Pac-10 Pride

I'm happy that both Washington and UCLA advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Perhaps the Huskies were blessed in the free-throw department, but the Bruins shot less than the Crimson Tide to compensate. And UCLA missed enough of the ones they had to pay back the rest of the karma with interest. I'm really looking forward to that Gonzaga-UCLA game Thursday. It's a shame that I will probably miss most of it sitting on a plane headed, ironically enough, for the City of Dirty Angels. Now if only the Wildcats can prevail over the Wildcats tomorrow, in a tautology with a lot of philosophical resonance, the vindication of my undersung league will be complete.

And, no, I'm not overly sad that my own Bears lost. They were playing a team that was slated for a 4 or 5 seed only a few weeks before and the game was tied with a minute to go. Given that they were easily the weakest on paper of the Pac-10 teams in the tournament and that the Wolfpack has a reputation for defending post players like Leon Powe extremely well, I really can't complain. Now if Ben Braun can only find a shooters camp a la Pete Newell's big man camp to send his guards too, while simultaneously convincing Leon Powe to come back for one more year and improve his medium-range game and ball handling, next year could be something special for my Bears. In the meantime, I will content myself with rooting for our Baby Bear cousins to the south, who share our fight song and colors, albeit in etiolated form. Besides, I have friends tangled up with Westwood, from elizabeg and mathmagic to a certain resident of Pasadena and, for the moment, his soon-to-be-ex colleague whose Panthers struggled valiantly today but were overmatched by Florida. Go Bruins! Go Huskies! Go Cats!