Thoughts and

Thoughts and

shots from a faithful Bruin basketball fan

Eric Billigmeier

In case you were wondering … Just to keep you updated, I had
the 137th happiest moment of my life last Friday night (sorry, you
don’t get the details). Moment number one is still intact, as is my
mile-wide smile …

I got to watch a tape of the game last week with a few of my
fellow Seattle travelers, and guess what ­ UCLA won the
national championship!

Being in Seattle for the games was killer, but it did force us
to miss perhaps the funniest moment of the tournament: freshman
Toby Bailey flooring Corliss "Big Zero" Williamson with a hard foul
and then staring him down. From our semi-crummy seats at the
Kingdome, we weren’t privileged enough to see the intricacies of
the play. It was funny as hell on tape, though.

Speaking of Sir Toby, did you listen as closely as I did to the
roar from the students in Bailey’s honor during Wednesday’s
celebration? According to my ears, it was the loudest greeting
bestowed upon any of the Bruins, including the legendary seniors.
Prior to the tournament, I thought Bailey was a legend in the
making. Now it looks like you can remove the "in the making" part
of that label.

I can understand the widespread booing upon announcement of
Charles Young’s name to a few thousand students, but Mayor Riordan?
Who among us actually found it within themselves to boo this poor
man at a UCLA basketball pep rally? What has he done wrong? For
that matter, what has he done?

I didn’t get a T-shirt, and I’m pissed.

Normally at these kinds of events, the speeches from the
"dignitaries" border on the ridiculous. They tend to spout
overblown compliments and opinions on which the speakers have no
expertise. But I found it interesting that all the speakers made
reference to this unique club’s sense of team and family. That
aspect of the 1994-95 Bruins is what will stick with me the
most.

I wonder what they’re doing with that extra championship banner.
Whoever’s got it, I’ll give ya five bucks for it. All right,
ten.

Boo him all you want, but Pete Dalis can now brag of 23 national
championships in 13 years as Athletic Director.

From the overblown rumor department: I heard two beauties while
partying at the Sea-Tac Marriott last Monday night ­ (1) omm’A
Givens wasn’t on the bus after the game, he’s unhappy and he’s
going to transfer (coulda fooled the L.A. Times, which lists Givens
as next year’s starting center). Actually, Givens did spend much of
the year frowning about a lack of playing time, as did Ike Nwankwo,
but at least they didn’t do so publicly. And as far as anyone in
Westwood knows, Givens ain’t goin’ nowhere.

And rumor No. (2) ­ those bastards in the UCLA Athletic
Department couldn’t get rid of the 3,500 Final Four ticket
allotment, so they sent, like, 400 tickets to Arkansas, without
even thinking of selling them to the students or the public. Wrong
again. Yes, the allotment wasn’t completely used: about 100 tickets
went unsold, according to Associated AD Steve Salm, but those seats
(as required by NCAA policy) were returned to the tournament
committee on Wednesday. Salm points out correctly that by that
time, it was a tad too late to organize a public sale or to inform
students that more seats were available.

As for the students, the department increased the allotment for
season ticket-holders from 300 to 400 to meet demand. What
bastards, huh?

I must take some issue with the policy of only allowing student
season-ticket holders to buy seats. Personally, I know of about 10
students who religiously followed and rooted for the Bruins this
year, but who were rewarded with doors-in-the-face when asked about
tournament tickets. And all of them made it to Seattle. I’m fairly
certain they would rather have bought student-section tickets at
$74 a pop, rather than deal with our beloved scalpers.

Oh well, it sure beats the whole Angelo Mazzone/Rose Bowl
fiasco, doesn’t it?

So Dick Vitale uses ESPN’s post-game and day-after wraps as his
stage to heap some undue credit on … the Wildcats of Kentucky.
They’re his pick for next year, you see, so they deserve all the
commentary, not the team that just won its first national title in
20 years. Shocking, isn’t it, how the Dickster could just jump
right off our bandwagon so soon?

FYI: The Athletic Department-produced season highlights video,
"Return to Glory: UCLA Basketball 1994-95," will be on sale in the
students’ store April 24, with the price set for $19.95. It’s also
available through mail order, using those forms they handed out at
the rally last week.

Speaking of the students’ store, let’s all give ASUCLA a round
of applause for not jacking up the prices on NCAA Championship
garb. Yeah, right. We know you’re in a financial crisis and
everything, but jeez Louise, don’t try to get it all back in one
shot.