AUDS & ENDS

Lately, from the Hills of Westwood to the moral sinkhole across town, there’s been no end of stuff to audit

It’s been a mini-event filled week around here — Lots of little things have happened, but no ONE thing worthy of celebrating or cursing all by itself.  So today it’s time to roll all these non-news events into a big ball, and hurl it out, along with another set of 20 photos from the 2009 UCLA Spirit Squad Auditions.

Let’s start with a commercial — Have you heard the anti-Carmen Trutanich ad currently running all over the place?  The wannabe L.A. City Attorney’s opponent is accusing Trutanich of defending a “moral sinkhole” of clients.  Why is this funny?  Because for the last decade, Trutanich has been de facto House Counsel for the usc athletic program.  Every time one of Pete Carroll’s star players got into a tangle with the law, the “one phone call” went straight to Trutanich’s Bat Phone.  And that steady stream of billable hours was plenty to keep Trutanich recession-proof for years and years.

The ad derides Carmie for claiming to be a Prosecutor despite not having prosecuted a case in two decades, instead making money off of that moral sinkhole of clients, including companies that blatantly rape the environment.  Defending these Corporate rapists could only have been good prep for defending another kind — The kind where the complaining victim suddently and inexplicably recants or disappears, only to show up rich on the beaches of St. Tropez a few years later, if not “snorkeling” below sea level for a long, long time.

Maybe a guy like Carmen — or “Nuch” — you’d prefer on the prosecution’s side, so maybe you should vote FOR him.  On that token, there was some major friction between usc and Trutanich a couple of years ago — over his daughter NOT getting admitted into the school — so it is not certain whether he is a trojan-lover or a trojan-hater right now.  Therefore, you will find NO voting recommendation here.  However, you gotta love his opponent, for classifying all the trojan football evildoers and the like (Wright? Justice? Sanchez? Simmons? Marijuanovich?) as a “moral sinkhole” of clients.

And speaking of moral sinkholes, Tim Floyd’s sc basketball cesspool just lost their prized recruit, Renardo Sidney.  Sidney, one of the most heralded of his class on a National level, just recanted on Floyd, signing with Mississippi State.  Sidney talked about winning a National Championship, which, if MSU’s star player returns from last year, may actually be a possibility.  That COULD be why Sidney abandoned sc — whom he had announced as his choice with a dramatic hat-out-of-the-box press conference — after the trojans lost three starters and one reserve to early and not-completely-expected departures.

UCLA once coveted Sidney, but pulled out suddenly for no obvious reason.  Now sc is claiming to have done the same, just days after Sidney passed his SAT’s.  Some people still think Sidney is going to blow off MSU and go play in Europe.  Obviously, the public is unaware of what’s really going on.  All that’s for sure is that sc is not going to have a good team next year… which is a really good thing, because UCLA will also be rebuilding.

If you read Jrue Holiday’s comments in the Press today, it sounds like he can’t WAIT until he is free from the shackles of a defensive-minded system and allowed to roam free for some NBA team.  Even if he is projected to go late in the 1st round, he would probably prefer that to staying around in Westwood.  Even WITH Holiday, the Bruins will not be a Final Four-caliber team, and Jrue knows that.  So without the extra push of Final Four excitement and buzz, his draft status — despite superior stats — will not elevate all that much.

As to whether or not to still support him if he leaves — yeah, in this day and age, he is still a Bruin, he didn’t murder two people, he will probably bring positive exposure to the name “UCLA” in the (somewhat distant) future, and he seemed to give decent effort throughout his Freshman campaign, even if the results were not as expected.  Guaranteed — If he were used exclusively at his natural Point Guard position, his results would have been more satisfactory.

Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute all left early, even though they could have gone for another year of seasoning, taken a serious run at an NCAA Title, and possibly improved their draft status by staying around another year.  But they are still worthy of Bruin fans’ support, and all should be congratulated on their success as Rookies.  Luc played in every game for the Bucks, and averaged about 7 and 6, while Love made the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, and Russell made the First Team.  So good luck to Jrue — It would still be better to have him stay (screw the idea of getting more minutes for the Guards who will be around the following year!), but if he goes, hopefully he follows the golden Ariza Path.

And speaking of unlimited potential, Kevin Prince was officially named the Starter at Quarterback for the Bruins.  Great news, but not really news.  It’s great to know that Norm Chow thinks Prince will be better than Kevin Craft, but it’s only May, and it would be surprising if UCLA does NOT have to rely on Craft at least once during the upcoming season.

Finally, a note on the amazing Boston-Chicago NBA Playoff series:  7 Overtimes in 6 games — Don’t get mad at ESPN for calling it the best non-Finals series ever.  Sure you can say “best” means good teams at full strength, playing quality, mistake-free ball;  So then call this series the most competitive, and most entertaining early round series in recent memory, and you should not be called a liar.

What makes watching it tough, is that as a Laker fan (IF you are), you CAN’T root for Boston (becuase they are the Celtics — the sc of the NBA, AND, they actually have ex-trojan Brian Scalabrine on the team), but it’s really hard to root for Yoakim Noah, too.  Chicago won Game 6, and got their final lead on a huge play by Noah.  Hopefully in a few hours, Chicago can knock off the Garnett-less Celts — in Boston — without any major contribution from the former Gator (and apparent Lasik candidate) who once called the UCLA cheerleaders “ugly.”  Here’s proof to the contrary.