Going Gaga for Gorgeous Graceful Girls and Gourmet Grub at pre-Grammy Gala — Highlighted by the UCLA Spirit Squad and a gastronomic tour de force of exquisite Mac n’ Cheese, Swedish Meatballs, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato Soup for dipping, Potstickers, Asian Chicken Salad, and Vodka Lemonade, the UCLA All-Access Reception was a smash success just an hour before Lady Gaga and The Grammys hit the air

It may have been a coincidence that the 2019 UCLA Spirit Squad All-Access Reception fell on the same day as the 2019 Grammy telecast, but there were definite parallels: Good music, Star Power, Girl Power, diversity, celebration, and fans going Gaga.

The annual UCLA Cheerleader fundraiser included a silent auction, an opportunity drawing, and visits from several Bruin athletes. A Chip Kelly autographed football, Under Armour swag baskets, and luxurious vacation excursions were among the prizes available to donors of the Program, and honored guests on hand included members of the Mens Water Polo team, Footballers Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Delon Hurt, and Basketballers Kris Wilkes, Alex Olesinski, Jaylen Hands, and Chris Smith, one of whom, at the bar, dropped a glass which crashed loudly on the ground — kind of symbolic of their struggles with Turnovers this season.

Despite all the drama surrounding the various programs, everyone was nice, the food was delicious, and the auction alone brought in $18,000 +. So congrats to the Squad. I wish them all nothing but the best. Below are 52 more photos from the event…

Dead Woods — Ex-trojan Robert Woods and his Rams fail to get in the end zone, tying the lowest score EVER in a Super Bowl, as Bruin Matthew Slater and his Patriots take the Title 13-3

Like most everyone outside of Boston, I am tired of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick teaming up to win Super Bowl Championships. But I never get tired of ex-trojans losing big games, and Bruins earning Rings, and that’s what happened on Sunday, when the Brady/Belichick Dynasty added another Title to their legacy, with New England’s 13-3 victory over the Rams.

The Patriots outplayed the Rams on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams, but the score was still 3-3 in the 4th Quarter, when Brady engineered the game’s only TD drive. After an ensuing Jared Goff Interception, the Pats added a Field Goal to make it 13-3 with about a minute left, basically icing the game.

The Rams’ Offense, “led” by ex-trojan Wide Receiver Robert Woods, set Super Bowl records for futility, including 8 straight drives ending in a Punt. Woods was targeted 10 times, but 5 of those were failures, including an early DROP by Woods.

Golden Taint — The worst NO-CALL IN NFL History costs New Orleans a Super Bowl berth, as a blatant helmet-to-helmet/Pass Interference penalty committed by Nikell Robey-Coleman gets ignored by refs

Never before has such a blatant DOUBLE-PENALTY been missed in such a crucial moment. On Sunday afternoon, with the Saints one first down away from sealing the NFC Conference Championship, the referees totally blew the most obvious infraction anyone has ever seen.

With 1:49 left in the game, with the score tied at 20 and the Saints in the Red Zone, New Orleans Receiver Tommylee Lewis totally lost his Ram defender — ex-trojan Nikell Robey-Coleman — toward the sidelines. Robey, who openly admits that he was badly beat on the play, did what any trojan would do — He intentionally broke the rules, never looked back for the ball, and collided head first into the Receiver before the ball arrived, with a thug-like helmet-to-helmet hit. That helmet-to-helmet hit should have drawn a flag, AND the textbook Pass Interference should have ALSO drawn a flag.

Magical rejuvenation — Bruins overcome a 17-point deficit with 7 minutes to go to force Overtime and beat Oregon IN Eugene, 87-84

On Thursday night, for the second time in 3 years, the Bruins staged a miraculous comeback to beat the Ducks. In 2017, they extinguished a 19-point first-half deficit in Pauley Pavilion to shock Oregon on Dick Enberg Appreciation Day. And today, they outdid that, erasing a 17-point Duck lead in the final 7 minutes of regulation, including a 9-point margin in the final 48 seconds, then finally a 4-point deficit in O.T., to pull off an 87-84 stunner in the infamously unfriendly confines of the Ducks’ Matt Court.

For most of the game, UCLA was getting schooled, by a team that was missing two of its star players due to injury. After a hot start by UCLA, Oregon overtook and steadily pulled away to a double-digit lead near the end of the first half, primarily by capitalizing on FOURTEEN Bruin Turnovers. A buzzer-beating heave by Kris Wilkes cut the margin to 7 at the Half. It was a bit of redemption for Wilkes, who was the main culprit of the Turnover barrage.

Despite early reports indicating that Tyus Edney would be UCLA’s interim coach, it turns out that Murry Bartow, not Edney, will assume that role. That makes a lot more sense, considering that Bartow actually has Head Coaching experience.

[NOTE: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH THE CORRECT INTERIM COACH]

No love for Alford as Bartow takes over — To the delight of frustrated fans, UCLA fires embattled head coach Steve Alford after 4 straight losses, and names Murry Bartow as Interim Coach

Sometimes you just HAVE to make a change. After 6 years at the helm of the most storied Basketball Program in the Country, Steve Alford has been terminated. With only 2 of those years being good, including one where Lonzo Ball was the actual team leader (Coach on the floor), and with this year falling well below expectations, UCLA fans were clamoring for immediate change, and that’s what they got.

After 4 consecutive defeats, including home losses to Belmont(!) and Liberty (!!), it was fairly apparent that Alford had lost his team. The effort was not at the level it needed to be, so Alford’s time was up. Assistant Murry Bartow will take over as the Interim Head Coach,

Smith-Schuster squanders Steelers’ shoo-in status — Ex-trojan Juju Smith-Schuster fumbles away a game that could cost Pittsburgh the Playoffs

The Steelers were in position on Sunday to make the NFL Playoffs, until former u$c Wide Receiver Juju Smith-Schuster fumbled the ball away, clinching the game for New Orleans. The loss means that for the Steelers to make the Playoffs now, they’ll need the Ravens to lose at Home to Cleveland. It’s possible, but Baltimore is favored by 5 1/2 points. The Browns are 2-5 on the road, and have already lost to the Ravens AT Cleveland this season.

Bruins tame Notre Dame — UCLA blows a 14-point Second Half lead, trails by 5 with less than 3 minutes left, but comes back to tie, then a Jalen Hill blocked shot sets up a Kris Wilkes 3-pointer in the final second to beat the Fighting Irish 62-59

UCLA’s 2nd best Rivalry is back.  40+ years after some of the most memorable college basketball games ever played, UCLA and Notre Dame were back at it, and you could almost hear Dick Enberg calling the action.  Just like that infamous game in 1974 that ended the 88-game winning streak — still the greatest streak of all time — this one went right down to the final buzzer.

It was a game of runs, with Notre Dame coming out NOT intimidated, scoring the first 6 points of the game, and being up 8-2 before the Bruins arrived.  That’s when UCLA went on a 13-0 spurt to go up 15-7.  The Irish kept it close for most of the half, until the Bruins closed out the half on a 9-0 splurge, to take a 31-20 lead into the locker room, with Kris Wilkes leading the scoring with 8.

UCLA opened the second half with a Wilkes 3-point play, so they were up by 14, and it looked like they would pull away and cruise past the unranked visitors.  Even Bill Walton, no stranger to this storied rivalry, said the rout was on.  But Notre Dame did not quit, outscoring UCLA by 19 over the next 12 minutes, to hold a 5-point lead with less than 6 minutes remaining.

Happy Handsukkah — The first night of Hanukkah, aka The Festival of Lights, is not a festival for the Lions, as Moses Brown (3 Blocks, 10 Rebounds) and the UCLA Defense plague Loyola to 29% shooting, while Jaylen Hands (10 Assists, 17 Points) leads the Bruin Offense to 82 Points against a (previously undefeated) team that was giving up less than 60 a game, in an 82-58 blowout (but never blow out the Hanukkah candles)

Will the “Jewbilation” last 8 days?  With the Catholics coming to town on Saturday?  UCLA hosts hated former rival Notre Dame this weekend, renewing a rivalry that conjures up images of Austin Carr, Kelly Tripucka, Bill Laimbeer, and “the devil himself” (as Bill Walton calls him) Digger Phelps.  And the Bruins continued to develop some good momentum to take them into that contest, after following up a luau-like feasting on Hawaii with a safari-like trophy hunt of the Lions of Jesuit College Loyola Marymount.

This skinning of the Lions was never close, with UCLA taking control early and cruising with a double-digit lead for almost the entire game.  The Bruins were up by 12 at the Half, and added another 12 to that margin in the Second Half to win going away, 82-58.  You’d never know that Loyola came into this game at 8-and-0, with a Nationally-ranked Defense that was holding teams to under 60 Points per game and under 40% shooting.

UCLA  was able to establish an early lead not because Loyola’s Defense was bad — The Lions’ “mane” issue was their atrocious shooting.  They missed 9 of their first 10 shots, Continue Reading »

Here’s looking at U($c), kid — I’m shocked, SHOCKED, that Lynn Swann, a sham of an Athletic Director, announced that u$c, a sham of a University, will bogart Clay Helton, a sham of a Football Coach, for another year, instead of rounding up the usual suspects

I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, between clueless u$c Athletic Director Lynn Swann and mediocre trojan Head Coach Clay Helton.  If they stay in place for a while, that program won’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.  Yesterday, Swann announced that embattled Helton will return to coach sc next season — a decision he will regret — Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of his life.  There is gambling going on in that establishment, and Swann is taking a big gamble.

Trojan fans are up in arms over this decision.  There was a plane flying a banner over the Coliseum last night, while sc was losing the Notre Dame, Continue Reading »

Having such a good time, having a ball — Here are 38 photos of the UCLA Spirit Squad from Saturday, taken before and after being dragged off by Security

I hope you like and appreciate these photos.  I don’t make any money off this endeavor — the only thing I get out of it is knowing that the squad members, and their families, and any other readers of this site, enjoy these photo arrays.

I think I’m doing something good — supporting a wonderful organization with terrific people in charge, who run it flawlessly, and who select spectacular people to participate as members of the elite squad.  But so many people Continue Reading »

Turn it up to 11 — UCLA comes back from 14 down to take a 4th quarter lead but can’t hold on as they lose to Stanford for the 11th straight time, 49-42.  Meanwhile, u$c blows a double-digit lead against Notre Dame, gives up 24 straight points, and goes down 24-17, to end their season at 5-7, their worst campaign in 18 years

Losing to Stanford again sucks.  11 straight years of misery.  It could have felt like a Spinal Tap of emotional pain.  But when it comes a week after a Bruin victory over the trojans, it’s not quite as bad as some of the others.  Also, this 49-42 loss to the Cardinal was not a blowout by any stretch of the imagination.  UCLA showed a lot of heart in their last game of a rebuilding year, coming back from a 41-27 deficit to actually take the lead 42-41 in the 4th quarter, behind QB Wilton Speight’s career-high 466 yards passing.

Speight Continue Reading »