UCLA basketball tickets have long been special for many, many reasons. When you think of sports dynasties, you think of Lombardis Packers, Auerbachs Celtics, the Yankees of several eras and the Montreal Canadiens. Woodens Bruins can stand up to every one of them and then some. Listing all of the legendary players of UCLA lore would be too numerous for this forum, but rest assured that an entire wing of the Hall of Fame could be filled with UCLA alumni.
However, in recent decades, the Bruins, compared to the almost unattainable standard history had set, was not achieving at their historic levels. They did break through for an NCAA title in 1995, but other than that, Westwoods trophy case has not had any recent additions in recent times.
That could all be changing right before our eyes, as the 2007 Bruins are beginning to look like the great Bruin teams of old. They advanced all the way to the NCAA Final last year before losing a tough game to Florida, and so far this season, it looks as though they havent missed a beat. There are reasons for this resurgence, and well examine a couple of them below.
Ben Howland
When Howland took over at UCLA in...