USC will host UCLA on Saturday and it looks like the Galen Center will have its first sell-out. This is Awesome news as USC Basketball is finally getting on the map. Just one little problem with the sell-out...it looks like most of the tickets were purchased by Bruin fans.
Taj Gibson
(AP Photo/Ryan Gardner)
While the cross-town rivalry game Saturday is officially sold out, there has been speculation that Bruins fans have gobbled up sizable chunks of tickets considering the Trojans' spotty attendance record in their new building.
USC has averaged only 4,026 spectators for home games in the 10,258-seat facility. A school spokesman said Wednesday that the ticket office was unsure how many tickets were bought by UCLA fans because of the anonymity of Internet purchases. UCLA's official ticket allotment was only 500.
OK, I'm not naive, SC Hoops has a long way to go before it can reach national prominence and while things look promising with Tim Floyd at the helm SC needs to keep a consistent level of winning before we are taken serious on the national stage but you have to start somewhere. And this is a great opportunity for Bruins fans to take a poke at us so you have to take the good with the bad.
I will not attempt to break down stats or the X's and O's of this game I'm just not a big hoops fan, but based on some conversations I have had with some friends in the LA area there is a buzz surrounding the basketball team as things are coming together. We have some guys who can play at the next level in Taj Gibson Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt and they have shown some grit in some of the games I have seen this season.
Are we going to win on Saturday? I don't know? I would like to think that we have a chance but this is a pretty tough Bruin team coming off a tough loss to Oregon last week. Of course our cross-town rivals consider our program "perennially irrelevant" and our recent success "once-in-a-blue-moon". That's fine; we feel the same way about their football program. They are no more a football school than we are a basketball school but even irrelevant and insignificant opponents win one once in a while.
At the end of the day all we can ask for is for these guys to play their hearts out and give it their best. Ben Howland is a great coach who will have his team ready to play and yes, those guys are good. But lightning can always strike twice, right?
We'll See!