Ok, so this is our first attempt at liveblogging a game, so bear with us if it sucks (or if the game sucks). But it’s worth a shot, so here goes…

10 mins pregame: early scores indicate UNC throttled NC State, Xavier dropped Fordham easily, Florida defeated Auburn, and the suddenly resurgent Depaul Blue Demons beat St. Johns in NYC to go 3-1 in the Big East. Oh, and Kentucky is up ten in the first half against undefeated Vandy (thanks CBS for showing me this worthless Oklahoma St.-Texas Tech game instead).

5 mins pregame: just switched over to FSN to find that the Nebraska-Kansas women’s game still has two minutes left. Thank God this game isn’t going to OT, but STOP FOULING!!

2 mins pregame: this UConn-Georgetown game has the feel of being a good game so far – Hoyas up 1 mid-first half…

1 min pregame: ok good the women’s game is over…

2:30pm: Marques Johnson is the color guy, that’s a good thing. He played at UCLA, right? Frankly, the crowd seemed a little quiet, but maybe they’re not all there yet. After all, it is 11:30am in LA.

2:33pm: UK’s up ten at the half. Vandy did this last week against UMass, but that was at home. Still, we don’t expect that score to hold the entire game. Vandy will hit some 3s and close the gap.

2:34pm: Wow, only the sixth time the Pac-10 has had a Top 5 matchup – wanna bet how many of them involved the Bruins?

2:35pm: Gametime spread is UCLA (-6) – don’t think I’d take that many points this year.

19:22: Collison already shows his worth with a steal on Wazzu’s first possession, then turns it right back over…

18:04: has anyone figured out Kevin Love’s wannabe Justin Timberlake beard thing yet?

16:06: predictably ugly so far, but moreso for Wazzu. Derrick Low is getting penetration, but can’t finish inside. Some particularly poor passing from Wazzu as well – 4 TOs so far. Man, Russell Westbrook can get up…

15:11: does anyone else despise that yellow “C” on the UCLA jersey??? What’s the point of that thing?

14:31: Aron Baynes looks like he should be chainsawing trees down somewhere. Love is starting to show some game (4 quick pts)…

13:51: Oh MY! Russell Westbrook with a fantastic double-clutch dunk on the break. 11-1 UCLA – Wazzu is looking terrible…

13:20: Mata-Real is in. He reminds us of Gollum. See the resemblence? So maybe Wazzu’s plan is a point per possession?

12:05: Shipp for another 3 – he really has some deep range on that shot.

11:34: Wazzu finally hits a shot. At this point, they look completely outclassed, but UCLA will allow them back in the game with a drought of their own. That’s just their style. Wait and see…

10:58: 100 NCAA championships? How many does Stanford have? Gotta be close to that figure.

9:30: Everything is a struggle for Wazzu – as soon as we type that, Baynes gets their easiest bucket yet inside…

8:24: suddenly there are a ton of carries and whistles… K-Love might end up with a dub-dub in the first half…

7:15: um, did Kyle Weaver and Derrick Low stay in Pullman for this game?

5:56: wow, Love is outscoring Wazzu right now. They look horrendous. Missing easy layups, mishandling the ball. Down 17 and counting…

5:13: tremendous D on that possession by UCLA – when they’re playing like this defensively, the only team that can beat the Bruins is Florida 06 and 07.

4:25: WSU hits double-digits.

3:50: Weaver hits a three for his first bucket. Low and he are a combined 1-8 from the field.

2:36: Airball from UCLA and the Cougars convert into a delayed break layup. 30-17. This game isn’t over yet.

1:33: Quick score check-in. Vandy down 4 at UK with 7 to go. Texas down 10 at Mizzou with 10 to go. UConn down 1 at Georgetown with 17 to go. ND down 6 at Marquette with 18 to go.

0:36: really poor turnover by Wazzu to push the lead back up to 16, instead of possibly being down to 12 or 11.

0:00: great halfcourt D by UCLA led to a forced three that Taylor Rochestie made – halftime score 35-22. UCLA is firmly in control.

Halftime: looks like CBS figured out that nobody wants to watch Oklahoma St. pissing all over Texas Tech (65-41 currently) and has moved us to the UK-Vandy game (57-53 with 5 remaining).

Stats: UCLA is hitting 64% to WSU’s 38%. Wazzu has sven rebounds for the entire game – UCLA has 17. And yet, UCLA is only up 13 pts. In a 60-pt game that’s a long way to come back from, but with the uncanny ability of both of these teams to go through extensive droughts, this game isn’t over yet. Ask us again if it’s 13 pts at the ten-minute mark, though. One positive note for the Cougs – they hit 6 of their last 7 shots.

20:00: Wazzu is 4-0 when behind at the half this season, but it’s doubtful that they were down as much as this; and we know for a fact they weren’t playing as good of an opponent. They have their work cut out to make this into a game.

[we switched over to the Vandy-UK game on CBS because it went to OT on a Shan Foster three-ball – now heading to double OT on a layup by Vandy’s AJ Ogilvy…]

4:32: we got caught up in that game over on CBS (UK won by six), but this game hasn’t changed much. UCLA is still up double digits.

3:18: this game’s over. K-Love has been a beast (25/14). Wazzu just dug too big of a hole at the start. UCLA is looking very strong.

3:17: we’ve criticized Love for his lack of hops before, but then we see him get to the top of the square in that block against Low on the last possession. Where is that explosiveness on the offensive end? For a guy with as much skill as he, Love sure gets packed a lot.

0:56: Low with another three – 21 in the second half. Too little, too late, though. They needed it in the first ten minutes.

0:48. Ok, Derrick Low is playing Y ball right now. This is ridiculous (24 in the 2d half).

0:22. Good LORD!!! The threes are raining right now! Down to 4!!!

0:12: Not sure we’ve ever seen three-point shooting like this – unbelievable! Seven threes in the last two mins! Down to a 3-pt game…

0:01: Wazzu finally missed one, and UCLA covers the six points on a last-second layup. Vegas rejoices.

Recap.  Well, we guess this was a liveblog of a half+, but it was still kinda fun.  Maybe next time the two of you reading it will comment as well.  Our take is that UCLA continues to be the team to beat come next March.  The key difference between the Bruins and Wazzu is that they can make plays on sheer athleticism that most other teams can’t.  And they defend like crazy.  Right now we would pay our rent money if someone could promise us a F4 of Memphis, UNC, UCLA and Kansas.  That would be spectacular.   

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am by rtmsf and is filed under boom goes the dynamite. Tagged: liveblogging, ucla, washington st. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.