UCLA fans have to enamored with Kevin Love and his superior play as a freshman for the Bruins. UCLA easily handled Xavier last night 76-57 and have advanced to their third straight Final Four. Third straight! Love is fundamentally sound and is one of the best big man passers in the game today. Check out this video clip of Kevin Love hitting a half court shot, a 3/4 and a full court shot in practice. It looks so easy!

I think it’s pretty safe to day Karl Dorrell is out like a Members Only jacket at the end of this year as the head coach of UCLA. Wanna know who is the next head coach for this potential PAC 10 powerhouse? Boise State’s current head coach Chris Petersen will be the new head coach in LA next year. Rumors are swirling already and we are going to run with this story as a done deal! Once Petersen takes over the Bruins the rest of the PAC 10 better pay attention because this guy is a ball coach. If he can take the Boise State Broncos into a BCS game and stun a Stoopes coached Sooners team then you should know he is for real. The only way this doesn’t go down is if Rick Neuheisel blows so much spoke at the AD of UCLA that he can’t see straight.

It’s under two weeks until the college basketball season kicks off which means we need to talk some hoops. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t wait for Memphis vs Tennessee-Martin (I wonder what the line will be in this gam?) and Maine vs Richmond on November 5th. Here is our preseason Top 5 college basketball poll and if you have feedback don’t forget to register and tell us what you think!

1 - UCLA - The Bruins have made the Final Four the last two years and this year should be no different with all the fire power they bring back. UCLA returns Darren Collison, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp, Michael Roll, Alfred Aboya and Lorenzo Mata-Real. They also welcome Parade, Gatorade, McDonald’s, you f##in name it high school player of the year Kevin Love. Look for Ben Howland to lead this extremely talented team to the promise land even without the leading scorer from the last two years Aaron Afflalo.

2 - UNC - Roy Williams lost Brandan Wright to the NBA lottery last year, but this team has boat loads of talent coming back. Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are the three main guns with Hansbrough up for a national player of the year award. The Heels will win the ACC this year if role players like Marcus Ginyard and Danny Green step up their games up in conjunction with a solid contribution from freshman star William Graves. ACC should be in the bag and a Final Four is very possible for the boys in baby blue.

3 - Kansas - Rock Chalk Jayhawk will be ring loud and clear this year in Lawrence, Kansas with all-everything Brandon Rush leading the way. Mario Chalmers, Russell Robinson and Sasha Kaun are the other returning starters from last year with only Julius Wright jumping to the big pond from an Elite Eight team just last year. Bill Self also has new addition 6-11 center Cole Adrich who should provide some help down low. If Rush stays focused the ceiling is the limit for this team.

4 - Memphis - John Calipari has decided for now Memphis is home and he has turned this University into a national college basketball powerhouse. They return 5 of their top 6 players from last year’s squad and the Tigers have made the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons. Don’t forget Memphis has the best point guard recruit in the nation Derrick Rose along with another star freshman in Justin Robinson. The schedule is in their favor due to home or neutral court games against Tennessee, Georgetown, Arizona, Gonzaga and Southern California with no road games harder than UAB. Look out!

5 - Louisville - We are leaving Georgetown out of our top five simply for the fact Jeff Green is gone and that means Lousiville will win the Big East. The Cardinals return 7 of their top 8 and are lead by one of the best coaches in the land in Rick Pitino. Terrence Williams, Edgar Sosa, David Padgett, Juan Palacios, and Derrick Caracter are the big guns and I’m sure they want to avenge their 1 point loss in the round of 32 last year against Texas A&M.

Psyche! Ben Howland is however making himself quite a name in Los Angeles these days. Howland signed a seven-year deal today that will be worth well over $16 million when it’s all said and done. Howland received this extension because he has guided the Bruins to back-to-back Final Four’s for the first time since 1976 during the glory days of UCLA. If I was UCLA I would have locked this man into a 20 year deal because he is the REAL DEAL. I fully expect UCLA will have a National Championship before 2010 and they might end up with two by then.

Notre Dame and Charlie Weisz extended the worst start in the history of Irish football with a loss yesterday to the Purdue Boilermakers. The Irish are now 0-5 and on their way to at least 0-8 with upcoming games at UCLA and then Boston College and USC at home. Nice work boys…this is one heck of a record to hold.

Miami covers -18 at home against Marshall
Va Tech covers -28 at home against ECU
UCLA covers -17 at Stanford

OVERALL RECORD:

College Football: 10-9
NBA 6-4
MLB 1-0
College Basketball 48-37-2
NFL 12-5-1

You are the FIRST NCAA university to win 100 national championship titles. More importantly you won the 100th with the ever elusive water polo title yesterday against Stanford 5-4. In all serious this is a phenomenal feat and it shows the dedication the university has to their athletics department.

We are one day away from the Final Four and you can almost feel the electricity in the air.  During these times the fans of their beloved schools love to have some fun along the way.  I tip my cap to the UCLA fans who participated in the thread below.  I almost started crying because I was laughing so hard when I saw some of the Joakim Noah pictures.  I know my boy DB will love this post.

Click this link ***UCLA fans picking on Florida thread***

UCLA covers -7 against Indiana

Michigan State covers +9.5 against UNC

OVERALL RECORD:

College Basketball 47-37-2

NBA 3-1

NFL 12-5-1

College Football: 10-8

…..IS Lorenzo Mata.  This all Windex player is the heart and soul of the UCLA Bruins.  No one is more rough and tough down low and yet can look so good.  Congrats Lorenzo!

(this is 100% a joke, but will give one of my friends a good laugh)