Bill Plasche Can't Make His Mind Up About UCLA, But He Knows It's Bad

Bill Plaschke wrote this column on Thursday of last week. The title says, "UCLA won't last the weekend in NCAA Tournament, but USC will."

He wrote this sentence leading off the column.

UCLA will not make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Clearly, Bill did not have high expectations for the team. The next day Bill Plaschke wrote this column. The title was "UCLA shows that while it may be down, it may not be out."

A good kind of hopeful column for the Bruins faithful with uplifting passages, written in the short sentence structure Plaschke favors, that say things like:

Veto the idea that a school can instantly plunge from three consecutive Final Fours to One and Done.

Veto the idea that a Howland team will lose an NCAA tournament game it should win.

It seems that Plaschke had a little bit of hope for UCLA. To his credit Plaschke stuck by his guns and expected UCLA to lose to Villanova.

On Thursday, it was do. On Saturday, well, I've already written that it will be the other option.

Basically he expected UCLA to lose to Villanova...so then my real question is what is up with this column? I read it and thought that someone died. Bill pretty much rubs UCLA's nose in the dirt that they lost and makes it seem like it is much worse of a loss than it truly is. UCLA will rebound...but not according to the sage known as Bill Plaschke.

Shaken to its core, UCLA must begin to rebuild

Wow a lot of drama in this sentence, I feel like I need to step up my game now...or maybe go cry in the bathroom for UCLA.

The UCLA basketball team awoke Saturday from three consecutive Final Fours with a throbbing headache, quaking dizziness and a stomach that wouldn't stop leaping and pounding.

They did not make the Final Four for the fourth consecutive year. If anyone could see me right now, I am playing the world's smallest violin just for them right now. The strings are made purely of the tears of Darren Collison.

Call it Villa-nausea.

Let's not do this.

A landmark defeat because it was the worst tournament loss in Howland's UCLA history.

I wish I had a "fun with numbers" tag because this is a great example of how Bill Plaschke is having some fun with numbers. This 20 point loss is the worst loss in UCLA history under Ben Howland. Sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Maybe time to panic or perhaps sacrifice your youngest child to the NCAA Tournament gods to turn around the team's luck next year?

Wrong, wrong, wrong...I am not going to let Bill Plaschke fuck with everyone's perspective of this loss to Villanova.

Howland came to UCLA in 2003, then the team did not even make the NCAA Tournament his first year. Call me insane, but many teams would take a blowout loss in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament as compared to not making the tournament at all. The next year they made the tournament and then three straight Final Fours after that. Bill Plaschke is being way overly dramatic here. The reason it is the worst loss is that UCLA had made the tournament five times with Howland as coach, and three of those times prior to this year, they made the Final Four.

Sure its the end of an era for UCLA because the Final Four core is officially gone but to say the program is "shaken to its core" is being overly dramatic. Players can only stay in school for 4 years at a maximum without a redshirt season. This type thing happens to EVERY successful team and that team has to deal with it. It doesn't always end in a loss in the NCAA Tournament but many times it does.

A landmark defeat also because now, not coincidentally, the rebuilding begins.

This rebuilding began this year actually. The team had 8 freshman with 5 of those on scholarship.

Although none of the three was dominating, Howland was hoping to squeeze as much as possible out of their presence before going to a full underclassman movement next winter.

A last hurrah.

If I am not wrong, Darren Collison is considered one of the best point guards in the country. I would describe him as fairly dominating.

Weep, weep, weep...a last hurrah (sniffling).

This past year UCLA had on its roster, as freshmen, the #1 AND #7 ranked shooting guards, the #3 ranked center, the #3 ranked point guard and the 15th ranked power forward. This class is also commonly known as the #1 ranked recruiting class for 2008. Oh and UCLA has the #7 ranked class coming in next year.

Please remember to weep for UCLA.

Villanova bumped and collided and ultimately drilled the Bruins in a reminder of the differences not only between rosters, but regions.

Because I am a fair person, I will admit a lot of this "colliding" and "bumping" looked like fouling to me. UCLA would have still lost but it was pretty rough out there.

I don't know if Villanova will get away with this against Duke because the Duke players will either (a) scream like they were stabbed when they are touched or (b) collapse in a heap on the court with the slightest amount of contact.

Thwack! He was not only caught by Villanova's Scottie Reynolds, he was clocked.

"That was our first message to UCLA," Cunningham said.

We will foul with impunity until it is called by the officials. That was the message.

Rattled, the Bruins did not have a field goal in the game's first five minutes, and had only two in the first 10 minutes.

I realize UCLA was "rattled" but I would say UCLA's inability to shoot the ball effectively did them in more than Villanova's rough playing of the sport of basketball.

At one point in the first half, they were shooting 14%.

You can't win when you shoot that poorly. Maybe it is a good thing UCLA is "starting over."

Villanova exposed what many consider to be the Bruins' two biggest weaknesses: lack of a consistent inside game, and Howland's stubbornness.

With only Aboya as an inside defensive threat -- and he picked up three fouls before halftime -- Wildcats guards controlled the game with constant dribble penetration.

Again, maybe a good thing they get to start over. I don't get why this whole column is supposed to have a feel like a funeral. When my team gets knocked out early in the NCAA Tournament, I can't wait for the next year to begin to get those losers who can't win an NCAA Tournament game deep in the tournament off the team. Of course, I am an asshole.

Heralded freshman Jrue Holiday, who had four turnovers and made one basket Saturday, should stay in school, move to his natural position of point guard, and lead next year's team. With Malcom Lee and Jerime Anderson, the Bruins would have a formidable backcourt.

I find it interesting how Bill Plaschke refers to UCLA has rebuilding and then he lists three players from the current team, who again were on the team this year, as a "formidable backcourt." Granted, these guys are probably going to progress, but it is a journalistic problem to write an article about how UCLA is rebuilding and they must start over, then just automatically assume three freshmen from the current team are going to be formidable. If that is the case, they won't need to rebuild all that much.

So are these three players going to be a formidable backcourt next year? I guess I really don't get how he can write an entire article bemoaning UCLA's future, then saying, "but they have great players for next year." It sounds very contradictory to the overall nature and purpose of the column.

Howland then needs to hope that big men Drew Gordon and J'mison Morgan both mature into the sort of players everyone once coveted.

Other than hope, he could also teach them to be better players.

His three consecutive Final Fours should be forever cherished and appreciated as a wonderful memory.

Every UCLA fan should take those Final Fours and put them in the part of their brain that treasures almost winning a National Championship. It is the bitter part of my brain where I store these memories.

But as Saturday showed, it will quickly become a distant one.

I don't really have anything snarky to say here, Bill has beaten me down for the day. UCLA has the #1 ranked 2008 recruiting class as sophomores (assuming Jrue Holliday sticks around) next year and has the #7 ranked class coming in this year. If you really believe UCLA is going to struggle for a few years, you are drunk...or Bill Plaschke.

I greatly dislike these dramatic type articles.