Happy Tuesday, everyone. That was a nice win this weekend, right? A 40-point blowout of a team with a winning record? Raise your hand if you saw THAT coming.
I have a mix of thoughts about the game I could share with you all, but for this week's column, I have to ask a favor. I know I shouldn't have to worry about this issue, but I want to be sure my fellow Wahoos don't get ridiculed the way I'm about to embarrass UCLA.
Here's my request. Make sure you know where Scott Stadium and John Paul Jones Arena are located and how to get there from places around Grounds. That's a simple enough request, right? And you already know where they are and how to get there, so it's no big deal, right? You're probably wondering why I'm even bothering with such a trivial matter.
Well, during Fall Break, I went to Los Angeles to visit a friend at USC, and because I'd never been to the West Coast before, I convinced my friend to take me to enemy territory and check out UCLA. College sports fans know UCLA is full of sports history, especially basketball, thanks in large part to a legendary coach named John Wooden. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood," Wooden coached UCLA to 10 NCAA championships during his last 12 seasons at the helm. In 27 seasons, he never had a losing record and led his teams to four undefeated seasons, including back-to-back perfect campaigns from 1971-1973.
As you could imagine, Wooden is a folk hero in Westwood. The Bruins' home court is named after him in Pauley Pavilion - an arena which was built because UCLA needed better facilities to keep up with its championship winning coach. Sports fans across the country know what Pauley Pavilion is and know it's the home of UCLA's basketball program, so when they go to UCLA, they want to see the arena.
This brings me back to my point. I went to UCLA's campus with my friend Sunday night and we asked 15 students walking around - yes, 15 - where Pauley Pavilion was. None of them could tell us. We then said, "It's the basketball arena." That didn't help. I was floored. How could any student - let alone 15 - at UCLA, a university rich with athletics history and not lacking in school pride, not know where the arena is?
We eventually found it - it's next to the famous bear statue in the center of campus and a stone's throw from the student union/store - no thanks to UCLA students. Partly out of amazement, and partly of amusement - or obnoxiousness - we continued to ask people how to get to Pauley Pavilion while standing right next to the building and had similar results. It was incredible. Imagine standing in front of the Rotunda, asking a U.Va. student to point you to the Rotunda and having them stare blankly at you.
Some kid actually tried to tell us Pauley Pavilion was "the bottom floor of the expo center." Get a clue, kid. Sure, this may not reflect on the whole UCLA student body - I sure hope it doesn't - but it was still a ridiculous night. For my friend at USC, this was a glorious victory, as it painted a horrible picture of UCLA. The rivalry there is like ours with Virginia Tech, so you can imagine his happiness about this poor reflection on the rival school's student body.
It's truly inexcusable for that sort of thing to happen at a school like UCLA, at which the basketball arena has been home to nine championship teams since it opened in 1965. I don't know how you can go to UCLA and not know the location of your basketball arena. And, even though Virginia basketball isn't on the same level as UCLA, I still think everyone at this school should know where JPJ is. (Emmet Street and Massie Road, anyone?) Whether you chalk it up to school pride, sports pride or a general desire to be knowledgeable about the geography of the town in which you live for two-thirds of the year, you should know where your basketball team plays.
I would not want this column to be written about U.Va. in any newspaper, whether it's in Blacksburg or Los Angeles. So, I implore you, fellow Wahoos, if you aren't sure you can direct a stranger to U.Va.'s athletics facilities, please take a minute and check out a map of Grounds. I'm absolutely sure you already know where they are, but maybe you forgot a street name or two. It's not a bad thing to admit - how many people really know Scott Stadium is on Whitehead Road?
Let's make sure this sort of thing never happens at Dear Ol' U.Va.
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