Oh, UC Santa Bill, can it get any worse? Coming off of a loss to UC Davis last week, the Gauchos went up against their foes from the University of Pacific (remember Tom Cockle? He was my favorite guy to make fun of while I was at UCSB). Well, looking to try and get on the straight and narrow over the weekend, the 'Chos came up severely short against UOP and the Fightin' Tigers. How bad was it? Try only scoring 36 points...in an entire game.
UCSB only trailed by 3 after the first twenty minutes, but UOP's Seattle, WA native Chad Troyer went nuts with four threes in the second half to lead the 35-16 second half charge. Santa Barbara ended up shooting just 22 percent from the field in the second half, with an overall 29 percent. On the positive hand, it was the best defensive effort for the Gauchos this year, holding an opposing squad to just 58 puntos, but the offense just wasn't there. Keep in mind that Stockton, CA native (back in his hometown for this game) James Nunnally led all UCSB scorers ...with 9 points! By the way, the 36-58 finish was the least amount of points scored by our alma matter since 1978. 4 years before my humble birth was the last time we were this bad. Seriously painful. Even the bench scores make me sad, with UOP leading our boys 36-11. In case your keeping track, Eagle River, AK native Chris "Big Country" Devin was held to just 8 points and 7 boards. I feel like I'm talking about Newcastle, rather than UCSB. Well, next up is a huge battle for me vs. my father, as UCSB (my former school) welcomes California State Northridge (my father's former school) to the T-Dome for a huge Big West battle that will get play on ESPNU (set your DVRs people). The Gauchos and the Matadors finished the 2007-2008 regular season as Big West Champions, and this year our boys are a second-to-last 8-11 (2-5) and the 'Dors are a surprisingly fourth place 7-10 (4-3). Despite being so bad off, we are just 3.5 games back of the leading Long Beach State Forty Dirt Bags. Hopefully Brandon's predictions are correct-a-moon-do for this Thursday's battle.
Meanwhile, my other hardwood love affair are really starting to fail. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have dropped to #22 in the country after being ranked so high so early. The latest tragedy being a 64-71 loss to #8 Marquette. Four of the Golden Eagle players finished with more than 13 points. As for Notre Dame, Luke Harangody's 29 made him the only player with more than 10 (with Saginaw, MI native Tory Jackson getting 10 to be the only other player with double digits). The Irish ended up with a big doughnut off the bench, which didn't help the sorry starters. ND only shot 36 percent from the floor in this one (at 44.5 % this season so far), in a game that sent their Catholic Stars reeling to 2-5 against ranked teams this year. Is it just that the Big East is too good this year? Are we doing something wrong? We looked so good coming into conference play, and it has been all downhill since then. Of course, we can't use the "we play against hard teams all the time" excuse to get into the Madness of March 2009. The loss dropped the Irish out of the Top 25 according to the AP (still 22 according to to the coaches who really hate cancer). Next up is another tough Big East match against #3 Pitt in a game that has this guy is on record calling an Irish win. A win against the Panthers would be huge heading into the match against Cincinnati (that should be an easy win), and just two games before the exciting match here in Southern California against UCLA. The 12-7 (3-5) Leprechauns need to turn things around quickly if they want to stay popular among tournament voters. Do you think they'll let in 11 teams from the Big East this year? Yes.
Not that I'm trying to turn this into a weekly basketball post or anything, but let's shift gears to the OC high school scene and the not so Mighty Barons. Fountain Valley actually improved their record to 7-14 (1-5) on the season after a big win against the seeming rivals from Newport Harbor. Fountain Valley actually managed to score less than UCSB in their huge win 34-31. FV's Marquez (no first name provided by OC Varsity.com; maybe he's like Cher or Madonna) was the big man on campus with 14 points, followed up by a strong 13 from Mr. Lee (honestly, Newport Harbor has their kid's first names listed, what the hell is the deal?). Isn't it crazy that FV only scored 7 points in the second and fourth quarters of play in the win? It was that 11 large in the third that really pushed things forward for the Blue & Gold. Next up is a Friday night bash against Marina (at the brick palace on the FTV campus), and hopefully Los Barones can get that large 8th win.
On my way out, two NBA facts for you: 1) The Celtics (37-9) take on the Sacramento Kings (10-36) in the first part of my triple play tonight, and 2) I almost decided to become a Clippers fan after getting mildly excited listening to their play-by-play on the radio, but then I quickly came to my senses. If only the Celtics could be the C's of '06 that I really loved.
I'd like to point out that not only did David Beckham not make soccer any more popular in the US, but he may be making a decision that could end any chance of soccer ever hitting the mainstream in this beautiful land of ours. Americans are going to be pretty bitter with this guy. Hopefully one of my boys from Lazio (and I say my boys, because I actually have a Lazio jersey) will take him out and end that fading career of his.
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