

Huzzahwa?!?! Carl Everett? THE Carl Everett? Did I read that correctly?

Carl Everett, precisely the type of DH Scioscia needs

Yup. That's what it says. Un-freaking-believable. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

Age
Everett: 35
Rivera: 28

OPS+ the last two years (in comparable plate appearances)
Everett: 85 and 94
Rivera: 118 and 106

ABs per strikeout last year:
Everett: 1 strikout every 5.4 at bats
Rivera: 1 strikout ever 8.9 at bats

So Rivera is younger, cheaper, better, fits in better with the Angels offensive philosophy, and presumably believes in dinosaurs, but he's not going to cut it in the improve AL West, while Carl Everett is just the type of guy the Angels need? Steve, I had high hopes after the first few paragraphs of that column, but that, I mean....just....wow. That's awful. That's the frontrunner for dumbest baseball related comment of 2006.

College Hoops poll

A friend of mine noticed that a lot of top 25 teams had lost this week and asked me to predict this week's poll (he didn't specify, but I'll go with the AP). 15 of the top 25 teams in the country lost this week, with Michigan State losing twice, while Kentucky got pounded at Kansas, and Washington lost their second straight conference home game. Unfortunately, ESPN has streamlined their site and now puts all of the polls on the same page, and no longer has the quick reference that shows how everyone did the previous week, so I'm kind of winging it and trying to spend as little time on research as possible. Here goes:

1) Duke
2) Florida
3) UConn
4) Villanova
5) Gonzaga
6) Memphis
7) Illinois
8) Louisville
9) Texas
10) Indiana
11) UCLA
12) Boston College
13) Oklahoma
14) NC State
15) Maryland
16) George Washington
17) Ohio State
18) Washington
19) Wisconsin
20) West Virginia
21) Pittsburgh
22) Michigan State
23) North Carolina
24) Syracuse
25) Arizona

Big jumps for Texas, Indiana, and UCLA, who all went undefeated (UCLA winning twice on the road). Big drops for Michigan State and Kentucky. Everyone else was pretty much saved by the losses that all of the other teams in the top 25 suffered.

UCLA 61: Arizona State 60

Fantastic finshes are becoming the norm in the Pac 10 this season, and Arizona State probably feels like they've seen more than enough of them. After losing on a broken play three pointer against U$C on Thursday, ASU tried to turn the tables on UCLA today. Trailing by 2 with about 12 seconds to go, Bryson Krueger nailed a three pointer that gave ASU the lead. But a few seconds later, Jordan Farmar went the length of the court to toss in the game winning basket with three seconds to play.

This game was pretty ragged all afternoon, with lots of whistles, inconsistent officiating, poor shooting from UCLA, and poor free throw shooting from the Sun Devils. Mind you, I don't think the officiating favored either team, I think it was just bad all around. I defy any of you to explain the difference between a charge and block using only video evidence from that game. Kevin Kruger moved into Josh Shipp and drew a charge. Later, Angounou jumped into Lo Mata, who appeared to be as set as Kruger, and drew a block. Shortly thereafter, Aaron Afflalo drove the basket and jumped into Angounou, who appeared to be more set than both Kruger and Mata, and drew a block (Afflalo also got injured and left the game after that play).

I'm sure everyone was surprised to see that Afflalo led the Bruins in scoring, again, and that LRMAM led the Bruins in rebounding....again. Afflalo didn't get a lot of support offensively, as the team's other big scorers, Shipp and Farmar, combined for only 19. They're aren't going to win very often if they only get 40 from those three guys, but they rebounded well enough today to overcome it, and they played pretty good defense on the perimiter until the final minutes, when Kevin Kruger found his stroke, and Bryson Krueger hit what was almost the winning shot. The Bruins were 1-15 from beyond the arc, and ASU wasn't much better until making their last few.

So to sum up, an ugly game, especially compared to Thursday night, but a hard fought road victory against a team the Bruins need to beat. 3-1 in conference now, with the Washington schools next. The home game against Washington is really going to be key. Win that, and they're still in good shape. Lose that, and they've got a tough road to the conference championship.

Illinois 48; Iowa 63

Well, this one hurts, but let's face it, they're not last year's team, Iowa is probably better than they were last year, and this was on the road. They're going to lose some games here and there.

What's really disappointing about this one is that it's a game they could have won. They had to work hard to get good looks, but when the looks aren't coming easy, you have to take advantage. You have to make those shots, and today, the Illini didn't. Dee was the most culpable, and he is going to get most of the bad press, but this was a total team effort at sucking. The three starting forwards combined for 10-14 shooting, but they couldn't find ways to get open often enough. The guards, on the other hand, were about as bad as they could be. Brown, McBride, Smith, and Frazier went a combined 7-34. That's just a hair above 20%, and you're not going to win games when you shoot that poorly.

Let me be clear, the Illini did not deserve to win this game. However, I do believe that this game was very poorly officiated in Iowa's favor. Augustine was a target yet again, picking up for fouls in very limited minutes. Iowa had over twice as many free throws as the Illini, and the big men did not take that many more shots than the Illini big men. But the truth is, that's Big 10 basketball on the road. You aren't going to get calls. You have to find a way to fight through it, and the Illini didn't.

These things are going to happen. Shake it off and come back strong.

UCLA 85; Arizona 79

Probably the most shocking result of the night (see below for the other two games of my three for three night), given the situation. Team on the road, struggling with injuries, playing an Arizona team that played an incredible second half at Washington on Saturday. But this is Arizona, and Illinois fans all over the land learned last year that they can occasionally be counted on to lose games they should win.

Terrific performance by all of the Bruins, as just about everyone who played contributed. They went nine deep tonight, with not one minute played by someone above the level of sophomore. Even Mike Roll and Alfred Aboya combined for 8 points in 12 minutes. LRMAM led the team in rebounding yet again, with another nine to go along with his eight points and three assists. One of the less heralded members of this freshman class, he's been outstanding and indespensible this season. Lo Mata (nine points, seven boards) continues to take the major strides that Fey and Hollins still have yet to take, probably relegating those two to major pine time even after they've healed. The super sophs combines for 54 of the 85 points, with Afflalo leading the way yet again with 20, supplemented by Shipp's 14 and Farmar's 11 in limited minutes. The best news was that the last four of Farmar's points came in the final minutes from the free throw line where he's struggled this year.

The Cal loss still hurts, and may come back to haunt them near the end of the season, but make no mistake. This was a tremendous victory on the road against a good team with an incredibly young lineup. Pardon me for looking ahead, but if everyone comes back, this team is a lock for the pre-season top five next year.

Illinois 60; Michigan State 50

D. That's all you need to know. D.

Dee Brown was unfreakingbelievable, pouring in over half of the team's points (34) to go along with three assists. Quite frankly, this was the best individual performance I've seen by an Illini since Corey Bradford single handedly took the 11th seeded Illini to the final of the conference tournament back in 1999. He. Was. Awesome. Whether he was driving the lane, pulling up for mid-range jumper, or canning circus three after circus three (Including about a 35 footer and a ducking, leaping, floating jumper to close out the first half), he was just unstoppable.

But he did have some help. Rich McBride had 8 points, 6 on two threes, and none more deadly than the one he hit from the left wing with about a minute to play. James Augustine and Sean Pruitt combined for 12 points and and 14 rebounds (Augie also added three blocks).

But the unsung hero of the night, who's performance was almost as exceptional as Brown's, was Brian Randle. Sure, his 3 points on 1-5 shooting and 5 rebounds don't seem impressive, and as text on a page, they aren't. But that's not the important line. More telling about Randle's perfomance was this: 9 points on 3-8 shooting with 1 assist and 2 turnovers. Those were the number of senior forward Maurice Ager, 13 points below his team leading average, and 2+ assists below his average. Randle has become a shut down forward, big enough to guard the four, and athletic enough to guard the two. He frustrated Ager all night long, and was the biggest reason the Illini held Spartans more than 30 points below their 82 point average, sixth best in college basketball. This team can flat out defend, and Randle might be the most important cog in this defensive machine.

Kings 4; Coyotes 0

Another two points. 9-1-1 in their last ten games. The Kings pretty much controlled this one all night after a bit of a shaky start during which Garon was called upon to be the rock that he's been lately. Craig Conroy took advantage of delayed penalty and wristed home a great pass from Matty Norstrom. The original call was a double minor, and minutes later, on the ensuing power play, Joe Corvo netted his eighth of the year. Luc got on the scoreboard near the end of the period to make the score 3-0, and that was pretty much that.

The Kings dominated the scoring chances despite being outshot (mostly due to a puck possession third period) and cruised home, with Luc adding an empty netter to get one step close to Marcel Dionne's team record for goals.

I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel during the late November rough patch (shocking, I know), but this team is playing hard, and playing fairly smart. The power play has started to click lately, and if they can turn around the PK, they're going to be very good. Last season's squad led the division for much of the season, but it felt like they weren't on solid ground, and sure enough, it eventually caved in. I don't get that feeling with this team.

Kings 3; Stars 2 (F-OT)

Didn't see this one. It was on OLN, my parents don't get OLN. So I went out with some friends and listened to the last five minutes and overtime on the radio. The best way to put distance between themselves and Dallas is to beat Dallas, which they've now done four straight times. Granted, they only picked up one point tonight, but it's still a big point.

In other news, the power play is starting to click again. Three more power play goals tonight. Of course, they gave up another power play goal. The PK has been awful lately. This is a complete 180 from the first month or two of the season. Maybe by February we'll have them both on track.

Year End

Yeah, I'm probbly gonna do it. Top albums, songs, concerts, shit like that. I should have done it this week, or the week before. But here's the thing. I'm lazy. Always been, always will be. You'll get it when I'm damn good and ready.

Gluckliches Neues Jahr, Alles.

UC Berkeley 68; UCLA 61

Pretty weak performance by the Bruins this afternoon. They were dominated on the glass, they missed open shots when they really needed to make them, and they were ultimately undone by freshman mistakes at the end.

Berkeley is very long in the interior, and it's tempting to say that the injuries to Hollins and Fey really hurt against a team like Berkeley. But since Hollins and Fey aren't threats offensively, and since they don't really play defense, and since they don't rebound, it's hard to say their absense made a difference. Maybe if the Bruin bigs had been in foul trouble all afternoon, you could make that case.

Shipp looked a little slow, which is to be expected. Coming off of a big injury as he had, it's often the second game where you really feel it. He still contributed, but he and Farmar missed back to back wide open threes from the left baseline with the Bruins trailing that were key misses (Afflalo missed a wide open three minutes later). Despite the poor play from just about everyone except Afflalo and Alfred Aboya (who had a bit of a coming out today), the Bruins still had a chance to win or at least send the game to overtime. Afflalo made a great strip on a penatration by Ayinde Ubaka, only to have Daren Collison get greedy and screw it up. Collison, instead of securing the loose ball, tried to rake the ball to himself as he started down court to start a fast break before he had possession. He never got close enough to the ball, Ayinde got it back, and laid it in for a four point lead, and UCLA never had a chance after that. Trailing by three with under a minute to play, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (who still led the team in rebounding despite grabbing only four who failed to lead the team in rebounding for the first time this season) ran away from the inbounds play when UCLA needed to foul, proving that he still has a few things to learn as well.

The old maxim is that to win the Pac 10, you need to win your home games, and split on the road. UCLA is now already behind the game with this loss, and it doesn't get any easier, with the Arizona schools next, followed by the Washington schools. At the end of the season, when UCLA is watching Berkeley, Arizona (who won at U-W today), or Washington celebrate a conference title, they're going to remember this one.

UCLA 71; Stanford 54

After 8 straight losses at Pauley to the Cardinal, the Bruins finally put on a good performance at home against Stanford and raced out to a 17 point advantage that would end up being the final margin. No lackluster defense that led to a blowout. Now unconscious perfomance from Chris Hernandez. No subtle "coach's kid" cheapness from Dan Grunfeld.

Instead, the Bruins brought their great post defense from the Michigan game, and Aaron Afflalo continued to make his case for being one of the best off guards in the country, tying his career high with 23 points while draining three more three-pointers on five attempts. The Bruins raced out to an 18-1 lead with contributions from all of the starters, including Josh Shipp, making his first start and getting his first minutes of the season. If this is only a beginning, than it was a great sign for the Bruins, as Shipp poured in 11 points in 29 minutes, albeit on only 4-11 shooting (but 2-4 from three point land). They needed those minutes, because foul trouble and a twisted ankle limited Jordan Farmar to only 14 minutes. No word yet on the extent of the injury. With Ced Bozeman sidelined due to a rotator cuff injury, the burden fell to Darren Collison to carry the load at the point, who only added four points, but also picked up 8 assists against five turnovers.

No action from the bi-injured FeLlins, but really, who cares at this point. Lo Mata has really improved on the defensive end. Only four boards, but three blocks. Ryan Wright and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute can already do two pretty big things that FeLlins can't: 1) Rebound (they combined for 16, 12 from LRMAM) and 2) catch passes into the post. Of the many frustrations that FelLins has been responsible for over the years, none has been more of a thorn in my side than its inability to catch passes into the post. And LRMAM, damn, what a freaking rebounder.

Great start to the conference season, and another test awaits with UC Berkeley on Saturday. A post oriented offense with Leon Powe up front, I suspect we'll see a lot of what we saw against Michigan, and that's quick double teams in the post. The big men defend well enough, and the guards are quick enough to make this work (although poor shooting from Daniel Horton helped in the Michigan game).

One down, seventeen to go.

Light Posting

Christmas break. Family in town. Kicked out of my old bedroom, where the computer resides.

Just got back from the crowdedest place on earth. Ugh.

UCLA 86; Sac State 56

Remember what I said the other day about 20-30 point wins and burying bad teams? Well, that's how you do it. And it's about time.

Oilers 5; Kings 3

Missed most of this one other than the third period, which I guess means I would have been better off missing the whole thing. Bad defense in the third, combined with untimely penalties, a horrid power play, and a lot of luck for Edmonton led to the two goal loss. Some times you just don't get the bounces, and when you have slap shot deflected to the skate of an opponent who is able to kick it in, when you lose a face off that no one even touches, it's just not your night.

It's not the same rivalry it once was, and maybe it's because I'm slightly buzzed right now, but I really fucking hate Edmonton, and quite frankly, I don't think they're that good. Of course, many nights, I don't think the Kings are that good either. I think that in a seven game series, the Kings would win, but they really need to get better, soon, in two areas:

1. The power play is awful. They couldn't even gain the zone on a 5 on 3, and it led to a penalty that cost them the extra man.
2. Face offs. I know Belanger is hurt, but they have to have someone who can win a draw once in a while. This is getting ridiculous.

Another big one Monday night against the Sharks. Let's hope some guys get healthy in the next couple of days and that the Kings give a little bit better effort.

Today

Nothing happened. Which is exactly as it should be when I'm on vacation.