Deadspin
Perhaps we just don't follow this as closely as we should, but we really weren't aware that this UCLA team was supposed to be considered the most hated team in college basketball? We thought Duke had that title for life?
Anyway, we don't understand how any team with Kevin Love could possibly be considered the most hated anything. We don't know what happened after this picture was taken, but we suspect he grabbed the net and rifled it down the court, outlet-style.
It's the third consecutive Final Four for UCLA, but because they haven't won a title yet in that span, they're not necessarily considered that much of a recent powerhouse. Still: They're UCLA. We love Bruins Nation, but already they're touting the "no one believes in us!" card. It is amazing the lengths people will go to in order to still consider themselves underdogs. Somehow we imagine that if Davidson had beat Kansas and gone on to play North Carolina in the Final Four, someone in Chapel Hill would have screamed, "No one thinks we have a chance! Prove 'em wrong, boys!"
Calling Out The Chicken Littles [Bruins Nation]
Comments
Seriously? Nobody beleives in you? I think over half the brackets in my pool have UCLA winning it all.
Why all the hate for UCLA?
Because the nation is full of journalists who attended the Annenberg School for Communication.
@Spectacular Sam:
I bet the other half have UCLA in the championship game.
If it wasn't for my obvious bias I'd have them winning it all.
@TheStarterWife: we have a winning plausible theory.
UCLA was my national champion pick and would be one of the few things I got right if it happens.
It's not UCLA I hate so much as the referees who have bailed them out of so many close games this year.
"Raise this net in honor of Brian Suksomwong, boys!"
Unfortunately, Love will miss the Final Four, as he is out four to seven days with "scissors in brain".
@tater: Yeah but those other half are totally direspecting them!
/bitter Wisconsin fan
@Spectacular Sam: My bracket certainly does. And amazingly I'm the only one in the top 10 of my league who does. That money's as good as mine!
The new poster for the vasectomy clinic.
this UCLA team was supposed to be considered the most hated team by all Oregonians in college basketball?
Duck'd
I can't hate on any student population that blisteringly hot. Luckily, I'll never have that problem rooting against Duke ("how you look like soccer moms at NINETEEEEEN?!").
@Signal to Noise: God help us if Columbia ever makes a run at anything.
@TheStarterWife:
The other half attended Newhouse at Syracuse. Thus, the hatred of Syracuse.
?
They are as much a "disrespected underdog" as the 2004 Red Sox. At least they have cheerleaders.
East Coast Bias?
How can anyone hate UCLA? To me, they're like Michigan's SoCal cousin, a Wolverine in a pair of sunglasses. They wear a shade of yellow and a shade of blue, they like to think of themselves as a power in several sports, and they hate USC, but they can't beat them with any recent frequency.
[/top 25 public universities needing to stick together.]
@TheStarterWife: Sadly, 44 in a Row seems not to be around -- I'll chuckle at that very notion for him (as well as the four family members of mine who went to Columbia.)
@UkraineNotWeak: People really hate the 'Cuse? (Other than Georgetown and UConn fans...)
@Yostal: I like your reasoning.
@7-8 Deville: Here's a riddle: If ESPN has an East Coast bias, why does every ESPN NFL analyst go on and on about West Coast offense?
You know, besides lack of true knowledge...
Was anyone else a little surprised when they realized this was the third straight final four for UCLA? Honestly, it kind of snuck up on me their.
/going back to watching Caddyshack...
@Jehovahs Witness Protection Program:
Live in ACC Basketball Country. No love for Big East Basketball down here.
Sloppy blogging, Leitch. Bruins Nation merely discusses a Yahoo.com article that ponders the animus toward UCLA. It's not exactly UCLA playing the underdog card.
@Steve Trachsel, Ace: or there, moron.
@Jehovahs Witness Protection Program:
I have my reasons for hating on the 'Cuse.
@Yostal: Actually, we beat them 8 in football 8 years in a row 1991-1998. (Of course, that was before they beat us 7 years in a row.)
@tater:
Kansas fan remembering the 2003 Championship?
Love's a douche.
[sportsillustrated.cnn.com]
Love certainly isn't lacking in confidence. In the space of an hour he stakes a claim that would seem preposterous for any other collegiate post player ("I feel like I'm the best passer in the country"); apologizes in advance to the defenders his passes will bamboozle ("You'll see me laughing on the court sometimes this year. It's funny to me. I'm almost playing a game with them")...
If everything goes according to plan, Love explains, the acclaim will take care of itself. "When it comes to Los Angeles, there's Kobe Bryant, and then there's Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo," he says, lowering his right hand from eye level to chin level...
The Loves still can't fathom why the stands at Lake Oswego High games were usually half empty until the state playoffs, why out-of-state crowds were more supportive of Kevin than his home fans, or why Kevin would be chosen the Gatorade national high school athlete of the year but didn't win the top athlete honor at his own school. "That hurt Kevin a lot," Stan says.
His facial hair style is called the "guy who works at best-buy".
@UkraineNotWeak:
That and a guy I worked with who was a little too touchy feely and a borderline sexual predator graduated from there.
It's not the team, it's the fact they've gotten victories from the refs.
The lesson here, as always: when Bill Simmons jumps on your bandwagon, brace yourself for some hatred.
It's not the UCLA players that people hate so much, it's their racist, racist fans. And they're all like, "wicked pissah!"
@Stev D: Or "the Federline."
@TheStarterWife: And the other half attended Newhouse.
Love doesn't try as hard as Hansbrough.
@metroville: Well played.
@Jehovahs Witness Protection Program: Yeah, it's how I ended up justifying my chalktastic final game of UCLA/UNC.
UCLA vs. Memphis. Can they both possibly be "underdogs"?
@Big Daddy Drew:
"That hurt Kevin a lot," Stan says.
I'm correct in assuming that Stan is Love's alter ego, right? With that facial hair, he has to be an Eminem fan.
@Stev D: @Signal to Noise: Or The Everlast
[academic.evergreen.edu]
Can't wait until he goes pro and proves himself to be the white Benoit Benjamin.
Didn't SI pick UCLA? So that means they're gonna lose right?
(I also picked them to win it all)
Duke is the most hated team in the nation, bar none. And I guess playing the underdog card is a good motivator, but come on. I really don't know how you can attempt to pick an underdog with all the #1 seeds in the Final 4. At the risk of sounding like an ESPN commentator, they're all really good teams.
@Doyle McPoyle: Yeah, but 30 minutes after you see their student population, you want to see them again.
Every team should have someone to point out all those that be hatin.
@Big Daddy Drew: Pat Benatar has a different take on the matter.
@martyfunkhauser:
Only after putting them there in the first place. It would be nice if the people who make these statements had actually watched the entirety of those games, instead of the highlights on Sportscenter.
I was watching the Wazzu/UNC game at this Seattle bar with all these sort of cute Cougar grad girls. UCLA was the next game, and about halfway through Wazzu's, this just ridiculously gorgeous girl in UCLA gear came in..."Oh yeah, *that's* what hot girls look like."
@TheStarterWife: Because they've gotten every phantom call you can possibly get?
I personally hate UCLA for all the team (and the cheerleaders') shit