I’m still waiting for the first goose bump to arrive.
I’m still waiting for the lower jawbone to smack the
floor, still wondering if the heart needs a checkup for not
skipping a few beats.
It was two years ago when I made the trip: Speeding down
Wilshire Boulevard (OK, I topped out at 25), quickly emptying 10
bucks from my wallet at the parking gate thinking it was me doing
the ripping off, darting across the UCLA campus clumsily as if I
were, well, sports editor of USC’s campus newspaper.
And then, at long last, the journey was complete.
Finally, for the first time, I had set foot inside Pauley
Pavilion. Pauley Pavilion! Pauley Pavilion? LOL, Pauley
Pavilion!?!?
What was with the rush? What was with the big idea? I admit,
I’ve been had in my day, but why promise Pam Anderson if all
you can deliver is the preacher’s daughter?
Some say Pauley Pavilion, where the Trojans and Bruins will meet
on the hardwood tonight, is the Sistine Chapel of college
basketball. So which J.C. facility in the Midwest is it they call
the Vatican?
Of course, you’ve got to give credit where it’s due,
and so when compared to a certain other Pac-10 sports arena in the
area with a name that really need not be mentioned, yes, Pauley is
the damn Taj Mahal.
And it also is representative to many across the nation what
college basketball is on the West Coast, which is what might be
most disturbing about it. Because gaze around the place, and you
can see how it has been so utterly Bruined in recent years.
Yeah, you know, plain looking from afar, half-empty on the
inside but still, occasionally, down to shake things up a bit
““ hey, let’s go hit that hookah!
And don’t even get me started ““ no wait, please
don’t get them started ““ about those nine straight
national championship banners hanging. Haven’t checked them
in about, oh, we’ll say a decade; but here’s to
guessing the wow factor hasn’t moved much since the day my
great uncle pointed it out to me, as he occasionally does on
matters of fascinating ancient history.
Wake up, Westwood. This is Los Angeles, and what have you done
for us lately? I happen to think gymnastics is a beautiful sport,
but last year’s NCAA championship doesn’t quite erase
the fabled basketball program’s two losses in two years to
its rival, a friggin’ football school, at Pauley Pavilion,
which is always just a bit more hostile than pecan pie.
Could be worse. There’s always the chance to lose at home
to UC Santa Barbara and a lowly California team (and they’re
already way too cool to admit they’re a “UC”
campus)…oh, wait.
Terrible thing is, these soft displays have been taking place on
a court named for a legendary coach in John Wooden, who is
responsible for much of the pomp and circumstance students, to this
day, cash in on wildly.
C’mon Bruins, buck up, the present state of the program
ain’t so bad. And your future looks bright, too.
It’s just that, like those goose bumps a rival friend
guaranteed me upon entering Pauley, it’s taken longer than
promised to arrive.
E-mail Kinmartin at [email protected].