UCLA in da' house!
Absolutely zero expectations for them this year - by me or the critics. They weren't even ranked in the top 65 in some pre-season poll I saw a few weeks ago. They started off pretty well in their first couple games against some crappy opponents, and also came really close to beating #9 Kentucky in the Wooden Classic tournament this past weekend (52-50), so that's a pretty good sign that they're going to be better than advertised.
I think we got some transfer player from your team there Brian - North Carolina. I forget his name, but he transferred out in 2001 I think, and has been kicking some booty for us so far. Dropped five 3's the other night I believe. With UCLA's hoops history, expectations are usually very high, which is why Steve Lavin got canned despite going to like six Sweet 16's during his tenure. Championship or bust in Westwood. Just probably not this year though...
When UCLA's not on the floor, I'll root for the other Pac-10 teams (except hated USC). So it was nice to see Stanford just knock #1 Kansas off in that same Wooden tournament there. Big
UCSB (Santa Barbara) fan too, but they're kinda small school so they usually don't make too much noise in the bigger picture. Sure had some incredible teams back in the late 80's/early 90's though, when we were knocking off #1 UNLV on a regular basis!
