For Sure, California Teams Totally Un-Awesome in NCAA Tournament

UCLA’s new role is as the underachieving laughingstock of the basketball world, a team that has no conception of defense, exhibits terrible shot selection and makes enough mental errors to fill a textbook.

Meanwhile, the athletic department is running a substantial deficit and prestigious minor sports are eliminated. Yet no one in the administration has the intelligence to figure out that if they actually hired a top basketball coach--try Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun or Texas’ Tom Penders--the fans would fill Pauley again, a Final Four check might come in once in a while, and the growing dissatisfaction and disgust among Bruin fans might be reversed.

Given recent history, however, we sadly can expect to see more of the same.

WILLIAM L. PLATT

Sherman Oaks