As a UCLA student, I felt obligated to reply to the criticisms for tonight's attempted rushing of the court. While many have called it pathetic, I too found the Den (and UCLA fans in general) to be pathetic but for far different reasons than you (which I shall address at the end of this rant).
The first thing I wanted to address was your pre-game attitude of fans. Many fans including myself (which is shown by the decrease of average attendance this year by 2,000 -i read this statistic i hope it's not true-), have expressed loss of all interest in the Bruins this season. Many people have lost all interest in this team as for ever glimmer of hope they show, they follow it up with a truck-load of disappointment. The feelign going into this game was that even if we squeaked out a win, we'd become embarrassed by Washington State and the Oregon teams. So what's the point?
Would an ordinary UCLA team follow up a win with embarrassing losses? No. Would this team? Yes, this team normally would. They are a team that is an embarassment to John Wooden and UCLA basketball. This has been the team that fell way short of our justified expectations of tournament wins. We were quick to shun this team and it showed. Fan attendance has been lackluster at best as I was able to get floor seats for these games in the student sections mere hours before the game, while in past years camping out was a necessity. This team is not your UCLA basketball team. This is a team of young, immature playeres who have not met the more than colossal expectations, and had no motivation is sight.
Ben Howland certainly wasn't providing motivation. Ben Howland is not a player's coach. There's no way around this fact. He preaches defense, but on the sideline you don't see much emotion. This is not the coach a team rallies around. Indeed, Howland played zone nearly all game showing all loss on his principles. While this is necessary for our skill-set, giving up on the trademark of his coaching certainly had to have some players losing some faith in his coaching. This team is starving for some form of motivation. In past wins they followed it up by losses since there waas no motivation. They were playing at a winner's school, where their minor victories were not met by congratulations but attidues like "its about time" and "they better not embarass us again." They were more rather scared of failure at an institute that condemns anything but perfection.
Therefore, the Washington game provided the attitude this team needs to thrive. This is not a team that will meet UCLA expectations. If you're worried about national expectations that's a joke. We have our reputation, it won't die over one season. We need to start focusing on this season. We have become the underdog team. We're not that team anymore that teams come to play saying "this is UCLA, they are proven, we better come out and show it." They are now the team of undercoached, overvalued youngsters who haven't done anything but disappoint.
This point brings me to tonight's attempted rush of the court. Coming into college I thought the only way UCLA would ever rush the court was a perfect season. Today changed that. Sure it was embarrassing. Sure it would seem terrible to see on Sportscenter: "UCLA rushes courts against unranked opponent." Its embarrassing. Its juvenile. And it's exactly what this team needs.
We must drop this pompous, elite attitude. We're not a superpower this year and we gotta stop acting like it. Fans aren't coming to games since they expect perfection and they're not getting it this year. But we're an underdog team that can bring the exciting game (Cal and Washington) and that's what the fans should be expecting to see. Even though we failed to rush the court, it was exactly what we needed. Some of us (including myself) made it to midcourt. While we were shortly ushered off, the players certainly took note. I have never seen more energized players. Reeves Nelson let out a tremendous yell and Lee and Honeycutt were high fiving everyone. Don't say "These are the young players who have yet to understand our tradition". Roll was more amped up than anyone. This is what this team needs. If you don't want to be disappointed vs. Wash St (or the future), the team needs this encourage. They can no longer be thought of the "let-down team" but rather "the underdog team". We'll rush the court. We'll take it as an accomplishment. We'll win the games. Not as much as we should, but this team needs to take on a new identity.
Which brings me to my final point about the Den being pathetic. There was no reason we should not of rushed the court. The security guard were not intent on stopping us, they were doing only their duty (holding up their arms) and the LA fans got scared. While I know you are going call me out on breaking the law, but cops are obligated to do this. Ask any college basketball fan who has rushed a court (and do not bring up the USC-UCLA argument, Rose Bowl is completely different, we do not own that stadium so cops can pepper spray us, that would not do that to their own student at Pauley). You gotta take the step and run past those guards. Rushing the court is about claiming the court as ours. And that's what we needed. LA fans lack the enthusiasm needed. I have been to every football and basketball game and it has shown throughout. It showed during football season (half the stadium was empty for our bowl clinching win) and it has been half-empty this basketball seaason. Its embarrassing. That being said, if we could have pulled off the rush, imagine the clip on sportcenter. It would be what our players and fans needed. Think of any rushing the court clip, the riot in the middle of the courts, fans celebrating with athletes. Now forget history, if fans see that on the tv do you not think they will be pumped up to go to future games? What's better? Seeing the win and then seeing our record (8-10) and thinking we suck? Or seeing the win and the celebration and thinking "this is a team i wanna see." If this team saw a chaotic celebration do you not think they would be amped up knowing their fan base loves them?
We were the number one play on espn and our crowd needs to get behind this team. They are not our past teams but they are today's team. Never forget our history. We are UCLA. We are championship. But this team is not at the level so we have to meet them halfway. Our expectations are too high, we are an underdog team and we gotta feed that identity.
Sorry to offend any fans, but being in the heart of the den then hearing the criticism set me off. Celebrate with the team. Our reputation will stay in place and if we want more respect, we need to start winning. Some of the point may seem exaggerated, but I hope the point reaches home. Drop the attitude of expecting championships for right now. At least for this season. These players need that.
