Letters: A big letdown for UCLA

Wooden Country has become How-Land. As in, how to awaken in time for the first half. Or, in the case of Oregon, the second half as well. How to improve enough to compete with basement teams. And how to meld a pack of NBA prospects into a consistent basketball team.

Donald Beard

Banning

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To the UCLA basketball players: With your loss to Oregon in the Pac-10 tournament, you have managed to let your school down, let your coaches down and let your fans down. Coach Howland has done a spectacular job in shaping you into a team that deserves respect and a decent seeding in the Big Dance. You threw that all away Thursday night because of your “Got this one in the bag” attitude as a team.

Fortunately you have a chance at redemption. Hopefully you have all learned a valuable lesson from this loss and will show the nation how good you can be. I guess we will soon find out.

Mike Popov

San Clemente

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For three years, Coach Howland had his teams woefully unprepared for games in the Final Four. Sensing all Bruins fans’ frustration in waiting all the way until the end of the Madness, he now has his team woefully unprepared for the Pac-10 tournament. So thoughtful.

Bruce Kahn

Claremont

Heat check

After the Lakers lost to the Heat on Thursday, Kobe spent an hour after the game working on his shooting. I think that time would’ve been better served working on his passing.

Kevin Marshall

Inglewood

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Can you please reprint all the letters that favored trading Andrew Bynum for Carmelo Anthony, including Plaschke’s? These folks are not allowed back on the bandwagon!

Vincent Martinez

Arcadia

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Classic examples of the best deals are the deals not made (or even considered) and you can’t win consistently without a good big man in the middle. If the Lakers can continue their intensity level on team defense and Bynum his stellar play the Lakers will roll even further ... all the way to June.

Paul Shubunka Sr.

Santa Clarita

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Hold the Bynum worship down until he shows consistent quality in his performance. He’s had spurts before of great effect and great irrelevance. These are not the building blocks of a Lakers deity to me. T.J. Simers and his cohorts are like children with attention deficit disorder.

Michael E. White

Burbank

Throwing like girls

Bill Plaschke’s column on pitchers Marti Sementelli and Ghazaleh Sailors took me back to a time in the late 1960s. As I was blessed with an uncanny ability to throw strikes, my brother’s Little League coach suggested I cut my hair and step out on the mound for the team. In my day, girls were not allowed to play Little League, let alone become starting pitchers in a high school game. Fortunately for me, my parents encouraged my athletic endeavors, a love I carry to this day.

Caps off to Marti and Ghazaleh for throwing strikes against inequity, and pitching through a gender barrier. I wish them the best on every playing field they dare to dream.

Jeanine D’Elia

Granada Hills

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Bill, I cannot thank you enough for your article about the two female high school baseball pitchers. My sons were so inspired they hope to try out for the girls’ softball team next year.

Greg Gose

Camarillo

NCAA stuff

Belmont, Morehead State, Old Dominion, St. Peter’s and Wofford. Just wondering if anyone knows which conference these schools are in or can locate them on a map. And between them all, there is not one top-25 vote during the year.

But here they are in the NCAA tournament as conference champions. And that is why the NCAA basketball championship deserves the credit for a tournament that lets the champion win the crown on the basketball court, and not by pollsters picking who should play.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne

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Now that Coach Sweater Vest has quasi-admitted wrongdoing at The Ohio State University, I wonder how long it will take before the NCAA figures it out as well.

Rodney K. Boswell

Thousand Oaks

Brain freeze

No slight intended to our ancestors, but the Neanderthals who run the NHL continue to take the game I love and destroy it day by day with their decisions.

Documented brain damage suffered in fights by the late Bob Probert is dismissed as the cost of doing business. Superstar Sidney Crosby, the face of the league whose skill with the puck rivals Kobe’s exploits with a ball, has been out of action for more than two months because of consecutive blows to the head, yet neither player who hit him had to miss a game. And this week Boston’s Zdeno Chara intentionally drove his opponent’s head into a glass partition resulting in a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae, but once again no suspension or precedent was set.

The NHL features some of the most skilled athletes in all of sports, so why do they allow the small fraction of thugs who contribute nothing but mayhem to drag the sport down to the level of organized wrestling? When, not if, an unsuspecting player is finally killed on the ice by a targeted hit to his head, the NHL will collectively shrug its shoulders and say they did not see it coming. I guess that’s true when you consistently choose to bury your head in the sand.

Andrea Mackinney

Los Angeles

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The picture showing the bloody face of the NHL player during a fight illustrates, at least for me, what is wrong with the NHL. A few years ago I was a guest along with my three kids, 8 to 10, at a Ducks game. We had great seats. A fight broke out right in front of us. The two players were swinging their fists as the ref stood by and watched them. Yes, hockey is a great sport ... at the college level.

Pro hockey can’t stand on its own two feet economically so they have to let these guys fight. But clearly this sends the wrong message for our children. Imagine the NFL letting Peyton Manning and a blitzing safety taking off their helmets and going at it. I don’t think so.

Phil Guilford

San Clemente

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Jim Fox, please let your Hall of Fame broadcast partner Bob Miller get a word or two in. Like all Kings fans I know you are excited to finally have a good team to root — I mean broadcast — for. Please be more concise with your thoughts so we can hear a lot more of Miller and a lot less of you.

Bill Noyes

Anaheim Hills

Feeling Blue

This old-line concept about returning a proven ballplayer to the minors as a “player development move” is more harmful than helpful. Pure nonsense and tunnel vision relying on outmoded thinking. It’s time for the Dodgers to move into “forward thinking” gear and find a spot for Jerry Sands — now.

Jay Jaffe

Beverly Hills

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I wrote a letter published on March 5 in which I stated that tickets I thought to be on sale from a Dodger advertisement on Facebook seemed to be of little difference in value from normal ticket values. The tickets were the discount the Dodgers advertised. I apologize to the Dodgers and the Los Angeles Times for this mistake on my part.

Scott Bentley

Malibu

Stewing

The official program at Santa Anita for the Big ‘Cap last Saturday had a major omission. It did not include the fact that stewards Tom Ward and Scott Chaney had been gelded. The non-disqualification of Game On Dude was outrageously wrong and helps explain the sad condition that consumes racing. The fact that I had a $10 win ticket on Setsuko has nothing to do with my observation.

Ed Freeman

Moorpark

Order on court

News item: The Clippers upset the Celtics, one of the league’s top teams, in Boston yet, and confirmed the team’s resurgence. Reaction: This can’t help Elgin Baylor’s case!

Jack Wolf

Westwood

Halo hash

I’m glad to see the Angels are leaning toward keeping Reggie Willits and Brandon Wood. That way, they have the two worst players in the majors. Willits supposedly can run, field and get on base but manages to get picked off with regularity and hits like he’s holding a wet newspaper. All you need to say about Wood is that last year he became the first guy in 40 years to hit under .150 with over 200 at-bats. I have never seen anyone miss more pitches by more than a foot from that guy.

You lose games by giving at-bats to terrible players. The Angels seemed destined not to learn that lesson once again.

Craig L. Dunkin

Los Angeles

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As long as he crosses home plate many, many times this season without hurting himself, Kendrys Morales can call himself anything he wants.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Anyone?

Does anyone believe that Jim McMahon obeyed the honor code when he played quarterback for BYU?

John Marshall

Capistrano Beach

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