Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

John Wooden was already immortalized in UCLA lore with his decade of dominance as UCLA’s basketball coach.

But now, Wooden’s image will be further engrained in Bruin history, when UCLA unveils a statue of Wooden outside of Pauley Pavilion on Oct. 26, just a couple weeks before the men’s basketball team debuts at the new Pauley against Indiana State.

“The statue is a monument to a man who touched countless lives and showed us what it means to lead with integrity, humility, compassion and commitment,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block in an official statement. “I speak for many when I say with pride that his image will forever grace the main entrance to Pauley Pavilion.”

Of course, John Wooden’s influence at UCLA goes beyond his dominance as head coach of the Bruins when he won ten NCAA titles between 1964 and 1975.

Wooden essentially propelled college basketball into popularity during his time while also producing basketball legends such as big men Bill Walton and Lew Alcindor (also known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Furthermore, Wooden’s philosophy on life and framework for success was met with positive reception; Wooden wrote a book detailing his Pyramid of Success and has given countless lectures on the topic.

UCLA basketball season re-opens Pauley Pavilion on November 9.

This is a part of our “UCLA’s Most Beloved” series, in which we have a bracket-style tournament to determine who UCLA’s most beloved sports figure is. For more info, visit here.

Today’s match-up: No. 1 John Wooden vs. No. 4 J.D. Morgan

Why Vote John Wooden

The answer here is obvious, if you ever do enough reading on UCLA basketball. To summarize this dude in such a short space is robbery, but here it goes.

Wooden was UCLA’s most successful coach in history, and as a result, became considered to be the greatest coach in the history of all sports. Wooden won 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years, and had a winning percentage of .804.

His impact beyond the court is probably what propelled him to the “greatest coach in the history of all sports” label, too. John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success and his advice on how to lead cannot be accurately matched by any other coach. For an example, I urge you to watch this video from TED when Wooden was still alive:

Why Vote J.D. Morgan

J.D. Morgan is responsible for a ton of things, including winning eight NCAA championships in men’s tennis as a head coach. Outside of that, the dude was also one of the most active and involved athletic directors in the history of collegiate athletics.

In his time, the dude helped build Pauley Pavilion, Spaulding Field and Drake Stadium, all while having his Bruins win a grand total of 30 NCAA championships during his tenure from 1963 to 1979. The dude had a passion for UCLA athletics that could very well go unmatched. Morgan was a passionate fan with all the athletic savvy you could ask for.

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Now it’s your turn to vote. Who is more beloved?

UCLA has a rich tradition of athletics; dating back to 1950, no school has had as much success nationally as UCLA has. From basketball to volleyball, to golf and tennis, UCLA trumps any and all universities that think they’re worthy to compete.

So of course, UCLA has accumulated a ton of beloved figures as a result of this rich tradition. Considering the prominence of UCLA in terms of athletics, it’d be difficult to pin-point just one sports figure.

We have our opinions, but we thought it’d be cool to give you, the reader, a chance to determine who the most beloved figure in sports, via a 16-person bracket. There will be a 1-4 seeding, with four No. 1 seeds (March Madness style). You will determine the winner via polls, which will be up for approximately one week.

The criteria for this list is that all players are enshrined into some Hall of Fame institution, whether it be the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, or the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.

Of course, we realize we’re not perfect, so you, dear reader, will also have the chance to nominate some of your most beloved UCLA athletes. You can do so by commenting on this post (or any other featuring head-to-head poll battles) between now and the end of the tournament. Four nominated Bruins will be selected (if that much are nominated), and will face off in a mini-tournament to go up against the 16-figure bracket champ.

Every head-to-head battle will discuss the argument for both and will include the poll for you to vote on.

Here is the bracket.

Group 1

#1 John Wooden vs. #4 J.D. Morgan

#2 Pooh Richardson vs. #3 Michelle Kwan

Group 2

#1 Lew Alcindor vs. #4 J.J. Stokes

#2 Rick Neuheisel vs. #3 Randy Cross

Group 3

#1 Jackie Robinson vs. #4 Gail Goodrich

#2 Terry Donahue vs. #3 Al Scates

Group 4

#1 Bill Walton vs. #4 Walt Hazzard

#2 Troy Aikman vs. #3 Reggie Miller

In the coming days, you’ll see posts such as “UCLA’s Most Beloved: John Wooden vs. J.D. Morgan.” The first post will be set tomorrow, as well as the accompanying poll. Be sure to vote!

GO BRUINS!!!

Well, we don’t have any. Yet. But since we’re about to hit the lull that is the summer, we thought we’d start keeping things fresh ’round these parts by having a video vault of some neat, themeless, vintage videos from UCLA’s past, be it UCLA football, UCLA basketball, or the university at large. We encourage that you watch them and learn some things about the greatest university in the United States.

For our inaugural video vault post, we’ve went with a short discussion of Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and his time at UCLA. John Wooden and baby-faced Lew make an appearance:

Lew talks about his reasons for picking Wooden’s program, mainly because Lew was sick of New York and wanted to be independent and away from home (something all 17-year olds can relate to, we suppose).

Wooden also discussed how Lew was so dominant, UCLA could easily build their offense around him … but didn’t.

There’s also a specific small rivalry between UCLA and Houston, in which Alcindor had a terrible game due to his injury (Wooden said that was no excuse, and outlined numerous reasons why), leading to a rare UCLA loss.

Of course, the teams met again and UCLA completely stomped them, something Wooden was confident that they’d do.

Have a neat, vintage video you’d like featured on “UCLA Video Vault”? Hit us up on the not-so-vintage social media platform, Twitter: @GoJoeBruinUCLA

Dec 20, 2011; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the center circle with the UCLA Bruins logo at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

With Pauley Pavilion’s construction apparently going smoothly, people on campus and off are excited for UCLA’s 2012-13 basketball season, partly because of our monster recruiting class and partly because we’re giddy over the prospect of a renovated Pauley Pavilion.

But some grouchy old men (as opposed to very delightful, nice old men) have gripes with that. And, as a certain cohort of grouchy old men are wont to do, they’ve decided to take all quotes and the entire story out of context to justify their desire to tear down the house that Coach John Wooden built. Check it:

They tore down Yankee Stadium. Literally tore down the House that Ruth Built. If the Yankees can tear down the place where the symbol of Americana and American sports around the world [...] how the hell do you justify calling Pauley Pavilion a building that can’t be touched?!

[...]

And what’s worse is that they admit, word for word, that all they did (other than the badly needed infrastructure improvements) was add a glass casing around the building.

Excuse me while I urinate from laughing so hard.

Where do I start here?

First, let’s get something straight: Pauley Pavilion is really damn historic; UCLA is both a progressive institution that also champions its history, refusing to disregard where they came from while attempting to move forward. Tearing down Pauley Pavilion is a pretty stupid idea; as a transfer student at UCLA who is currently in his first year in Westwood, I would have been damned if I didn’t get to step foot in the same arena that the greatest coach in all of sports history once coached in. And I’ll be damned if all the other kids who love UCLA basketball and understand the significance of Coach Wooden don’t get the same opportunity. Pauley Pavilion isn’t Yankee Stadium, because the greatest coach in sports history didn’t go through New York. I don’t see how you can justify tearing down Pauley.

Second, we’re glad that these guys took things way out of context (again; this is nothing new, coming from that website). And by “we’re glad” we mean that it gave us something to laugh about. To say that UCLA has spent $140 million to encase Pauley in glass is very ballsy, kind of stupid, and horribly inaccurate. Please read the whole article, you guys:

“One thing you’ll see that is different about Pauley Pavilion is that, in Coach Wooden’s days, the court was offset about 10 feet to the east so that we could run a frosh/soph court,” Weiner said. “We’re now going to center the court and bring out the seats in the east and west bleachers. There won’t be a 35-foot gap like we had in the past.” With 400 seats added to the floor level and 600 added to the upper level, seating capacity in the new Pauley will increase from 12,800 to 13,800, he said.

There will, of course, be a brand-new speaker system, a state-of-the-art video scoreboard, a 30-inch LED message system that will wind its way around the soffit and “hustle boards” (stat boards) located in the corners of the arena.

“The soffit is engineered in a way that’s sort of three-tiered,” Weiner explained. “One of the things that the coaches were always telling us was that they don’t hear the noise enough down there [on the court]. So now, as people get excited and start yelling at the top, that noise is going to bounce off the top and be deflected down to the bottom. But if we have a concert in here, the concert noise goes up and dies into an acoustic wall in the back.”

Well, that sounds a little more than encasing the damn thing in glass. If you read the drivel at BN, you’ve probably come to the wrong conclusion that Pauley’s interior will be untouched while some glass is placed over it. (Although, clever little wannabe politicians they are, they’ll tell you they never said that.)

“But wait,” you tell me. “That’s it? That’s all we’re getting for $140 million? BN SAYS YOU’RE LYING.”

Read on, wise guy:

An additional 50,000 square feet of space has been built underground to provide amenities that Pauley lacked, including a players’ lounge, equipment room, film room, weight room, trainers’ room and officials’ locker room. There will be a media room where basketball coaches Ben Howland and Cori Close will give their post-game interviews and where reporters can file their stories. A members-only Pavilion Club (capacity: 350) will feature three large-screen TVs and a bar, making it the only place in the building to serve alcohol.

Oh, you mean there’s more resources for the players and coaches to utilize in addition to adding in amenities for the media, while also giving donors another sexy-as-hell venue to watch their Bruins kick ass? Guess some people forgot to mention that. (Whoops!)

There’s also a ton of other neat things UCLA is adding to make Pauley Pavilion’s entrances look gorgeous and historic. You get the tradition and basic framework of Pauley with the look and feel of a state-of-the-art arena.

We know why some of you might want to use Pauley’s renovation as a reason to be angry: To fire Athletic Director Dan Guerrero. And while I totally agree with you on that position, dear reader, there are a dozen other reasons to want Guerrero gone as his contract runs up on March 31, 2013.

There should be no reason to stray from tradition as long as we keep progressing. Hopefully, some might realize the take-home message here.

GO BRUINS!!!

(Your turn, reader. Let us know in the poll below: Should Pauley Pavilion be torn down?)

Mar 4, 2012; Nashville,TN, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers head coach Pat Summitt cuts down and waves the net after her team defeated the LSU Tigers 70-58 during the finals of the 2012 SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-US PRESSWIRE

With legendary NCAA Women’s Basketball Coach Pat Summitt suffering from early onset dementia (indicative of Alzheimer’s Disease), Tennessee’s loss to Baylor in the Elite Eight of the Women’s Basketball tournament might have seen Summitt coach her last game.

And what a career it’s been. Eighteen Final Four trips and eight national championships solidifies her as one of the greatest coaches in North American sports history.

With her in that list? Phil Jackson. Mike Krzyzewski. And, of course, UCLA legend John Wooden.

Among those coaches, it seems as if the consensus pick for greatest coach of all time is John Wooden, with ESPN and Sporting News having Wooden topping their respective lists of greatest coaches of all time.

And here at Go Joe Bruin, we agree wholeheartedly: You cannot top John Wooden, you can only hope to compare yourself to him.

Pat Summitt has bullied her way through to be worthy of those comparisons.

Because Summitt’s feats go beyond being competitive each and every year: Her feats are those of longevity and stamina. In the past 31 seasons as coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Coach Summitt has taken her teams to the Sweet Sixteen 30 times, and has won eight national titles. Tennessee is a force to be reckoned with each and every year because Summitt is the head honcho of the Lady Vols’ basketball squad.

Of course, some crazy people (and the rest being, rightfully, Tennessee fans) will argue that Summitt has surpassed John Wooden as the greatest coach in sports history.

Sure, the numbers are pretty dead even (with Wooden earning ten national titles in a more competitive field), but the legend of John Wooden goes beyond that.

Because, as far as we’re concerned, Pat Summitt fits the leadership qualities that indicates she was probably following John Wooden’s Pyramid of Greatness, and not the other way around.

Wooden’s teachings went beyond the court, and we all know this. Wooden was more than a basketball coach: He was a philosopher, a philanthropist.

We won’t get into all that in one blog post — it really wouldn’t do Wooden, or Summitt, justice.

But is it fair to say Summitt is the John Wooden of NCAA Women’s Basketball? Sure, just as we can say Phil Jackson was the John Wooden of the NBA.

And that, in itself, is a hell of an honor.

Dec 20, 2011; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the center circle with the UCLA Bruins logo at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

The division among UCLA fans, students and alum as well as the mainstream media keeps getting wider and wider. While many Bruins are upset at the article and want to see UCLA Coach Ben Howland pack his bags, just as many want to see Ben Howland stick around for one more year. The mainstream media seems to be largely on Ben Howland’s side, although there are a large chunk of pundits who think Howland needs to be in Westwood in 2013.

Although he didn’t say so explicitly, count UCLA legend and NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the group who wants to see Ben Howland gone, saying that Bruin basketball is a shell of what it once, which formulated during Howland’s tenure. Here’s a snippet of his post, from ESPN.com:

UCLA Bruin basketball is a shadow of its former self right now, and the rumors we hear about poor discipline and lack of leadership are very troubling to those of us who helped build the extraordinary tradition of achievement that defined the John Wooden era. The challenge for UCLA is one of recognizing the best way to restore the focus on the ideals that were central to Coach’s success. It is no easy task, but until it happens, those of us who bleed Bruin Blue will feel an extreme sense of loss.

[...]

When I was on the New York Knicks staff, I had the opportunity to interact with Trevor Ariza. Trevor felt that he did not fit in Coach Howland’s system very well, so he left for the NBA instead of trying to deal with his coach’s way of doing things. He indicated that if he had to deal with a personality like Howland’s, he preferred to get paid for doing so. This trend appeared to continue as the program recruited more players who would rather leave than deal with Coach Howland’s personality.

[...]

Howland has not earned a reputation for being a nurturing type of coach who catered to the players. If I were in Coach Howland’s position, I would have cleaned house much earlier, eliminating players who did not respect other players or the coaching staff. That type of attitude is something a coach cannot tolerate if he wants to maintain control of his team. Self-control is one of the key disciplines that coaches must teach. It is essential for any sport.

Not that we needed confirmation, but this is even more proof that Ben Howland’s personality is far too abrasive to get the most out of his players. Howland is incredibly distant, terrifyingly calculated and disturbingly cold towards his players. He may be a “Hell of a coach” (something I’d dispute, considering he’s incredibly stubborn with his game plan), but if players are jumping ship any way they can (with guys like Ariza, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Mike Moser, et al. all leaving for the NBA earlier than we’d like or transferring out of Westwood) then his approach to the game of basketball needs to be reconsidered and, possibly, drastically changed.

That’s if he’s given the chance to coach a major program like UCLA’s. What is essentially required for Howland is a total personality change — it doesn’t seem like Howland is a jerk to his players on purpose, but instead is just a cold jerk as a result of who he is. Personality is largely inherited and Howland might just be distant and “socially awkward” because he can’t help it.

But just because Howland can’t help his abrasiveness, doesn’t mean UCLA is obligated to keep him around. If Howland has a hard time managing the egos and erratic behavior that his players exhibit, how will he ever be a successful coach? Will he just rely on talent that goes largely unnoticed in the most obscure areas of the country? If a five-star recruit comes knocking on his door looking for an elite program to play for, will he turn them away?

Howland’s personality change isn’t going to happen in one offseason; hell, it isn’t going to happen over the course of a full calendar year. Legendary coaches championed discipline, but they also championed tough love. John Wooden kept his players in check, but he also shared with them a philosophy that extended beyond the basketball court. Phil Jackson got his players to buy into his system and think on their feet on the court, but he also shared with them some of his own philosophical beliefs and connected even with the most dysfunctional of personalities (i.e. Dennis Rodman, Ron Artest).

Howland doesn’t do that — he just isn’t that type of guy. His X’s and O’s are just that — things that just relate to basketball. And in order for players to buy into a system and enjoy basketball so much that they’d give it their all (and then some), they have to respect their coach on a deeper level. Howland isn’t very multi-dimensional; he never has been, and it’s unlikely that he ever will.

Kareem seems to share these sentiments, especially considering John Wooden was a lifetime friend. While John Wooden’s personality made his players wish they had more than four years of eligibility, Ben Howland’s players can’t stomach half of that.

Hopefully UCLA and Ben Howland figures these things out, but restoring UCLA to greatness is no easy task.

UCLA’S UPCOMING OPPONENTS:

Washington Huskies,  Alaska Airlines Arena, Seattle, WA, Thursday, February 2, 6:00 p.m.

Record:  14-7, 7-2 in the Pac-12 Conference

Well, I regret to say that the UCLA Bruins have another Pacific Northwest trip to worry about, and just two weeks after getting beat by the Oregon schools in that same part of the country.

When I saw that the schedule makers have the Bruins playing a first place Washington Husky team on Thursday evening, I wondered if they had some kind of vendetta, because these Dawgs from Seattle are good.

So much so that, as much as I hate to say it, I don’t expect Ben Howland’s team to win this game – especially since it’s at their place, which is considered the toughest for visiting teams in the Pac-12.

Here’s why:

These Huskies from U-Dub run on a three guard set with players at that position being the team’s top three scorers, led by freshman guard Tony Wroten and his 17.1 points per game.

Sophomores Terrance Ross and C.J. Wilcox join Wroten in the backcourt and have likewise done damage for Washington, with Ross averaging 15.1 points a game and Wilcox averaging 14.8.

7′ 0″ junior Aziz N’Diaye is a threat on the boards at center with his 8.1 rebounds a contest, and he will provide a real threat for Joshua Smith down low.

When one puts this all together, combined that they will be in front of their fans, and it spells a situation where the Bruins (12-9, 5-4 in the Pac-12) will have to play a near-perfect game in order to beat them.

The Wear twins, forwards David (12) and Travis (24), have a tough task against the Washington schools this week

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Going into this Pac-12 contest with an Arizona State team that had suspended three players - two of them starters, including Keala King, the team’s leading scorer, who has since left the team – the UCLA Bruins sensed an opportunity to make a statement in putting away a conference opponent that they were expected to beat handily.

Led by Joshua Smith, who showed no ill effects from a recently suffered concussion in scoring a game-high 18 points – many of them of the down-low dunk kind as he made eight of his 12 shots - and Travis Wear’s 16 points and seven rebounds, the Bruins used a 46-18 advantage in the paint and a gradual wearing down of the Sun Devils, who were playing with only six scholarship players and had one walk-on in their rotation, to beat them 75-59 before 9,076 at the Honda Center this past Saturday, finishing a perfect 4-0 in that building.

The win was UCLA’s second in a row, securing a sweep of the Arizona schools after getting swept in the Bay Area, evening their Pac-12 Conference record to 2-2 and their overall mark to 9-7.

UCLA’s runs of 19-6 in the last 9:48 if the first half and 14-0 in the second half were more than enough to finish ASU.  Here are the highlights of the win courtesy of uclabruins.com:

UCLA Defeats Arizona State, 75-58 on YouTube

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Apparently, all those pundits and fans who were predicting the UCLA basketball team’s loss to the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday night forgot to tell those Bruins.

Despite Joshua Smith sitting out the game due to a concussion suffered on Tuesday, Ben Howland’s team was quicker on defense, holding Arizona to 36% shooting, agressively attacking the basket on offense, and committing just nine turnovers on the way to a 65-58 win in the John R. Wooden Classic before a season-high crowd of 9,274 at the Honda Center.

“We made a good step forward,” Howland said after the game, in which the Bruins earned their first Pac-12 win after getting swept in the Bay Area, improving to 8-7 overall.

By winning, UCLA avoided their first 0-3 conference start since 1987-88.

The Wear twins, Travis and David, were the go-to guys as they combined for 34 points and ten rebounds, Travis scoring a career-high 20 points with David contributing 14 before fouling out with five minutes left in the game.

Lazeric Jones was the other Bruin in double figures, scoring 13 points and hitting two clucth free throws with 8.3 seconds left to seal the game.

UCLA used a 17-4 run in the first half to take a 37-30 halftime lead, and although they made just one basket – a layup by Travis Wear – in the game’s final 5:37, the Bruins held on with free throws and clutch stops, including forcing a key turnover by Arizona’s Solomon Hill with less than two minutes left and UCLA only up by five.

John  Wooden would have been most pleased with his former team’s effort, with 35 members of the late coach’s family in attendance cheering UCLA on, obviously liking what they saw.

The Bruins now need to maintain this momentum against Arizona State on Saturday; a win would even their conference record and, as there is no clear-cut favorite to win the Pac-12 this season, put them in the thick of the race.

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