Needle Moves Up on the Lavin-ometer

With UCLA defeating Stanford at Stanford and then USC at the Sports Arena, will you finally stop giving the floor to the Lavin haters for a week? I only can assume that The Times sports department has it in for Lavin, with the letters you continually choose to run.

If the morons who write in had the talent to run a major college basketball program, they would be doing it. Instead, they come off as self-styled sports geniuses in the paper, without an actual scintilla of appreciation or understanding of what it means to coach and motivate at this level.

Put a sock in it, Lavin bashers. That goes for The Times sports department as well.

MIKE KILGORE

Los Angeles

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As I watched the Bruins defeat USC, again, I wanted to remind USC fans a couple of things about UCLA basketball.

One, even in your best year, and us in our worst year, we still own this city. Two, feel free to go to some other games this year. Three, leave the bottle throwing to your football fans. And lastly, get rid of Tom “Who Threw That Bottle?” Kelly.

BRANDON HUFFMAN

Ventura

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This was the year that most of the local experts told us that USC not only had the better coach--that was a given--but that they also had better talent than UCLA. Well, Steve Lavin’s boys have come through again and proved their critics wrong. Congratulations to Coach Lavin, Earl Watson, Jason Kapono, Matt Barnes, Dan Gadzuric and the rest of the squad, you are a credit to the legacy that is UCLA basketball.

JEFF CLITHEROE

Huntington Beach

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It was a pleasure to hear UCLA’s Earl Watson interviewed on TV after Thursday’s victory over USC. There was no egotistical, arrogant trash talk, just kind words for former Bruin and USC Coach Henry Bibby and the job he has done at USC. It’s good to know that in some quarters of collegiate athletics “good sportsmanship” still has meaning.

JOHN WETZEL

Los Angeles

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How do you figure the UCLA basketball team? Let me offer one possible explanation for last weekend’s games in the Bay Area. When I turned on the Cal game, it took me a while to recognize the UCLA team in those awful black uniforms. They looked like a bunch of impostors and played accordingly. But Saturday against Stanford, wearing the traditional Bruin blue, they played the way we expect a UCLA team to play.

It’s a simple explanation, but it’s probably as good as any other that will be offered.

JIM McFERSON

Placentia

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I dip my pen in acid and start writing about Steve Lavin, blaming him for everything from Florida’s election to the earthquake in India. Then it hits me: Last season he won at North Carolina and Stanford, and again brought his team to the Sweet 16. This season he has wins against Stanford, USC and Kentucky (after Jason Kapono fouled out) and a heartbreak loss to Kansas. He’s an excellent recruiter, an energetic and intense competitor, the most resilient coach in sports, a winner and a role model.

I put down my poison pen with a realization: Steve Lavin is a good coach. I’m the idiot.

STUART WOLPERT

Los Angeles

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Note to Henry Bibby: It’s not too early to make those travel arrangements for the NIT.

DAVID ALLEN TYAU

Pasadena