CaptainJ
Disembodied?
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2011
- Messages
- 8,856
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I know that Steve Alford doesn't get much love around these parts, but just wanted to say he just earned some respect for me for suspending his top 2 leading scorers for a game for team violations in his first year at the school, and establishing a standard for which his players are going to be held to.
I was mostly only listening to the game for Bill Walton, but it ended up being one of the best comebacks I've seen all season. UCLA overcomes a 15 point deficit, culminating in a home run pass and 3 point shot at the end of regulation, but ultimately folds in the closing seconds of the 2nd OT. Walton pointed out the 2 suspended players must have felt "this big" after such an emotional loss, and the coach's point must have been made. The Pauley Pavilion had been electric as the comeback commenced, and throughout the both OT's, which were riddled with mistakes and shot clock violations. During a shot of the UCLA cheerleaders, Walton said, "Ah UCLA, so many things to love about it". I grinned and thought JarHeadJim would have appreciated that as much as I did. And a good point was made about the 2 players who replaced the suspended starters and the confidence they will have going into the post season after how they played in that game. Alford's son Bryce who normally averages 8ppg went off for 31. Can you imagine if we had bench players capable of that?
Walton is amazing. You would think that someone who followed the Dead on tour wouldn't be as sharp, but the guy is a library of a myriad of facts on every aspect of the game, as well as things that relate to basketball in any way at all, or not even. He is an excellent spokesman for his Alma Mater, the PAC 12, basketball, and humanity in general. I can't even remember the list of things I learned or was reminded of(like James Worthy's HOF acceptance speech, and UNC being the first public university, being he wished Worthy a happy birthday). The guy loves to give love to people. Some beautiful shots of UCLA were shown and Bill telling us the places we should visit such as the botanical gardens, if we ever visit the campus. Dave Pasch was busting his chops about what areas of campus Walton had actually visited that day, and Walton used it as an opportunity to say that even though they had the largest enrollment of California universities, they had a tight campus and the smallest footprint of them all. My memory isn't the greatest or I could list at least half a dozen other things I learned that I would have never heard from any other color commentator. That's not counting the entertaining mentions of people like Bob Weir, etc. I know plenty of others on here watch more PAC 12 games than myself, but I just wanted to give my impressions of this one game being I didn't think many folks on here other than Marsh would be watching it until the end.
I was mostly only listening to the game for Bill Walton, but it ended up being one of the best comebacks I've seen all season. UCLA overcomes a 15 point deficit, culminating in a home run pass and 3 point shot at the end of regulation, but ultimately folds in the closing seconds of the 2nd OT. Walton pointed out the 2 suspended players must have felt "this big" after such an emotional loss, and the coach's point must have been made. The Pauley Pavilion had been electric as the comeback commenced, and throughout the both OT's, which were riddled with mistakes and shot clock violations. During a shot of the UCLA cheerleaders, Walton said, "Ah UCLA, so many things to love about it". I grinned and thought JarHeadJim would have appreciated that as much as I did. And a good point was made about the 2 players who replaced the suspended starters and the confidence they will have going into the post season after how they played in that game. Alford's son Bryce who normally averages 8ppg went off for 31. Can you imagine if we had bench players capable of that?
Walton is amazing. You would think that someone who followed the Dead on tour wouldn't be as sharp, but the guy is a library of a myriad of facts on every aspect of the game, as well as things that relate to basketball in any way at all, or not even. He is an excellent spokesman for his Alma Mater, the PAC 12, basketball, and humanity in general. I can't even remember the list of things I learned or was reminded of(like James Worthy's HOF acceptance speech, and UNC being the first public university, being he wished Worthy a happy birthday). The guy loves to give love to people. Some beautiful shots of UCLA were shown and Bill telling us the places we should visit such as the botanical gardens, if we ever visit the campus. Dave Pasch was busting his chops about what areas of campus Walton had actually visited that day, and Walton used it as an opportunity to say that even though they had the largest enrollment of California universities, they had a tight campus and the smallest footprint of them all. My memory isn't the greatest or I could list at least half a dozen other things I learned that I would have never heard from any other color commentator. That's not counting the entertaining mentions of people like Bob Weir, etc. I know plenty of others on here watch more PAC 12 games than myself, but I just wanted to give my impressions of this one game being I didn't think many folks on here other than Marsh would be watching it until the end.
