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Stanford sure brings out the best in UCLA fans ““ and by
best I mean absolute worst.
From the 1997 48-point loss in the “Maples Massacre”
to 1999’s game at Pauley, which was called with 0.7 seconds
to go on account of an inundation of paper cups, the Stanford-UCLA
basketball series has reared its ugly head in regular
intervals.
And for a lucky fan sitting in the UCLA student section for last
night’s 86-76 loss, the sometimes tasteless, always crude
rivalry may have taken this whole mess to the next classless
level.
What is it about Stanford that gets UCLA students and players
redder than the Cardinal uniforms they so proudly sport, redder
even than against detested USC?
Well for one, if you go to UCLA, chances are you didn’t
get into Stanford, if you applied at all.
But what am I doing, trying to describe this utterly boorish
rancor from a second-hand perspective? I’ll leave it to
sophomore forward T.J. Cummings.
“I can’t stand it,” he said. “I
can’t stand someone coming into my house and taking
what’s mine.”
Bad, but not too bad. Let’s try an unnamed UCLA student,
addressing Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen.
“I’m going to kill you. I’m seriously going to
kill you.”
Now that’s more like it. Stanford, that bastion of higher
learning, that beacon of insight and intrepidness, for some
unexplainable reason tears at the very fiber that is the UCLA
student section. Don’t believe me? See if you can get your
hands on a tape of the game with enhanced sound and you’ll
notice a disproportionate number of profanities from the side of
the south basket.
It was enough to make a sailor cringe. The barrage of insults
made Martin Lawrence’s Saturday Night Live monologue sound
like a kindergartner reading one of those Clifford the Big Red Dog
books.
But enough of me. Let’s go back to the crowd!
“Hey Childress, I bet Bozeman gets more action than
you!”
Freshman Josh Childress played a brilliant game, finishing with
14 points and 12 rebounds, which may suggest that all of this
unsettling rage stems from an inferiority complex not seen this
side of Boston and New York.
And what about the UCLA players? We already heard from T.J.
Cummings, but the heads shaking in the locker room after the loss
belonged mostly to UCLA’s three seniors, who have never
beaten the Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion.
“We hate Stanford, plain and simple,” senior forward
Matt Barnes said with a succinctness many belligerent students
couldn’t manage. It seemed like every sentenced fired in the
direction of Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery or forward Casey
Jacobsen was topped off with “mother (expletive
deleted).”
There’s obviously no love lost between Jacobsen and UCLA
fans. His seemingly innocuous comments before the season began
about his love of playing in Pauley magically turned into an
alleged guarantee of victory by Wednesday night.
Brash? You bet. Truthful? Maybe. After all, Stanford has now
defeated the Bruins five straight times in Westwood.
Jacobsen’s commentary landed him a lead role in what sounded
like a thousand Don Rickles insult-a-thons.
Relying on the things shouted from the UCLA faithful, I gathered
that Casey Jacobsen’s mom has an occupation illegal in most
states, that he won’t get drafted, and that he’s a
little (expletive deleted).
As time ran down and Jacobsen made an uncontested move to the
basket, several students ordered the Bruins, “(expletive
deleted) him up!”
Jacobsen, always the rabble-rouser, looked up to his blue and
gold-clad best friends in the bleachers and smiled.
His two three-pointers down the stretch had put the Bruins away,
and he knew it.
Whether it was frustration from sleeping outside Pauley in
arctic conditions or the realization that more of these
performances will land the Bruins on the fringe of the Pac-10, the
mood was disturbingly universal ““ and mutinous.
Even normally apathetic Daily Bruin basketball writer Dylan
Hernandez was especially protective of his beloved property last
night.
On his way to the locker room, Jacobsen at least got a wave from
a Bruin fan.
Too bad the fan only used one finger.