Since UCLA is not going to come close to sniffing a NCAA tournament berth and since I don’t want to take away from the upcoming DFO Tourney preview posts, I will post my anti-UCLA diatribe here:

For the record, I graduated from UCLA and have lived in Los Angeles since the 80s.

John Wooden was the worst thing to happen to UCLA sports. Sure, he gave the university multiple championships (through highly dubious means, of course) and this put the school on the map, but his championships had two distinct effects that have ensured that UCLA is doomed to not excel at the two major sports:

1) UCLA became a “basketball” school and football was treated as a secondary sport. This meant that any available funding went to basketball while the football program made do with what it had. The football teams still played well, which led to the “Gutty Little Bruins” stereotype which, tragically, people embraced, but you would have to be a complete moron to not do well in a city as filled with football talent as Los Angeles. Even USC’s rejects can still play pretty damn well.

FUCK THE GUTTY LITTLE BRUINS BULLSHIT!!

2) The championships created The Cult of Wooden. Seriously, you take one step onto the UCLA campus and you would have thought Wooden created fire. It’s nauseating and it stifles the ability of someone else to come in and create something good. Everyone always gets compared to Wooden. It’s patently unfair because no human can compare to a myth. And yes, Wooden was/is a myth. His teams were stocked with talent through some dubious dealings with a major booster. The NCAA has tightened its rules so much that the circumstances that led to the stockpiling of talent during the Wooden years is impossible. But assholes still expect championships like in the good old Wooden days! Wooden’s “pyramid of success” is something you could easily sell on late night TV infomercials. it’s not fucking rocket science is what I’m saying. Yet UCLA people lap it up and think it’s the greatest thing since someone combined peanut butter and jelly.

In order for UCLA to succeed at football and basketball, the myth of Wooden needs to be destroyed and more money needs to be poured into football. Thanks to Jim Mora, the money part is happening, but the AD, Guerrero, is so out of his league that he will probably fuck everything up.

The other problem is that the UCLA community is happy with mediocrity in sports. As long as the minor sports continue to get multiple championships (and they do, but that’s largely thanks to the individual talent of those athletes. They know they won’t make money at athletics, so they come to UCLA for the excellent education and free ride. They’re not stupid.), then alumni can be proud of UCLA athletics. Fuck that. The school’s academic reputation is responsible for that, not the athletic department.

I got my master’s degree at another university. Guess which one gets my money when donation time comes around? That won’t change until there is some real change in the athletic department. Oh, you say, but what about the academic side, doesn’t it deserve your support? Fair point, but the academic side is better served through public and private partnerships. After all, I can’t hire a UCLA grad, but my employer can. Isn’t that ultimately the point of going to college, to be able to get a job after you graduate?