#I only care about sports when our national teams reach the late stages of tournaments

[dracolizardlars]

I failed my driving test (again) yesterday and my mental health had been tanking over the week previous but I also baked blueberry muffins and spent the rest of the day with my best friends in the world and so far today I have eaten fresh home grown plums and watched our team pull out a big win in sportsball so a lot of things are pretty awesome actually

[i-just--dont-understand]

Alex Morgan: ‘If Fifa start respecting the women’s game more, others will follow’

On a cold, grey January day in Lyon the fire of Alex Morgan’s ambition is obvious. She has already spoken of her desire to become the best female footballer in the world and, a long way from the winter sunshine of Florida, to adapt to a new culture in France. Morgan arrived in Lyon just a few days into 2017, after she had been pursued on Twitter by Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon. Aulas made it clear that signing the American star striker would underline Lyon’s commitment to a women’s team which won the French title, domestic cup and Champions League treble last season. 

 Morgan’s drive might be matched by Lyon but the 27-year-old World Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist, who has scored 73 goals in 120 games for the USA, stresses how many more important battles are still to be won for women’s football. “It’s great to see women standing up in their own line of work and fighting for fair value,” she says after name-checking Jennifer Lawrence and Taylor Swift. Such starry allies suit Morgan, who has more than 2.8m followers on Twitter, but there is also a wearying grittiness to the struggle for equality in women’s sport. USA forward Alex Morgan to join European champions Lyon on loan Read more 

“We’re trying to do the same thing and we’ve come a long way. But it gets exhausting having to do this every day, every week. Our male counterparts have not had to fight as much – so sometimes you feel a little exhausted always having to prove yourself and show your worth.” 

 Morgan rolls her eyes when I say how odd it is that sportswomen are having to fight so hard for parity in 2017. “Sometimes it feels a little redundant and I wish we didn’t have to fight so hard. But you see female actresses and singers standing up for themselves as well as women in general. A woman earns an average 73 cents to the male dollar in the US. So there’s still a long way to go. There’s hope in the fact that so many people know about our struggle in football – with the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] and our fight for equal pay. The fact that the agreement was such a big deal last year showed how much the women’s game has grown.” 

In her new European setting Morgan is note-perfect in always saying “football” rather than “soccer”. But semantics do not really matter when the issues within the women’s game in the US are so tangled that Morgan speaks of “a crisis”. She stresses that the dispute between US Soccer and the national team, with the players calling for a fairer structure in relation to the men’s squad, could lead to strike action. 

“It’s necessary for change sometimes,” Morgan says of a possible strike. “It wouldn’t be the first time women decided to strike. Colombia and a couple of other countries might do the same. And Australia didn’t play us a year ago because of the same battle. We were supposed to play them in a few weeks and they decided not to get on the flight because they weren’t getting paid what they were worth – or anywhere close. 

 “To force a change sometimes you need to stand up. You know what you’re worth – rather than what your employer is paying you. We’re not scared. To move the women’s game ahead we need to do what’s necessary. I feel other national teams are looking at us for that guidance.” 

 Morgan laughs wryly and says “Where do I start?” when asked for a potted history of the US dispute. But she then speaks clearly. “As a national team we have a collective bargaining agreement and from 2001 we’ve had a salary-structured contract because there hasn’t always been a league for national players. So US Soccer has funded the players by giving them an annual salary. Moving forward we would love to keep that consistency in being paid [by the federation] but we want to close the gap between men and women. How turmoil in US women's soccer could drive players to Europe Read more 

“It’s difficult because we are probably the first national team to get a salary. We’re also probably the highest paid in terms of a women’s national team. But do you compare us to other women’s national teams or to the US men? Do you compare us to clubs? With US Soccer also funding the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League] it’s very intertwined and hard to understand from the outside. 

 “But the fight is about receiving equitable treatment – not just pay. Our CBA ended last month so right now we’re locked with the status quo. Neither US Soccer nor us have submitted anything that says they’ll lock us out or that we will strike. We’re hoping to reach agreement – but there eventually needs to be pressure from one side to meet in the middle. 

“We don’t have a World Cup or Olympics to use as leverage while we negotiate a new contract. But we have an important tournament coming up [in March]. The SheBelieves Cup brings France, England and Germany to the US. Before we play those matches we want to get a deal done so we can move on.” 

 The fact that women’s soccer still struggles for parity in the US – where it is such a popular sport – indicates the depth of the battle facing the female game globally. Morgan is forthright when she considers Fifa’s attitude to women’s football and their decision to stage the 2015 World Cup on artificial pitches. “We took it very personally because it was an insult. They had never done that for the men – and they never would. The men wouldn’t stand for it. We tried to take a stand and we brought in lawyers and tried to bring it to court in Canada. Lots of players were involved internationally. But it was too late to change anything. 

 “At least we won the tournament and a concession from Fifa that they will never do anything like that again. But it’s also about the win bonuses for the champions or even the teams who finish second, third or fourth. It’s about the amount of fans who watch and the amount of security the women get compared to the men. It’s about the amount of marketing dollars spent promoting the World Cup. 

 “I understand there’s much more money in the men’s game. But Fifa spent so much time on the men they now need to focus a little more on us. I would like to close that gap even if I’m not expecting it to be equal. I’m not expecting there to be a huge jump and the win bonus to be $35m when, for the women, it’s $2m. I don’t think the entire world respects women in sport. But if Fifa start respecting the women’s game more, others will follow.” 

Morgan’s decision to immerse herself in European football, at least for an initial six-month loan from Orlando Pride to Lyon, is motivated by a desire to “improve my game” as she seeks to become the world’s best female footballer. “I still have a way to go. I hope to get there this year or next year. I’ve been able to step up in big moments in the 2012 Olympics and the World Cup. But before I’m able to be the best player in the world, I need to be in the world’s best XI. The start of that is training with the world’s best [club] team. 

 “I would like to win the Ballon d’Or for women. But every top professional should have that ambition. We’ve just seen the 2016 award [won last week by Morgan’s US team-mate Carli Lloyd]. Carli was up against Melanie Behringer [of Germany] and Marta [the Brazilian who previously won the award five years in a row]. They’re three of the world’s best players – but others can compete with them.” 

 Morgan has star-appeal and this past weekend L’Équipe ran a six-page magazine cover story on her. “That’s heartening, isn’t it,” Morgan says, “because you expose not only yourself but the sport as a whole.” The 20 greatest female football players of all time Read more It’s still difficult for Morgan as she tries to learn French – and after just a few days she admits she is not moved far beyond “bonjour”. She is also missing her husband, Servando Carrasco, a defensive midfielder for Orlando City, and their dog Blue. “My husband found it hard as well because we are finally in the same city [Orlando] after six years of playing professionally in different cities. But I told him I need to challenge myself and evolve as a player. He ended up not only supporting me but feeling like it was necessary for me.” 

At least her established role as one of the world’s best players means that Morgan, as an American, will not suffer the prejudice that afflicted her countryman Bob Bradley during his brief managerial spell in the Premier League with Swansea. “I was cringing and felt really bad for him,” Morgan says of Bradley. “I didn’t feel like he had enough time. He couldn’t bring in any of his own [coaching] guys and it was a little cruel and unfair.” 

 More than 26m people in the US watched Morgan and her team-mates win the 2015 World Cup final – a much larger television audience than for the men’s team. But Morgan points out that most women playing the game professionally, but not at national level, have to work in additional jobs. “They have to do that for five months a year because our season is only seven months long. They definitely need to find jobs, whether that’s soccer clinics or camps or an actual desk job. The minimum salary when we started the League four years ago was around $6,000. It’s improved a little and players receive housing so that helps. But even now the minimum salary is barely liveable. That’s why you’re seeing players retiring at 25 – before their prime.”

 How would Morgan improve pay for women’s soccer in the US? “Accessibility is important. Having games on TV and that sort of marketing is crucial. Sometimes I’ll be walking through Orlando and people recognise me and they ask if I’m here for the national team. They don’t understand they have a women’s club team in their own city. I get that it’s only been a year but awareness hasn’t been great. 

 “The NWSL is our baby because we’ve seen two leagues in the US fold. Players, coaches, owners and fans want it to succeed. And just because I’m playing in Europe the next six months doesn’t mean I will stop caring about football back home. I’m going to be very active in our fight for the new agreement.” 

 Morgan’s allegiance to the US means she smiles when reminding me that the 2019 women’s World Cup final will be held in the very same Lyon stadium where we now sit. Her aim is to win that tournament in her adopted French home. But, in terms of winning the wider battle for women’s football, can equality be achieved soon? 

 “That’s the hope. Ten years? I don’t know. Twenty years I see as definitely doable. Fifa has to do a lot more to evolve our game because women in sport aren’t respected equally around the world. Our current battle in the US will get resolved but I don’t believe the fight will ever end globally for the women’s game. We will always have to fight for our rights.” X

[footballghana]

FEATURE: African soccer coaches deserve better deals

KWESI APPIAH, the former coach of Ghana’s Black Stars who led his country to the 2014 World Cup finals, spoke on behalf of scores of his black African counterparts when he dropped a bombshell this week.

The 59-year-old Ghanaian said football leaders on the continent have been giving black African football coaches, who choose to serve their countries as national team gaffers, a raw deal for a long time.

Kwesi was in charge of the Black Stars at the last AFCON finals in Egypt but, in January, his contract was not renewed by his country’s football leaders.

He was replaced by another former Ghanaian international, Charles “CK’’ Akonnor.

Five months after he left his job, Appiah is still waiting for his former employers to pay him about US$185 000, which they owe him in unpaid salaries and bonuses.

“I was owed money since August 2019,” Appiah told BBC Sport Africa this week. “Would they owe a white coach for 11 months?

“(My predecessor) Avram Grant was not owed more than a month when his contract ended. It’s not right and should not be encouraged irrespective of whether (the coach is) local or foreign.

“I gave the GFA a three-month deadline (earlier this year), but neither the GFA nor the Sports ministry have met with me.’’

Kwesi was one of just two African coaches in charge of the continent’s representatives, at the 2014 World Cup finals, the other one being the late Nigerian gaffer, Stephen Keshi.

Algeria were under Bosnian coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, Cameroon were under the guidance of German coach Volker Finke while Cote dÍvoire were led by Frenchman, Sabri Lamouchi.

However, for all the huge investment into the European coaches, the only African representatives, to make it beyond the group stages in Brazil, were the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

The West African country, which decided to go with their local coach Keshi, who had led them to success at the 2013 AFCON finals in South Africa, emerged as the best performing of the continent’s representatives in Brazil.

Four years later, in Russia last year, African teams endured a miserable campaign as they all crashed out of the tournament in the group stages, despite investing heavily into coaches like Hector Cuper of Mexico and Dutchman Clarence Seedorf.

While the African football leaders have, over the years been desperate to invest in national team coaches from Europe and South America, the rewards do not tally with the millions of dollars which have been poured into these associations.

We haven’t seen any African team reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, despite the continent having some of the world’s best players, to provide any justification to the huge investment, which we have seen being poured into the recruitment of these coaches from Europe and South America.

At the last AFCON finals, there were 13 coaches from either South America or Europe compared to 11 coaches from Africa.

France, alone, provided seven coaches, there was a Mexican, a Belgian, a German, an Englishman, a Serbian and a Dutchman.

But, when it came to the final, two countries, which had invested in the expertise of their local coaches, Algeria (Djamel Belmadi) and Senegal (Aliou Cisse), were the ones who were left standing to contest the final, which the Desert Foxes won 1-0.

At Euro 2016, all the teams were under European coaches with the majority of them, except just a handful, going with their local coaches.

Only Switzerland, who were guided by Bosnian gaffer, Vladimir Petkovic, Austria, who were under the guidance of Swiss coach Mercel Koller and Hungary, who chose German gaffer Bernd Storck, chose to go with coaches who were not from their countries.

While there is nothing wrong in hiring foreign expertise, especially in sport, there is everything wrong when the red carpet is rolled for such expatriates while the locals, who probably could have done a better job and at a cheaper cost, are given a raw deal.

This is particularly rife in Africa where it appears, football leaders are always in a rush to employ coaches from Europe and South America, and pamper them with all the luxuries one can think of, to take charge of the national teams.

As highlighted by Appiah, on the occasions the local coaches are employed, hostile conditions are created, including the non-payment of salaries, as if the football leaders would be on a mission to try and ensure they should fail.

This is a controversial issue in this country where local coaches like Sunday Chidzambwa, Norman Mapeza, Callisto Pasuwa, and Charles Mhlauri, who guided the Warriors to the AFCON finals, found themselves being frustrated by a system which did not care for their welfare.

The image of Pasuwa, with that two-in-one blanket on his way to board a bus for the road trip from Harare to Blantyre for an AFCON qualifier against Malawi, has always been used to illustrate the tough conditions which the local coaches have been forced to work under, on the occasions they choose to serve their country, by our football leaders.

And, to compound their woes, virtually all of them found themselves confronted by the challenges which Appiah is dealing with right now, the non-payment of their salaries.

That only Zimbabwean coaches have guided the Warriors to the AFCON finals, in our history, hasn’t helped their cause and, instead, it is the European and South American coaches who have come here, and failed to deliver, who have been pampered with thousands of dollars.

Belgian coach, Tom Saintfiet, took U$180 000 for just coaching the Warriors for one day, while Brazilian gaffer, Valinhos, pocketed more than US$100 000 for the doomed 2010 AFCON qualifiers.

Source: herald.co.zw

source: https://footballghana.com/

[365footballorg-blog]

In the stadium, in the bars, in the streets: Russia a nation united in disbelief

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Russia will wake up across its 11 sprawling time zones to a new national hero on Monday.

In a land where goalkeepers are revered, Russia’s number one Igor Akinfeev inspired the World Cup hosts to an unlikely penalty shootout victory against highly fancied Spain.

The result sparked wild celebrations across Russia, as Patrick Jennings discovered while watching from a bar in the southern city of Samara.

The toast was to victory – “our victory” – and to “Lev Yashin the goalkeeper,[1] our greatest ever player”.

Dima’s voice was already hoarse before extra time even got started in this sweaty Samara bar where the air temperature was about 32C and the atmosphere was even hotter.

The mood was optimistic but still probably nobody among the packed crowd would believe it if you told them: in 20 minutes’ time, Igor Akinfeev will write his own new heroic chapter for Russia, the World Cup hosts who were so widely expected to fail before this special tournament started.

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Now they are in the quarter-finals for the first time in 48 years after a dramatic penalty shootout win over 2010 champions Spain in which CSKA Moscow goalkeeper and Russia captain Akinfeev saved two spot-kicks.

His second stop sealed the victory and provided a moment of realisation that said yes, there would be a new crescendo in the wave of optimism that has been building here since Russia’s two sweeping group stage wins made everyone sit up and take notice.

“It’s unreal, I can’t believe it,” Dima said as he was swallowed up by a group of friends that included two Mexicans. He described them as “our lucky charms”.

Russia stun Spain on penalties to reach quarter-finals[2]

How did Russia go from ‘butt of jokes’ to hosts supreme?[3]

A woman to my right could not believe it either. She had been watching the climax of Sunday’s match with her hands covering her mouth and as the TV screen showed Akinfeev mobbed by his jubilant team-mates she breathed deeply and turned unsteadily towards the door, finally ready to release humming nervous energy into total joy.

Everyone else spilled into the streets too, out from whichever place they watched.

When the match was under way all you could hear outside was birdsong and a few distant cries from some faraway open window.

Now it felt like the whole city was celebrating. Children with mouths dropped open and eyes spread wide watched their parents dance with strangers and get doused in beer.

The Mexican and Brazil fans, whose teams play a last-16 tie here on Monday, were part of it too as women in traditional dress hauled dancing partners in from the sidelines and towards the centre of a street ruled by their accordion players.

Samara’s old centre had been shut down and now the hordes of delirious locals were taking over. Is it all for one night only? Croatia will be next.

A speaker system outside a bar started up a Shakira song – appropriate given she is Spain defender Gerard Pique’s wife – while a few hundred yards away a string quartet played Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and nobody cared what tune they were moving to.

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But all of that was drowned out by the cars honking constantly at each other as they drove round and round the perimeter roads.

Passengers shouted “ROSSIYA!” while holding flags to the wind and leaning deep towards the sun setting on the Volga down below. Bedtime would be late for everyone.

What I think of this Russia team has often been the first question put to me in each of the seven host cities I’ve visited during this tournament.

It has either been that, or whether British people really think bears can be found roaming Russian streets.

So many of those wanting to talk football started out by saying they actually had no interest in the game whatsoever but had nonetheless found themselves carried away by the country’s growing good feeling.

Expectations and interest before the tournament were low – but as manager Stanislav Cherchesov said in early June, half the nation would only wake up to the World Cup once it was under way.

Everyone is watching now. People tell you about their 90-year-old grandma who suddenly became an obsessive after the second group game, a 3-1 win over Egypt that sealed Russia’s place in the knockout stage.

It is a special mood that perhaps only a host nation can experience. Like England at the European Championship of 1996, it is a mood that will only grow stronger as the tournament goes on. We shall see how far it carries.

It was in Mexico in 1970 when Russia or the Soviet Union last reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

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Yashin – the great Soviet icon still so revered in this country, the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or – was part of that squad but did not play, already nearing the end of his great career.

Almost everyone out in the street in Samara on Sunday would have no memory of that tournament run, which was ended by an extra-time defeat by Uruguay.

But the hairs stood up on the back of your neck as you realised – the whole country will be like this tonight. The world’s largest nation, experiencing the birth of a new chapter in its football history, 144 million people and just as many smiles.

References

^ Lev Yashin the goalkeeper, (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Russia stun Spain on penalties to reach quarter-finals (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ How did Russia go from ‘butt of jokes’ to hosts supreme? (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

In the stadium, in the bars, in the streets: Russia a nation united in disbelief was originally published on 365 Football

[junker-town]

UCLA and USC are bringing 'Showtime' back to LA college basketball

For the first time in six years, both UCLA and USC have good basketball programs.

TEMPE, AZ — Steve Alford is a happy man.

Standing outside of the visitors’ locker room at Wells Fargo Arena, taking questions from the assembled media on hand, the coach of the UCLA Bruins finally has a moment to relax.

His star player, Lonzo Ball, is fine despite tweaking his right ankle earlier in the night.

His team, now ranked No. 3 in the country, is also fine after surviving a trap game at Arizona State. Two nights later, UCLA would travel to Tucson to face a top-ten Arizona team and win that game, too.

UCLA went 7-0 in the month of February, a month it entered on a two-game losing streak. The Bruins are playing a fun, entertaining brand of basketball, and they might be playing it better than any other team in the country at the moment.

Indeed, life is good right now for Alford and UCLA. In a year when the Lakers are near the bottom of the NBA standings and the Clippers are, well, the Clippers, the Bruins are the best show in town.

That doesn’t mean they are the only show in town, however. And while they are helping to make the city of Los Angeles into a college basketball town again, that’s an undertaking that can’t be done alone.

* * *

If February was a dream for the Bruins, it was a nightmare for the USC Trojans.

USC finished February with four straight losses and did not post a victory against a team ranked higher than No. 10 in the Pac-12 standings. The last of those losses was the one that hurt the most, a game in which Andy Enfield’s team led the Sun Devils by 10 points with less than three minutes remaining before going on to lose by one.

“We're going to come back even harder,” Trojan forward Bennie Boatwright said after the loss. “We won't sulk on it. We just need to wash our hands and move on.”

Despite the skid, USC is still in good shape to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. It began the season at a torrid pace, winning 14 consecutive games.

No win was bigger than the one that came on January 25 inside the Galen Center when the Trojans took care of then-No. 8 UCLA, sending the Bruins home with an 84-76 loss.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

The victory marked Enfield’s first win against a nationally-ranked UCLA team, a moment he’s been building towards ever since infamously telling his players back in 2013, "If you want to play slow, go to UCLA."

That comment was made just months after Enfield rose to fame at Florida Gulf Coast and Dunk City, leading the Eagles to a Sweet Sixteen trip before being hired away by the Trojans.

He took some criticism for the quote (that first USC team finished 11-21, while the Bruins went to the Sweet Sixteen), but the reasoning behind it was sound. Enfield wanted the rivalry to be as competitive as it used to be, and after four years, it finally is.

The fourth-year coach has been a force on the recruiting trail, bringing in four-star prospects like Boatwright, Jordan McLaughlin, Elijah Stewart, and Chimezie Metu. He has also made the school an attractive place for high-profile transfers, welcoming in former Duke point guard Derryck Thorton Jr. and Louisville small forward Shaqquan Aaron.

The epitome of a players’ coach, Enfield has been quick to accept criticism and deflect praise throughout the season. That was true after the Trojans’ collapse in Tempe.

“We aren’t going to put the blame on anybody except me,” said Enfield. “It’s a collective effort and we’re in this together. We've had a great season with some tough losses as of late, so now we have to bounce back.”

The Trojans got back to their winning ways last week by thumping Washington State and Washington inside the Galen Center, keeping them on the right side of the bubble heading into the Pac-12 Tournament.

When asked for his thoughts on his team’s NCAA Tournament chances, junior shooting guard Elijah Stewart didn’t seem concerned in the slightest.

“I feel like we should be fine,” Stewart says. “We just have to take it game by game, but I’m not worried about that.”

Barring a surprise, USC should hear its name called on Selection Sunday for a second consecutive year, something that hasn’t been done since the days of O.J. Mayo, Nick Young, and Taj Gibson.

For the first time in six seasons, they will be joined in that tournament field by crosstown rival UCLA.

* * *

The Bruins are 28-3 and are led by the always calm, always cool Lonzo Ball.

Ball’s name is cool. The way he walks onto the floor for pregame warmups — behind the rest of his jogging teammates — is cool.

Ball never shows too much emotion, because caring too much about anything isn’t cool.

At one point in the Arizona State game, he tried a nifty but ill-advised behind the back pass to save the ball underneath his own basket, and it led to a pair of Sun Devil free throws. Seconds later, he stood with his foot over the lane line, daring an official to call a lane violation.

He gets away with these things because he’s Lonzo Ball, the best player on one of the best teams in the country. You may have seen him pulling up from 30 feet to hit a dagger three-pointer, or flying high for alley-oops once not thought to be possible.

Oregon led UCLA by as many as 19 points. Then Lonzo Ball took over and willed the Bruins to victory: https://t.co/eJUnmm80Ua http://pic.twitter.com/YHHoc7v8zI

— SB Nation CBB (@SBNationCBB) February 10, 2017

But while Ball (or his father) might make the majority of the headlines, UCLA’s full cast of characters is plenty deep.

There’s TJ Leaf, the imposing freshman forward that is second on the team in scoring. The coach’s son, Bryce Alford, has made more three-pointers than any power conference player in the country. Isaac Hamilton, Thomas Welsh, and Aaron Holiday are all averaging double figures as well.

Holiday is scoring at a clip of 13 points per game and plays starter minutes for Alford, but the point guard has come off the bench in all 31 games this season. He started every single game in his first season.

“I just have to come in with an aggressive mindset,” says Holiday. “Coming off the bench cold, you can’t be passive. So being aggressive gets me going and helps everyone in the long run.”

One more bench player, freshman Ike Anigbogu (a raw but talented big) rounds out a seven-deep rotation for the Bruins that few teams across the country can match.

“It's a fun group to coach and a fun group to be around,�� Alford said after the win in Tempe. “I think we are really starting to grow and hit our stride. We're playing good basketball right now so hopefully we can continue that.”

The city of Los Angeles loves a winner, and the legendary Pauley Pavilion — notoriously tough to fill when the home team is struggling — has been hopping since December.

The Bruins are averaging more than 10,000 fans a game at home, and the fact that they lead the conference in road attendance is evidence that their brand just as strong as it used to be.

To watch a UCLA game now is to watch any UCLA game ever. The Bruins play in the same arena, in the same neighborhood, wearing the same uniforms they have since the 1960s.

Pauley can still rock like it did back in the good ol' days (if you don’t know what those days entailed, block out five hours and ask a UCLA fan). Getting to a game entails driving through swanky areas like Beverly Hills, Brentwood, or Bel-Air.

The jerseys still have the same four letters arcing across the chest, and the blue and gold coloring reeks of old school, blue blood, college basketball tradition.

From 1962 to 1976, the Bruins went to the Final Four on 13 separate occasions. They’ve been back to the sport’s promised land just five times in the past 40 years, however, and their last trip was in 2008.

Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Throughout the season, the narrative has been “UCLA has Final Four potential if it could only play defense.” Alford and company have been hard at work trying to change that, and they may have hit a breakthrough.

His team hasn’t given up more than 80 points in a game since that late-January loss at USC, and they haven’t had to slow down their high-octane offense to achieve that. The Bruins have won all nine games since that loss, scoring at least 95 points in four of them and reaching triple digits twice.

“We've done a really good job of defending in this stretch,” says Alford. “Our defense is getting better, our efficiency is getting better, and you can see that every time we get a stop and get out into transition, that's when we are very good.”

* * *

The story goes like this.

In 1979, a USC alum and businessman named Jerry Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers. Buss had two goals for his new franchise: Make the team good, and make the entertainment level just as high.

He modeled some facets of the team’s arena after a popular Santa Monica club, which included dimming the crowd lights and turning the Forum Club into the hottest nightclub in the city.

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Basketball-wise, he wanted the Lakers to play an up-tempo, high-offense brand of basketball. Specifically, he wanted his games to feel like the ones played between the Trojans and Bruins at the college level.

Those Lakers would go on to be known as Showtime, winning a total of five NBA titles while putting on the most entertaining show in basketball in the process.

It’s a reach to say that college basketball in Los Angeles will ever return to the consistent levels of excitement that pre-dated and inspired those Laker teams, but we could be in the first stages of something close.

UCLA doesn’t play slow anymore. In fact, no team in the country plays at a more efficient and fast pace than the Bruins do.

On the other side of town is USC, a team with far less tradition but a future that is nearly as bright.

Luckily, the city is big enough for the both of them.