For the first time in years, those of you coming to UCLA as freshmen or transfer students truly have reason to be optimistic about Bruin sports.
The men’s basketball team actually made the NCAA Tournament last year.
The football team has showed signs of turning the corner from mediocre to good.
And as usual, the rest of UCLA’s sports are shining, with the Bruins picking up three NCAA Championships in the 2004-2005 academic year and finishing second an amazing five times – that’s eight teams finishing in the top two in the country.
Since the Wooden era, when (shame on you if you didn’t know this already) UCLA won 10 NCAA men’s basketball titles in 12 years, there might not be a better time to be entering UCLA than now if you are a sports fan.
Coach Ben Howland led the men’s basketball team back to the NCAA Tournament after two painful, horrible years of missing the Big Dance.
And that’s just the beginning. The Bruins have a lot of potential, as they are a very young team. Three out of the five returning starters are going to be sophomores, and this year’s recruiting class boasts four freshmen with the ability to make an immediate impact.
So with an established coach and a young core of talented players, you new students will not have to suffer the agonies that were the past two seasons, where the Bruins were lucky just to make the Pac-10 Tournament. Instead, you will likely see UCLA emerge as a prominent force, reclaiming its spot as a national powerhouse.
Football may have only finished a mediocre 6-6 last year, but for once the Bruins gave evil USC a good game. After several consecutive years of being demolished by the national-champion Trojans, the Bruins lost 29-24 in a heartbreaker. And despite losing a potential touchdown on a bad call, UCLA still had a chance to win on their last drive.
More importantly, UCLA landed one of the top quarterback recruits in the country in Ben Olson. Quarterback has been one of the team’s weaknesses the past few years – not that Drew Olson (no relation to Ben) was bad, just not great.
And to be a good college football team, you need a good – if not great – quarterback. Every great team has one. If he lives up to the hype, Ben Olson could be just what UCLA needs.
So my advice to you is: Go to a football game. Go to a basketball game. Even if you’re not a hardcore fan, you have other commitments, or you don’t like being in large crowds, you have to experience the UCLA major sports at least once. And odds are, the experience will be much more enjoyable than it was for the seniors who just graduated, who had to put up with mediocre basketball and football teams.
More importantly, attend a sporting event other than basketball and football too. It may not be the socially cool thing to do (you will rarely see large student sections there). But that’s when you get to see some of the best athletes in the country and the world (many of these people are or will be Olympians) while also viewing national champions.
Those lucky individuals who made their way up to the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center and saw the men’s and women’s water polo teams in action were able to see national champion players, as did those who paused to watch a men’s tennis match at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on their way back from class.
In my four years here, in fact, many of the most memorable games I’ve seen were from the less-heralded sports. Softball. Soccer. Volleyball.
There was the “miracle at Jackie Robinson” stadium, where UCLA came back from behind six runs to defeat crosstown rival USC in the finale of the regular season my third year.
My fourth year, I took hold while UCLA, who was hosting the Final Four at Pauley Pavilion came one game short of winning their record 19th national title in men’s volleyball.
You are coming to UCLA at the right time. The possibilities for Bruin sports are endless.
It only seems like Quiñonez writes this column every year. E-mail him at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.