UCLA had tourney run worth of envy Thank you
for your excellent article (“Loss still revives basketball
fever at Pauley,” April 4) that caught the spirit of
what’s going on on campus these days, due largely to this
year’s basketball team’s success. I was a member of the
student body back when UCLA suffered its only other loss in an NCAA
Championship game, which was at the end of Larry Brown’s
first year as head coach. That was also my first year as a Bruin,
but I had grown up watching the championship teams of the
’60s and the ’70s when UCLA only lost two home games in
its first 10 seasons in Pauley Pavilion. My older sister, who
attended UCLA in the early ’70s, actually had Bill Walton in
one of her lecture classes. Those were the days when it
wasn’t a question of whether the Bruins would win, but by how
much. Tradition was that if the team scored over 100 points, you
could turn your game ticket in at Westwood Village’s
McDonalds and get a free Big Mac. They ate a lot of Big Macs back
then. By 1980, however, John Wooden had been retired for five
years, and unfortunately, so had the tradition of excellence he had
established. UCLA lost so many games that year (Brown’s first
as head coach) that Sports Illustrated had a cover story titled
“Bruins In Ruins.” Many people in the sporting news
media were even questioning why UCLA had been invited to the Big
Dance at all. It was a debate that was stifled when Brown led a
team of mostly underclassmen to the finals against North Carolina,
after beating heavily favored De Paul University. As history will
note, UCLA lost that game, but I was “hooked” more than
ever and was never prouder to be a Bruin. When basketball season
rolled around the following year, the UCLA Store’s BearWear
section was selling T-shirts that paraphrased the name of the
latest Star Wars movie. The T-shirts read instead, “The
Dynasty Strikes Back!” They sold like hotcakes. This
year’s Bruins had no business being in the finals. If there
were a BCS computer deciding who would be in the Final Four, our
players would have been watching the game in their dorm rooms.
That’s why they play these games. And the fact that they made
it as far as they did is a tribute to the sheer guts and discipline
of the team, but, even more so, is a demonstration of how good a
coach Ben Howland really is. And so, I have to admit to a certain
amount of envy for you and your student colleagues, because
(barring an unexpected Larry Brown-like exit), Coach Howland and
the Bruins have at least a few more Final Fours in their future. As
one who only missed two or three games total at Pauley Pavilion in
my four years in Westwood, I wish you all many happy afternoons and
evenings going crazy in support of your team; yelling yourself so
hoarse you have no voice left even the next day; and, especially,
creating for yourselves a set of great memories (even of the
defeats) that will last you for the rest of your lives. Again, I
enjoyed your article very much. You guys do the Daily Bruin proud.
Keith Collins UCLA alumnus
True Bruin fans stick with team after loss My father is
a former UCLA athelete. I received my undergraduate degree from
UCLA and am now a graduate student at UCLA. (Last Monday), before
lecture, I led my class in an 8-clap in support of our team out in
Indianapolis. So yes, of course, I am disappointed that we did not
win the national championship. I am disappointed that the
blue-collar work ethic that epitomizes Howland’s Bruin
basketball team did not overcome the very last bit of a season
filled with adversity. I am not a coat-tailer. I am not a
fair-weather fan. So to all the nay-sayers: This was an
extraordinary season, with extraordinary games, played by an
extraordinary team, led by an extraordinary coach. Anyone who says
otherwise, does not deserve to call himself a fan. I am mostly
disappointed because the season is over, and I will have to wait
months to watch them play again. Thank you UCLA Bruin basketball!
You make me proud. All of you. You did what others said you could
not. Over and over and over again. Erin Katz
UCLA alumna