As I sit here in my room packing my bags for my third trip in
four years to the Final Four, I start to think about my career here
at UCLA. Packing the night before a trip like this puts a lot of
things on my mind. There are so many things that get me fired up
for these games.
But there are two things in particular that I can’t get
out of my head right now. The first is the sight of Willie (Mark
Williams) just ruining Andre Breuer’s manhood with a huge
solo block, and coming down screaming and pumping his fist in the
air. This happened in the third game last Saturday against
Pepperdine. The other thing is also from the third game, when Matt
Komer and I both went up for a block on Keith Barnett, and he
swings towards Komer, who blocks the ball right back into
Barnett’s face.
And Komer, usually a shy, “straight to business”
type of guy, yells over to Barnett, “Get the f#$% out.”
I don’t know why, but these two moments in game three have
been stuck in my head ever since the match. I guess it is because
these two are usually so quiet, and to see them so fired up got me
even more fired up.
Anyway, looking ahead to our first match, everyone on our team
is real confident about
Burnham is a senior quick hitter on the UCLA men’s
volleyball team.
the outcome and we can’t wait to play in that final match.
We are very confident, but not to the point where we are going to
overlook Penn State, our first opponent in the semifinals. The
other seniors and I know about UCLA being upset by Penn State in
’94, which was also in Indiana, like this year’s Final
Four.
With this in mind we know we need to be prepared and not look
ahead to the finals too much, though we do expect to see Pepperdine
one more time in that game. We are also hoping that this
year’s results will be like the one in ’98, when we
played close matches with Pepperdine all year long and eventually
destroyed them in three straight games to win in the finals, which
was my first Natty (national title). Now the other seniors and I
(and Willie, a junior) are looking to get our second ring.
It’s funny thinking about all of the critics and other
people who have been doubting us and picking against us all year
long. It really feels great to prove them all wrong. They should
know by now never to count UCLA out. The funniest thing to me,
though, is thinking about those Long Beach State guys and how
pissed off they must be at Ed Ratledge for transferring from there
to here and getting ready to play for a national championship.
Yeah, Long Beach played for a championship last year but the
selection committee gave them a gift by putting them in. Then they
went out and got humiliated by BYU in the finals.
If we win this year I would love to see Long Beach’s face
when they see Ed celebrating out there.
Just thinking about all this stuff gets me fired up and ready to
play. I can’t believe it’s my senior year already. It
sure would be a great way to go out winning the national
championship. I hope this doesn’t come out as being real
cocky the way I keep talking about winning, but that’s just
the way our team is. We don’t talk about the possibility of
losing. At UCLA you are part of a long, great tradition, and when
you get to the Final Four, you’ve got to win.
If we win, it will be UCLA’s and (head coach) Al’s
18th national championship, which means that Scates will have, I
think, two or three more than that golf coach (Houston coach Dave
Williams) and more than any other coach in any sport in the nation.
In other words, our coach is the best ever.
Thinking about winning the championship will get any athlete
excited to play. When we won in ’98 it was the best feeling I
have ever experienced. You know that you are part of the best, and
when you hold that trophy in your hands and hold up one finger, you
know at that point there isn’t another team in the nation
that is better.
This was the best feeling even though I didn’t play in the
Final Four. This year, though, I’m a starter, and if we win I
know that I’ll be one-seventh of the reason that we won (the
other six-sevenths are obviously my teammates). Those numbers
aren’t exactly correct because of coaches and stuff, but
they’re pretty close.
I just can’t imagine how much better winning is going to
feel while I’m on the court, instead of being on the
sidelines.
I hope you enjoyed my thoughts and things that were on my mind
the night before we leave for Indiana and the Final Four. If you
want to watch us, we’ll be on TV on ESPN2.