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I very rarely respond to these blogs because it turns into personal attacks on the other person's favorite team but I like what JD had to say in this message so I decided to respond. I am a UCLA fan that lives near the Philadelphia area so I know what it is like to deal with fans that go crazy over every little thing and turn their backs on their teams(Yes I am talking to you Eagles, Philies, and Flyers fans). I also don't want to gaurentee a UCLA championship especially the way that we have been playing lately. How dumb would I look and how much crap would I take if they get knocked off in the Elite 8 or FInal Four, or even the championship game for that matter.
Obviously we dont want to be playing Xavier or WVU, but at this juncture of the tourney name me a team you would want to play...Texas, Memphis,UNC, Lville, Kansas, and even Davidson, do you think we would have an easier time against any one of the remaining teams. You are right UCLA has flaws, but every team does. They adjust to these flaws, exploit yours, and are clutch when it comes to crunch time. They have a top 5 coach, a top 5 point guard, and a top 5 big man in the country. Their best NBA prospect might be Russell Westbrook and to say they lack depth is a lack of knowledge of UCLA basketball. They have a center on the bench that played in the last two final fours, they found a steal this tourney in Keefe, and they are still missing their best perimeter shooter in Michael Roll. Defensively we are still one of the best and I can't wait to see what Howland and Collison has planned for the press that will and should be coming from Xavier.
The comment that bothers me is the officiating comment. To say we had won three games that we had no business winning is out of line. The game with Stanford was an iffy call, but you being a Syracuse fan should know that calls like that are made (ie Villanova had a game wrapped up when they called a foul on Villanova for barely touching the point guard from Georgetown who sunk both free throws to win with .3 seconds left), go back and look at that tape and tell me which call was worse. The Cal game was more ridiculous to me. I really dont have an argument for that one. I myself think that the Cal player was fouled, but lets face it the shot Shipp made was almost impossible. The A&M game the player that was fouled was in fact a 66% free throw shooter and there was no gaurentee that he knocks them both down. True, there could be an offensive rebound, whatever who knows. My point is that saying that they haad no business winning those games is ludacris. They were in all of three of those games. My point is UCLA finds ways to win. Don't put the game in the official's hands, go out and beat them. If those teams were up 4, 5 or 6 points those calls would not be remembered and those teams would have won. UCLA finds ways to hang around and at the end of the game they are clutch. So there you have it, no personal attacks just my opinion on this so called conspiracy theory of UCLA and officiating.
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