NO BITTER AFTERTASTE

Pour Some Sugar On Me:  As a follow-up to the previous, honey-rific pictorial, here are 35 more ungranulated UCLA Cheerleader photos to hit you right in the Sweet Spot

Bruin Football fans have a sour taste in their mouths after consecutive blowouts, so it’s time to ask:  One lump or two?  It’s hard to stay refined these days, but instead of breaking down all the problems that Rick Neuheisel faces (or “caused,” depending on your point of view) — like the inability of his players to allegedly lay off the ganja, I’ll just continue to share some photos of the smoking-hot UCLA Spirit Squad.  Even though the season has not completely gone up in smoke, I still prefer to post the photos, and leave the whiny critiquing to others.

A win over Nationally-ranked Arizona on Saturday could stop a little of the bitching, although I don’t know ANYONE who expects that victory to materialize.  And it would be nice to say that at least I’ll get another 500 Cheerleader photos to publish over the next few weeks, but apparently God is an evil trojan… because RAIN is predicted, and it’s hard to get good photos in a downpour.  With a NON-water-proof camera, a heavy cloud cover blocking the sunlight even if the showers hold off, and with the Dance Team potentially wearing windbreakers over their uniforms, the chance of capturing their beauty is about the same as Richard Brehaut leading the Bruins to a win over the #15 Wildcats.  If you look at the 7-day forecast, Saturday is the ONLY day that won’t be at least partly sunny.  Not only that, but I just saw a 14-day forecast that suggests ONE MORE day of rain, also on a gameday Saturday.

The point is, you should try to savor this collection, because it may be slim pickings after this, for a while.  And you can thank Jeebus, just like the guys who score Touchdowns.

Now, since this is actually a BLOG and not just a photo gallery, I do have a few comments to deliver before the pics:  First of all, I saw Blake Griffin of the Clippers play his first NBA game, and despite the Clips folding in the 4th quarter as usual, there is NO DOUBT:  Blake Griffin is AWESOME.  Once he gets in the flow of the NBA experience, he could rejuvenate (Bruin) Baron Davis into one of the top Assist Men in all of Basketball.  Griffin made a few phenomenal plays that combined ungodly talent with youthful exuberance and unequalled effort.  He got a Double-double, and I could easily see him AVERAGE a huge Double-double over the whole season… if he can stay healthy.  He goes SO balls out, that he might be spending more time sharing a hospital room with Kevin Prince than on a court with Baron Davis. Understandably, Griffin tired late in the game, and the Clippers completely stopped getting him the ball — and THAT is when Portland scored 15 straight to put the game away.  Before that, the Clips were actually winning by 4, fairly late in the game.

If the Clipper organization can give Griffin some support, they will definitely be a solid Playoff team within two years — He is THAT good, that he could single-handedly change the whole direction, and losing mentality, of the franchise.  Hopefully Baron will shoot less three-pointers, and concentrate more on feeding Griffin, making them BOTH all-stars.

And speaking of NBA Bruins, Matt Barnes had a successful debut with the Lakers, looking like Trevor Ariza by disrupting the Rockets’ gameplan with deflected passes, Offensive Rebounds, and a flurry of hustle plays, productive activity, and general toughness.  Alongside Ron Artest, Barnes guarantees that the Lakers will not get pushed around, intimidated, or outmuscled by anyone this season, despite being led by players more of the “finesse” type.

There are so many Bruins playing minutes in the NBA, I’ll never be able to give everyone their deserved props on an ongoing basis, but on ESPN tonight, Russell Westbrook dropped 28 points, grabbed 10 Rebounds, and dished out 6 Assists, as OKC beat Chicago with a 4th quarter explosion.  The beauty of THAT, is that the Bulls are one of those RARE teams in all of History to include TWO ex-trojans on their roster:  Taj Gibson and Brian Scalabrine.  Westbrook probably couldn’t care less, but I’m probably not the only Bruin fan to appreciate that victory.

And during the game, Arron Afflalo and Darren Collison both got listed on the never-ending ticker, for scoring well in their respective games (AA:  22, with zero Turnovers for Denver, and DC:  19, + 7 Assists for Indiana).  As the season progresses, we can follow Jrue Holiday and Jason Kapono on the 76ers, Ryan Hollins on the Cavaliers, Jordan Farmar on the Nets (10 points tonight in 22 minutes off the bench), Luc Ricahrd Mbah a Moute in Milwaukee, Trevor Ariza in New Orleans as a Starter, Kevin Love Starting in Minnesota (Double-double tonight), Earl Watson for Utah, and Dan Gadzuric, now on Golden State.

On the flip side, besides the two on Chicago, it looks like there are only three other ex-trojans to root against:  O.J. Mayo on Memphis, Demar Derozan in Toronto, and Nick Young in Washington.

By the way, it was nice to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jordan Farmar (in absentia) be awarded Championship Rings last night before the Lakers’ Season Opener.  Extremely doubtful that Gibson, Scalabrine, Mayo, Derozan, or Young will be getting sized up for any rings, any time soon… barring a trade.

Switching gears:  I almost never talk about politics on this site, or anywhere else for that matter, and even though it would be nice to see Pot legalized (a little too late for me), I won’t go THERE either.  But a few weeks ago, the TV was inundated with these political ads for Meg Whitman, where she pronounces the word “focus” as if it were spelled “feeyocus.”  It’s not like I’m in love with her opponent or anything, but for some reason, that feeyocus commercial made my skin crawl, like the old “noo-cue-lar” pronunciation from a few years ago.  Maybe it’s just a regional dialect thing, but I was just curious if anyone else noticed it, or was rubbed the wrong way by it.

And finally, despite Texas losing Game 1 of the World Series, it was nice to see Vlad Guerrero knock in two runs, and to see Bengie Molina come through as well, with a big double, and a runner thrown out at second.  Yeah, Vlad struggled with a couple of errors in Right Field, but remember, he was a DH all year, and was understandably rusty in the field.  Also, his errors came AFTER the Giants had blown the game open.  And by the way, this week Vlad was named the AL COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR!  Pretty good for a guy that the Angels and others thought was all washed up.

Now, speaking of washing up, here are 35 never-before-seen shots of the UCLA Spirit Squad.  Click on them to ENLARGE them, and then pray for Sun on Saturday in Pasadena, so that I can bring you even better pics next week.