DraftExpress has added the official athletic measurements from the 2009 NBA Draft Combine to its comprehensive (and addictive) database. In addition to the size measurements that came out last week -- height with and without shoes, wingspan, standing reach -- the results include 3/4-court sprint times, body fat percentages, bench press, agility numbers and everyone's favorite, the vertical.
Despite claiming to have lost 40 pounds since the end of the college season, DeJuan Blair still has the second-highest body fat count (12%) among those measured. Florida State's Toney Douglas, Patrick Mills of St. Mary's and UCLA's Darren Collison rate as the fastest first-round prospects. (Austin Daye would be the slowest. Yes, even B.J. Mullens and Blair beat him.) Jonny Flynn is the only cat to break the 40-inch mark on the max vertical. DeMar DeRozan is almost five inches behind Vince Carter. The real shocker might be the incredible similarity in numbers between top pick Blake Griffin and ... Tyler Hansbrough. Guh.
Each week, ESPN's Joe Lunardi predicts the NCAA tournament field if the season ended today. While he's good at this, Lunardi only focuses on past performance, and wins and losses. Bracketology Busters looks at which teams should be expected to perform significantly better or worse than their projected seeds.
This week we'll look at a team that's seen their perception drop after a great three-year stretch, but is primed to make yet another late season run.
This wasn't the way the season was supposed to go for the Bruins. Despite losing a bevy of talent, UCLA was still expected to stand tall. The Bruins don't rebuild, they reload. The freshman class led by Jrue Holiday was supposed to be Ben Howland's best yet and the team was supposed to look forward to a fourth consecutive Final Four.
But it hasn't worked out that way.
The Bruins are 15-4, 5-2 in the Pac-10 and ranked No. 17 in the country. That's a good year. If you are Oregon State, or one of the other teams in the Pac-10. But this is UCLA. A place where only championship banners hang from the rafters. Something, however, is way worse for UCLA. Something nobody in Westwood is comfortable talking about.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
We could have gone for one of the pretentious UCLA blogs out there, but instead we went to a real fan, Insomniac, of the appropriately named Insomniac's Lounge. Hey, anybody who took the time to make this post must be a great fan.
UCLA coach Ben Howland has found the road map to the Final Four, having now guided his Bruins basketball team to play games in football stadiums (RCA Dome, Georgia Dome, Alamodome) in three consecutive years. While this is certainly a remarkable achievement in its own right, at UCLA success is ultimately only measured by national championships, and that is where Howland has been hitting a dead end. With a restocked lineup, Bruins fans have reason to hope that this is the season their team finally breaks through with a title. But this year, the journey will be missing the contributions of three players (Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) who left early for the NBA.
The Associated Press didn't let that stress reaction thingy keep them from making Tyler Hansbrough the leading vote getter in their preseason All-American for a record third straight year.
This year, Hansbrough was the first unanimous pick since Duke's Jason Williams in 2001-2002 and the first repeat selection since Mateen Cleaves in 1999-2000. Last year, Hansbrough missed being a unanimous pick by just one vote.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that Kevin Love and Darren Collison have both decided to make themselves available for June's NBA draft. Citing sources close to the players, the newspaper said that Love and Collison told coach Ben Howland of their decisions in separate meetings.
The newspaper reported that the two will hire agents, making them ineligible to return to the Bruins next season.
According to NBADraft.net, Love is projected to go in the back end of the lottery (in the 10-15 range), while Collison is around the #20 slot. Many people, including bloggers here at FanHouse, have speculated about what kind of career Love will have in the NBA. Some feel he could be a long-time starter ... while others feel he'll be a bust.
Interestingly, they have Russell Westbrook at the #9 pick ... and he hasn't declared for the draft. Yet.
Team spokesman Lamar Chance confirmed the suspension, first reported by television stations WMC and WREG, but declined to say what rule or rules Allen violated.
The Tigers will face UCLA on Saturday night in the semifinals in San Antonio.
"He was not on the plane. He is not here in San Antonio," Chance told The Associated Press when reached on his cell phone.
Allen is a tenacious defensive player who comes off the bench to be a stopper. He's not an offensive guy; he scored just nine total points in the Tigers' four NCAA Tournament games after averaging 3.3 ppg this season. Not having him is a big deal with Memphis facing UCLA's Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook on Saturday.
Since I last talked to you, Western Kentucky has made a run on UCLA. After trailing by 21 at the half, the Hilltoppers have outscored the Bruins 29-15 in the second half to trail (as I write this) by nine. There is under 9:00 left in the game.
How did they do this? Get UCLA in foul trouble.
Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison and Josh Shipp have all got four fouls apiece. Because those guys have to sit, Western Kentucky has decided to press UCLA full court. That has forced 17 UCLA turnovers and some easy baskets for WKU.
Tyrone Brazelton is leading the charge with 18 points (including three makes from behind the arc).
Oh, since I've written this ... UCLA's lead is down to four points.
UPDATE: With less than six minutes left, Collison fouled Courtney Lee on a three point shot. Collison has fouled out and the lead is still four.
For the first time in this year's NCAA Tournament, a No. 1 seed is in trouble. It's halftime in Anaheim, and UCLA, the 1 seed in the West region, trails 9 seed Texas A&M 29-26.
UCLA has gotten a big game from Darren Collison, who has 14 points and is 4-for-4 from the field, with all four shots coming from beyond the arc. Kevin Love has eight points and five rebounds. But UCLA's other three starters -- Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook -- have combined for zero points on 0-for-11 shooting.
A&M has eight points apiece Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan, and DeAndre Jordan has come off the bench to score six. Jordan, a 7-foot freshman who was one of the top recruits in A&M history, will need to have a big second half against Love, the more celebrated 7-foot freshman, for A&M to pull this one out.
UCLA and Stanford are two of the most physical teams in the country, and on Saturday they played a Pac-10 Tournament final that lived up to that reputation. The Bruins defeated the Cardinal 67-64 in an ugly game in which both teams looked flat-out tired. UCLA will almost certainly pick up the #1 seed in the West after winning the Pac-10 regular season and tournament titles.
Darren Collison was really the only player who looked to be his normal self in this game. He ran circles around Stanford defenders all day and scored 28 points on 12/22 shooting. The Bruins needed every point, too, because Kevin Love was rendered mostly ineffective after suffering a back injury in the game's opening moments. Love toughed it out, but he had trouble bending the entire game and went just 4/13 from the field. His health will obviously be of huge importance for the Bruins moving forward, although his back seemed to loosen up considerably in the second half.
Stanford doesn't have much to be upset about in this game. Their players were slow to the ball the entire game and gave up 18 offensive rebounds, but that's an anomaly for a team with this kind of strength inside. The Cardinal scrambled defensively the whole game and never really seemed to have their defensive rotations set. After playing two consecutive night games (including one that ended at 11pm in Los Angeles last night), it's not surprising that they lacked their usual energy. Frankly, it's a bit shocking that they had a chance to tie this game at the end before an Anthony Goods desperation three at the buzzer hit front iron.
DraftExpress has added the official athletic measurements from the 2009 NBA Draft Combine to its comprehensive (and addictive) database. In addition to the size measurements that came out last week -- height with and without shoes, wingspan, standing reach -- the results include 3/4-court sprint times, body fat percentages, bench press, agility numbers and everyone's favorite, the vertical.
This wasn't the way the season was supposed to go for the Bruins. Despite losing a bevy of talent, UCLA was still expected to stand tall. The Bruins don't rebuild, they reload. The freshman class led by Jrue Holiday was supposed to be Ben Howland's best yet and the team was supposed to look forward to a fourth consecutive Final Four.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
The Associated Press didn't let 
Just three days after losing to Memphis in the NCAA Tournament semifinals, UCLA's 
Memphis has suspended backup guard 
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For the first time in this year's NCAA Tournament, a No. 1 seed is in trouble. It's halftime in Anaheim, and UCLA, the 1 seed in the West region, trails 9 seed Texas A&M 29-26.
UCLA and Stanford are two of the most physical teams in the country, and on Saturday they played a Pac-10 Tournament final that lived up to that reputation. The Bruins 
