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PHOENIX -– Get-well cards and those cheer-up Mylar balloons can be sent to Donald Sloan at the College Station Medical Center.
Get the cards that play a song when you open them. He likes those. Mickey Mouse too, on the balloons, assuming the Texas A&M guard is able to make out shapes and colors by now.
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| The Bruins will need players like Russell Westbrook to step up earlier in games. (Getty Images) |
That's a slight exaggeration but Sloan's well being wasn't an issue five days ago when the Texas A&M guard was mugged in his team's second-round game against top seed UCLA. Some accounts said Sloan's potential game-tying shot in the lane was "blocked."
Your shot would be blocked too if a limb was being ripped from your body.
"I felt like my whole arm was pulled down," Sloan said. "But obviously no foul was called. I was shocked that nothing was called."
By now you've seen the pictures of Sloan being given the William Wallace treatment by UCLA's Darren Collison and Josh Shipp. The pics are the biggest Internet sensation since that dancing baby. What the television replays couldn't show you, stop-action photography did.
UCLA is lucky to be here.
Before Bruin Nation freaks, a quick disclaimer: Collison is one of the nation's best point guards. Kevin Love is an All-American. Ben Howland is one of the game's great coaches. You can't argue with consecutive Final Fours.
I am not a hater.
Now back to a reasoned discussion of the state of UCLA basketball as it heads to a Sweet 16 West Regional semifinal here Thursday against Western Kentucky.
1) If not for favorable officiating, the Bruins might not be two games away from their third consecutive Final Four. 2) That fortunate officiating is helping mask just how much UCLA is struggling because 3) the Bruins are beat up and sick.
Point 1: The Stanford and Cal games are now lore, if not a sports bar subject that will last a couple of orders of nachos. The Cardinal's Lawrence Hill may or may not have fouled Collison on March 6 at Pauley in a game UCLA eventually won in overtime. The point is, you don't make that call when Hill (who was called for a foul) goes straight up and the contact, if any, is so minimal. Reward the defense for good play.
But that was Stanford. UCLA lucked one out against a highly-ranked conference foe.
Shipp's game-winning shot from behind the basket two days later against Cal was just that. Behind the basket, against the rules. You're either behind the basket or in front of it, not splitting the difference. That's assuming the officials knew the rule existed in the first place.
But the bigger injustice was the mugging (there's that word again) of Cal's Ryan Anderson in the corner with 15.7 seconds left in UCLA's 81-80 victory. The Bruins were trying to foul and the officials wouldn't call it.
Does it change the season? Maybe, maybe not. It does support Point 2: UCLA is continuing to win while its game suffers. The 51 points against Texas A&M was a season low.
You expect slugfests with the defensive-minded Howland. You don't expect his players to forget about Love, who took only 12 shots. Some critics suggested the 6-foot-10, 270-pound force spent too much time wandering away from the basket, a repeated point made by the CBS announcers.
Love is a hard matchup for any team. Why take away his strength, especially when teammates don't score (Shipp in 37 minutes), barely score (Luc Richard Mbah A Moute (two points) or take their time scoring? Russell Westbrook didn't get his first points until less than nine minutes remained in the game.
You can say A&M's defense was a factor. You can also say the game, played in Anaheim with a huge home-court advantage, shouldn't have been that close.
Howland's team has established a disturbing trend lately of having to rally -- 11 points down to Stanford with 5:35 left, 10 points down to Texas A&M in the second half.
Overcoming a 17-point second-half deficit two years ago against Gonzaga in the tournament was inspiring. This recent stuff is reason for concern.
Point 3: Western Kentucky is a worthy opponent. It becomes a dangerous opponent if Shipp continues to struggle. The junior has hit only two of his last 16 3-point attempts. He took extra shooting practice this week.
Perhaps more telling, Shipp has a case of strep throat. Who knows what stage it's in, but Shipp is on antibiotics. I'm no doctor, but for those of you (like me) who have had strep, you don't recover in a day. You certainly don't recover in a day exerting yourself playing basketball.
Mbah A Moute underwent an MRI Monday on what Howland called a "pretty severely" swollen ankle.
Bad combination or just war wounds on the way to San Antonio?
Ah, what am I bitching about? Given all those factors, UCLA still should skate through the West Regional. Right? Neither Western Kentucky, Xavier nor West Virginia seem to match up with the Bruins.
I'd ask Sloan for his opinion, but the nurses said not to disturb him for a while. He's resting comfortably.