Bay Area Billiken

Zags got blitzed tonight, spent too much energy surviving UCLA Sat. night.

UCLA vs. Zags are going to crunch time, Zags up 1, 3:54.

Billikens annihilate the Bonnies.

I enjoyed watching Demarius Jacobs play for the Billikens, wish he wasn’t leaving, but am not surprised, as I’ve at least half expected it.

Gonzaga gets the opportunity to avenge the tragic loss to UCLA in the ‘06 Tourney. I once saw Adam Morrison score 41 points at USF(CA), thought I was watching the next Larry Bird. But he never made it big in the NBA.

UCLA can borrow from its Crosstown Rival from the Rose Bowl days: Beat Mich Again!

This is the first ever Final Four with all four teams from West of the Mississippi. SLU is the oldest university West of the Mississippi.

https://twitter.com/wilnerhotline/status/1377236737810821134?s=21 This is why the Big 10 gets 9 teams in the NCAA Tourney, 64% of its conference, and why a non-Power 5 team with an easily qualifying NET 27 spots better than that 9th Big 10 team gets snubbed to make room. It's just the following again of the Golden Rule: He who holds the gold makes the rule, or in this case, just ignores the rule. That's 27 spots better in their own rigged, self-perpetuating metric. On the other hand, we overtaxed Californians welcome the financial assistance, A cool $40 Mil for the PAC-12. E

Bruins Win! Big Ten, all 9 of you, Go Home!

Roughly 25% of college players are in the transfer portal, an average of 3 per team.

Is Spokane the West Coast?

Tonight in the Elite 8: Gonzaga -8.5 vs. USC, o153, 7:45 Eastern; Michigan -6.5 vs. UCLA, o136, 9:57 Eastern. Who do you have? These should be 2 great games.

All 3 UCLA Assistant Coaches from that ‘95 team became D-1 Head Coaches, Lorenzo Romar, Mark Gottfried, Steve Lavin. And yes, Jim Harrick was the HC.

I was in attendance at Pauley Pavilion, Saturday afternoon, 12/20/1997, when the Billikens, under Coach Charlie Spoonhour, with freshman star, #20 Larry Hughes, played the UCLA Bruins of Coach Steve Lavin with Baron Davis and Earl Watson at the Guards. The Billikens put up a good fight before running into some home cooking, California Cuisine, falling 73-67. And yes, The Wizard of Westwood, Coach John Wooden, was in attendance, seated in his usual spot behind and past the end of the UCLA Bench. The fans lined up at halftime to pay him homage, introducing their youngsters to The Wizard.

Who is going to win and go to the Final 4? It seems the easier side of the bracket to pick is the Right Side, 1 Seed Baylor over 3 Arkansas and 2 Seed Houston over 12 Oregon State. The Left Side features 1 Seed Overall Gonzaga vs. 6 USC, and 1 Seed Michigan vs. 11 UCLA, both missing key players out due to injuries. The Zags finally did make it to the Final 4, but have a history of laying eggs in the Tournament. I was a youth when Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, et al. were leading Coach John Wooden, The Wizard of Westwood to many of those National Championships. UCLA has 11, but n