Posts tagged JohnWooden at FanHouse

UCLA beat Western Kentucky 88-78 Thursday night, and freshman center Kevin Love's stat line was incredible:

Minutes: 38
FGM-A: 10-14
FTM-A: 9-12
Rebounds: 14
Assists: 4
Blocks: 4
Fouls: 2
Points: 29

There's really not a weakness in this 19-year-old's game, but I thought it was interesting that as Dick Vitale was breaking down the UCLA game on ESPN, it was the four assists that he singled out.

"I think his passing ability is the best I've seen from a big guy in many a year," Vitale said.

There's a great YouTube of former UCLA coach John Wooden praising Love's passing ability, and when Wooden sings your praises, you know your game is fundamentally sound. Says Wooden, "I always like those that pass well, are always looking for the pass first, then the shot. I think he does that. I haven't seen anyone since Bill Walton and the one before him was Wes Unseld, and I've seen him twice in the last week get the ball off the board, turn, keep the ball up as he should, three quarters of the length of the floor to a player who took off and is streaking up. He likes to score and add to his statistics and there's nothing wrong with that, but not at the expense of others."

Hard to argue.

UCLA legend John Wooden fell at his condo on Thursday night and has been hospitalized with a fractured wrist and collarbone.

"Dad's spirits are good," [daughter Nan] Muehlhausen said in a statement. "He is up and joking around with the family. He will probably be in the hospital for a couple of more days before he goes home."

"We appreciate everyone's concern, but we are requesting that people do not call the hospital and do not try to visit Dad at this time," Muehlhausen said.

At his age, a fall is no joke. Falls are one of the leading causes of injuries, hospitalizations and death among the elderly. The 97-year old Wooden was hospitalized a year ago with diverticulitis and is currently walking around with a cane. Still, he is quite active in the UCLA Bruins program.

So it is great news to hear that he should be fine. Every college basketball fan wishes him the very best and a speedy recovery.

When you're 97 years old you should probably be spending whatever limited amount of time you have left doing the things you love to do. Like playing shuffleboard, or watching Matlock. If you're John Wooden, that probably means spending some time around UCLA and its men's basketball team.

Unfortunately for the legendary Wooden, the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that Wooden is the greatest threat to this country's youth (even more than bears). As the L.A. Times reports, the NCAA is after him.

Just before the start of this college basketball season, UCLA received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA, seeking information about possible illegal contact between a recruit and a person representing the interests of the university.

The recruit was Kevin Love, now the Bruins' star freshman center.

The person representing the interests of the university was John Wooden.

The NCAA has not disclosed who made the complaint.

Are you kidding me? The NCAA has decided to go after the man that helped make the game relevant in the first place? Did Congress subpoena Babe Ruth today as well for their steroid hearings?

Topps, the sports card manufacturer, wanted to try something a little different with their latest product, the 2007 Allen & Ginter Baseball set. Named after the former tobacco company that introduced the concept of baseball cards to the world in 1887, this year's Allen & Ginter set features unique artwork of today's baseball stars instead of the standard posed photographs.

In addition to featuring baseball players, the set also includes sporting legends from other sports, such as Mike Tyson, Carl Lewis, John Wooden -- even the famed hot dog eater Takeru Kobayashi. But what really sets this set apart is that it also includes some non-sports items, as this story from Beckett.com explains:

Chad Smith, of Wolverine Sportscards in Westchester, Ohio, bought a case of Allen & Ginter from Dave & Adam's Card World on the [National Sports Collectors Convention] show floor. Like many dealers, Smith lugged the case back to his hotel room to bust, with the intent of selling its key singles the next day.

Halfway through the case, she appeared. The 1/1 Mother Teresa cut autograph.

"We had been busting for a few hours, and about to quit at 3:00 a.m. (EST) when I saw it," Smith said. "I started shaking. I didn't say anything, but my buddy knew I hit something big.

How big? He's already turned down an offer of $20,000 in hopes of making more money on eBay -- the auction goes for another week and is already up to $6,000 after 20 bids. I'm sure somewhere up there Mother Teresa is smiling down at him: if there's one thing she stood for, it's unbridled capitalism.

(via Can't Stop the Bleeding, BBTF)

A lot of good things have been happening for Ben Howland recently, and a lot of people are saying nice things about him. I don't know that it's possible, however, for anyone to say anything to Ben Howland that would be a bigger compliment than this:

"I don't think my teams played as good a defense as Ben's teams," John Wooden said.

Two things you should know about that, both of which you're probably already aware: John Wooden won 11 national championships, and John Wooden wouldn't say something just to say it. If he said it, he believes it ... and if it's something that about basketball that John Wooden believes, there are very few people on the planet in a position to question him.

Take a few minutes to enjoy that one, Ben Howland. Earning that compliment is an achievement.

Duke has now fallen out of both the major college basketball polls (as well as the FanHouse power poll), marking the first time in 200 weeks the Blue Devils aren't ranked in the Associated Press poll and the first time ever the Blue Devils aren't ranked in the nine-year-old ESPN/USA Today poll. That's an incredibly long streak; now that Duke's streak is broken the longest active streak is just 34 weeks, which is shared between UCLA and Memphis.

As consistently good as Duke has been, a 200-week run isn't the longest in AP poll history. UCLA actually stayed ranked in every single AP poll from the 1966 preseason poll to the Jan. 8, 1980 poll. That's 221 polls in all. So as you either show respect for Duke's greatness or mock Duke's fall (depending on what kind of college hoops fan you are), also remember just what a phenomenal program UCLA once had. John Wooden's teams won eight national championships during that span, and when they didn't win it all they almost always were one of the next-best teams. Duke is the standard for greatness in this era of college basketball, but these Blue Devils aren't even in the same ballpark with those Bruins.