Thursday, February 27, 1997
Vitale
clarification
Although I highly agree with Shapiro in his article "Vitale eats
his words," Mark missed serious points Dick made on television.
Even though he has a high regard for the ACC, he did have words the
basketball team needs to hear: "Bruin Defense did what a majority
of top-ranked teams could not do; shut down Duke’s perimeter game
 which is their strongest offensive machine." He put emphasis
on another point, mentioned twice, "UCLA is the only NCAA team
starting 5 potential NBA players … and with that fire power, they
(UCLA) will be a dangerous team in the tournament; especially with
the way they shut down Coach K’s team ."
Dick is biased. We all know. But sometimes, he tells it like it
is. "This current UCLA team is not the same team that lost to
Stanford and Kansas. UCLA is now coming back, baby!" Even though
his kind words were sparse, he did a great Coach Lavin
impersonation by saying, "There is only one team now that can hold
back UCLA from bringing it home; UCLA."
And for your information, Dick did pick Ed O’Bannon as his
"Player of the Year." Before March, he was set on Joe Smith. But
Ed’s performance swayed him away.
You hear that guys?? "…The Big Dance is the time to prove your
stuff, baby! ! !"
Bill Gomes
Third year
Business Economics