In our overly hyped sports world, some of the really good moments get lost in the noise. Today, there's one that shouldn't.
Washington State is at UCLA in college basketball. If you haven't been paying attention, start now. Game time is 11:30 a.m., and it is truly a battle between a rock and an immovable object.
And those are just the coaches.
Ben Howland's Bruins are 15-1, on everybody's radar to make a third consecutive move into the sport's promised land, the Final Four, and are ranked fifth nationally.
Tony Bennett's Cougars are on nobody's Final Four radar because they are Washington State, because they live and compete in Pullman and because they have a history of having no history. Still, they are 14-0, finished second in the Pacific 10 Conference to the Bruins last season and -- get this -- are ranked a notch higher than UCLA in the national polls.
Somewhere, some oddsmaker has Washington State favored to win and memorabilia collectors are hoarding the tout sheet.
"Look here, Gus! Holy Cow! This guy has Washington State favored over UCLA. In basketball!"
After handling Washington nicely Thursday night, despite more injuries piling up, Howland keynoted Sensational Saturday:
"Playing Washington State is like getting a root canal without any painkiller."
After thinning out O.J. Mayo and handling his USC Trojans just as nicely Thursday night, Bennett gave his view of Saturday Morning Live:
"They are defensive-minded, tough, physical. Everything we want to be."
If you are looking for 110-108, forget it. That happens and these guys will hold a joint news conference afterward and resign. They will get to 65-63 differently, but they'll get somewhere near there.
The Bruins will do it with relentless defense, sound positioning on the boards and a fire in their gut. The Cougars will do it with quietly efficient team defense, methodical passing on offense until somebody is open seven feet from the basket rather than eight, and a fire in their gut.
Howland says that the athletic director who hired Bennett's father, Dick -- with a wink and a nod that son Tony would take over eventually, which he did last season -- "should get a huge raise."
"That took them from the bottom 10 to where they are now, the top five," Howland said.
No word on whether Jim Sterk will be paying Howland a percentage of his new salary. Howland was hired only a few days after Sterk hired Dick Bennett in the spring of 2003, and UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero could certainly use that for salary leverage himself.
