UCLA falls to Memphis

It’s always sad when the team you root for ends its season with a loss. It’s even more sad when this year more than any other was the year I had hope of UCLA winning a championship.

Don’t get me wrong — even with the loss to Memphis on Saturday, I still consider the 2007-08 season to be a success. Going to the Final Four is extremely difficult, no matter how talented you are, and well over 300 other teams would love to be in UCLA’s position right now. The Bruins went 35-4, winning over 90% of their games, which is impressive in any season in any sport. At a personal level, they were also extremely fun to watch with so many talented players, great defense and so many thrilling, close and come-from-behind wins.

But it’s still sad and frustrating that UCLA couldn’t get past Memphis. Frustrating because unlike UCLA’s other three losses this year, the Bruins just got dominated. Memphis was the better team, and is athletic and talented at every single position. They deserved to win that game. The game probably shouldn’t have been as close it was.

At the end of the game, when I was expecting UCLA to go on a run to win the game like they usually do, Memphis stepped up their defense. UCLA played well defensively — but Memphis was even better, shutting down UCLA when it counted the most.

It’s going to be a long offseason. I believe in coach Ben Howland and the players on UCLA enough to know that the Bruins will be back in the Final Four in the near-future and eventually win a championship. It’s just too bad we couldn’t see one this year.