Article by Adam Rose and Ryan Jesena.
LAst Night's Action: Ball Hog Scores 20,000
Lakers 95, Knicks 90 - Kobe Bryant had 20,019 points on 15,314 shots (plus 6,184 from the charity stripe) last night. Not bad for a guy under the age of 30 ... The Kobster was actually 14-of-28 for 39 points (plus 11 rebounds and 8 assists), but in the process became the youngest player in NBA history to reach the 20,000 career points mark. Bryant raved about playing in Madison Square Garden and said the Knicks were one of four teams he would be willing to play for outside of the Lakers ... Los Angeles is 8-2 in their last 10 and just 2.5 games behind San Antonio for the top record in the West ... "The Times has learned that Kobe Bryant is now happy and committed to the Lakers forever or until they lose five in a row, whichever comes first."
Extra Extra: So Sue Me!
Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure...
LAist Asks: Hey Bruins and Bruin Fans - Happy Now?
Before the questions are asked, please let me state for the record that I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, a college sports powerhouse that hasn't lost a football game since 1990, so I don't have a dog in this fight. Having said that, I was a little surprised at how sensitive it appeared Bruin fans are about the firing of their head coach this afternoon. Again, I am out of the loop, but when...
Breaking: Karl Dorrell Officially Out of a Job
It's official: Karl Dorrell is out of a job, and after this weekend's 24-7 loss to USC, it's not a moment too soon. Dorrell met with UCLA's Athletic Director, Dan Guerrero, this morning, after a weekend during which most UCLA watchers had predicted that Dorrell would be getting the axe very very soon. With a disappointing 6-6 record this season, and a 35-27 record overall for his five-year tenure, most Bruin fans will not...
UCLA Has Changed -- But Some Things Remain the Same
What with all the Big Game festivities going on this weekend, a girl can't help but think back fondly upon her alma mater. But you know what? It's only been a few years since I left UCLA, and I gotta say -- I almost don't recognize the place anymore. Has it really been so long since I graduated? Five years? Maybe more? So much has changed -- I came of age in the Steve...
LAst Night's Action: Not So Happy Halloween
Perspective - The question around town is clear ... "Who's going to upstage everybody next?" Tuesday night should have been about the Laker's season opener. Or was it about Kobe possibly leaving the team? Nope, the Dodgers stole the headlines when manager Grady Little resigned. Could Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez be reunited in Blue? Or could A-Rod go to LAnaheim? Curt Schilling has expressed interest in both teams. If baseball isn't providing the big...
My Obituary for UCLA Football
Strangely, I’m OK with it. I mean, I’m NOT OK with it. I’m full of fury, anguish, and despair. But more than that, I feel resignation. I’m tired. And I’ve come to terms with all of it. UCLA football is dead to me. It’s not that I’m disowning the program. I’m still gonna support the team; my blood will always run Bruin blue. It’s just that I’m no longer going to pour myself into the...
Worst (Long) Weekend In LA Sports History?
If you're a local sports fan, hopefully you had Columbus Day (International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People, whatever) off to nurse a wicked hangover. In fact, maybe you should take tonight off from Sports Center, too. It's Leif Erikson day. Honest. Even George W. Bush knows that (and don't worry, he's probably not working today, either). Maybe it wasn't the worst, but it was up there. T.J. Simers hit the nail on the...
College Football Week 6 Recap: Comedy of Errors LA Style
If you heard the hysterical sounds of laughter coming from the Los Feliz, Little Armenia, Thai Town and East Hollywood section of Los Angeles Saturday night, it was me. First of all the UCLA Bruins lost to Notre Dame? The fact that Ben Olson got injured in the first quarter and they brought out walk-on quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson to replace him shows something fundamentally wrong with this Bruin program. When Patrick Cowan went down...
UCLA Pulls Past Washington at the Half to Win. Sportscenter Doesn't Care.
The Bruins were lucky enough to get coverage on FSN this time while breaking away from a 10-10 tie at the half to outlast Washington 44-31 last night. Washington's Jake Locker threw three deadly touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. It was a difficult game for the Bruins, until the Huskies' defense started to give during the second half. Each touchdown pass that Locker completed, the Bruins were able to respond to until finally opening...
College Football Week 3 Recap: Whatever Happened to UCLA?
Every week in college football proves to everyone they don’t know shit about the game. Case in point, #11 UCLA Bruins at Utah Utes. The Bruins had won all eight previous meetings against the Utes including a 31-10 victory on opening day at the Rose Bowl last season. So instead of a UCLA blowout the opposite happened. The Utes blew the Bruins and their #11 ranking out of the stadium 44-6 preventing the Bruins...
PUMPED for UCLA Football
Lest we forget. 13 reasons to love the season. PRIDE. TRADITION. UCLA. Bruin football has started practicing for the coming season this week. The opener will be at Stanford on September 1st, just four weeks away (FSN). The first at-home game will be against BYU on September 8th. The Bruins clock in as the most experienced team in the PAC-10 (25 seniors) including 10 returning starters. Bruin defense was shown to be a powerhouse...
LAst Night's Action: Black and Blue Crew Healing
Dodgers 5, Rockies 4 - Los Angeles must feel like they dodged a bullet after Thursday night -- not because of Colorado's attempted comeback, but because of all the pitching injuries. Brad Penny earned his 13th win, but was pulled out of the game in the seventh after an all-out sprint to earn a single. Turns out he only had a bad cramp. Takashi Saito returned after missing seven games with shoulder trouble, taking the...
LAst Night's Action: Plan Your Dodger Sleepover
Angels 7, A's 6 - Francisco Rodriguez blew a save opportunity despite a three run lead. Fortunately, he was saved by Maicer Izturis' RBI single with two out in the bottom of the ninth. Vladimir Guerrero took the day off and while the Halos generated plenty of offense without him, none of the 15 hits left the park. The team's recent home run slump coincides with Vlad's, who hasn't gone yard in 24 games despite...
UCLA DEFEATS USC!!!
Today marks the greatest upset in recent NCAAF history. UCLA climbed atop 7 years of defeat to burn USC 13-9. The Victory Bell has been pried from the cold dead hands of the Trojan offense and returned to its rightful home: Westwood. What was said to be impossible has happened. A lot of people are going to have to make good on ridiculous bets tomorrow morning. Patrick Cowan: you showed that you can run...
Crosstown Rumble '06: UCLA Aims to Reverse 7 Years of Defeat by USC
There's only one question: where does your allegiance lie? The Bruins were slaughtered by the Trojans 66-19 last year with what was considered the best UCLA men's football program in years. What is important to realize however is that last year's USC men's football program was also considered its best in years. While USC lacks the star power of last year's team, Pete Carroll has managed to take this year's additions and turn them...
Tomorrow a Must-Win for UCLA Football
The Bruins head to Arizona State tomorrow energized by last week’s decimation of Oregon State. Patrick Cowan and his support staff have put the four previous games behind them, and Bruin fans everywhere are riding this as though a new season has begun. However this Saturday will be a pivotal game, since a win against Arizona State will put UCLA in bowl game territory. Let’s all hope for a repeat performance from young Patrick...
State of the Bruin
LA is the city of stars. While there are a lot of nobodies in this city aspiring to be somebody, the fact is that once you’ve become somebody, you are idolized and lionized, or you become a paparazzi target like Lindsay Lohan. We talk about them at the water cooler, we read about them on wonderful blogs like LAist, and we listen to their opinions as if they carry the weight of the President (except for maybe Tom Cruise). Regardless of whether the attention is positive or negative, the point is that you matter if you are somebody in this city. I’m sure even “Firecrotch” would agree that being tabloid fodder is better than being irrelevant.
Why USC Football Is Lame
Because it isn't UCLA football. There isn't much to say other than that. College football has kicked off once again, and like every other Bruin I have to put up with yet another season of Trojan banter. I get to watch every citizen in this great city jump on the Trojan bandwagon once again as well. I feel as though I'm the only person who is completely uninterested in watching a winning team continue...
A Call for Bruin Pride
Now that it’s all over, we can take a look back at the season that was for the UCLA football team. Although it would be nice to think that UCLA had turned the corner and was on the way to improvement, their last performance leaves a somewhat shaky mark on the season. Granted, it wasn’t as if they were favored to win the game against the two-time defending National Champions. But they were expected to compete, and that they did not do.
Where's the Love?
We have been reading a lot of opinions about the UCLA football season, some good and some not so favorable. Let us go on the record as saying that we believe coach Karl Dorrell has done a good job. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re putting him up there with former Bruin head coach and College Hall of Famer Terry Donahue, but we would like to see a little more love given to a team that is currently 9-1 and went from unranked to a top 10 team (before the horrendous loss to Arizona, no we have NOT let that one go). We have even seen people saying that he needs a win against USC to save his job.
Picking Up the Pieces
Ah yes. They ALMOST had us there for a minute didn’t they? We almost bought into it. But we should have known better. We had definitely seen this movie before. Sure they were able to tease us with close victories and give us heart attacks for 8 games. But the signs of the Ol’ Bruins that we have known from seasons past started to creep up. The innate ability to make other teams look much better than they really are; see the 21-17 squeaker versus the 1-8 Washington Huskies. The lack of any consistent defense (96th overall, 113th against the run). Playing just hard enough for three quarters and waiting for the proverbial “switch” to turn in the 4th quarter. It all seemed eerily familiar. We all secretly held out hope that this would finally be the year that the potential of our Bruins finally manifested itself in a championship season. But we knew deep down that a loss was going to come eventually and that the dream of a LA showdown of two undefeated teams against the juggernaut at USC would again only be played out on our Playstations.
High Flying Start
While Leinart is the Trojan making the most headlines after his highly-publicized decision to stay in school, LAist thinks Bush is the key the Trojans offense. We like his chances to win the Heisman Trophy this year. His explosive speed seems virtually unstoppable. But LAist also doesn't want people to forget about LenDale White, who is one of the five best running backs in college football right now, and wide receiver Steve Smith, who looks ready to have a major breakout season.
Trojan Town
UCLA is a talented team, but USC out-recruits everyone in the Pac-10 by a mile. As long as Pete Carroll is coaching Trojan football, and as long as he keeps playing amazing young freshmen who look like superstars every year, USC will remain a dominant football power.
Ahead of the Pac
Meanwhile college football on the other side of town continues to sag as UCLA was picked 8th. In case you forgot (and most people in Westwood have already), the Bruins are coming off of an embarrassing loss to Fresno State in the Sillicon Valley Bowl.

