Guerrero joins committee

It appears that this past season’s success for the UCLA
men’s basketball team may have had some unexpected benefits.
UCLA Athletic Director, Dan Guerrero, was appointed to the NCAA
Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. He will begin serving
his 5 year term as a committee member on September 1. The job
entails certain responsibilities for its members, including, and
perhaps most importantly, the job of selecting the teams that take
part in the NCAA tournament. Incidentally, this year was the first
year in the last three years that the Bruins have made the NCAA
tournament and it was the first tournament of Guerrero’s
tenure. As a committee member, Guerrero’s main
responsibilities will lie in evaluating teams around the country
throughout the year and administrating the tournament and
championship. Guerrero has been successful in the smaller sports
during his time at UCLA, but has not had the same success with
higher profile sports. While the Bruins’ 11 national titles
in the past three years is unmatched by any other school, Guerrero
has yet to bring Westwood a championship contender in either
basketball or football. With the expected rise of the basketball
team due to a young, talented nucleus and with second or third
place projections in the Pac-10 for the upcoming football season,
the obscurity of the major Bruin sports may be coming to an
end.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: It was announced Thursday that the
UCLA women’s basketball team hired Trisha Stafford-Odom as
its new assistant basketball coach. Stafford-Odom was a standout
player at the University of California during her collegiate days
and recently starred in the WNBA with the Houston Comets and Miami
Sol. Stafford-Odom replaces former assistant coach Tia Jackson, who
left UCLA May 9 to become an assistant coach at Duke. Many of
Stafford-Odom’s responsibilities will include recruiting,
specially those from her native Southern California area.
“Trisha’s vast playing experience at all levels of the
game, both here and abroad, will be invaluable tools she can share
with our players,” said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier.

TRIP TO AUSTRALIA: The UCLA women’s basketball team is
currently in the midst of a two-week tour, running from June 22 to
July 2, to Australia. The Bruins are traveling from Sydney to
Cairns, where they have a four-game schedule including games
against the Australian Junior National Team and other Australian
club teams. On Saturday, the Bruins faced off against the
Sutherland Sharks of the Australian National League, and defeated
the Sharks 87-57 in their first preseason game of the trip.

Compiled by David Woods, Bruin sports reporter, and Sagar
Parikh, Bruin sports senior staff