Misfit has to be on the list if you’re including some of these.
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that’s true, they are very good with food allergies too
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And by this I mean, I’ve had good Mexican food in LA, but never any place that has made me think: “this is significantly different than the best places in Southwest Detroit, or any other major metro I’ve spent time in”
do we know where the team is staying?
I do think it’ll be interesting to track the west coast team’s road records when they go east. They got to play each other in the December period, and 3/4 have played a home game in their first January conference game (with 2 of them losing).
UCLA is the only one to play out east so far, and they lost at Nebraska. Then between next Wed-Mon, each of them will have 2 road games out east. So we’ll really start to understand how big an effect the travel and environments will have on them
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You guys going to make your mark tomorrow?
Home cooking?
Many UCLA fans received a robocall from Cronin last week, imploring them to come to the Michigan game at Pauley Pavilion to support the team.
The Bruins need the attendance boost given they are averaging just 4,830 fans for home games. Only USC, averaging 4,163, has had smaller home crowds among Big Ten teams.
If UCLA wants to contend for a conference title during its first Big Ten season, it’s going to need to win nearly every home game after learning just how hard it is to win on the road.
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According to Cronin it doesn’t matter anyway.
Cronin, when asked about the crowd, interrupted the reporter.
“Yeah I don’t really believe in that stuff,” Cronin said. “I believe in coaching and execution and players. I just don’t believe in that stuff.”
The UCLA coach, who had previously visited PBA as coach at Cincinnati, was quick to praise Nebraska as the “better defensive team today,” leading to NU’s victory.
“I don’t think environment has anything to do with anything,” Cronin said. “I just don’t. I think it makes it more fun for the players. Maybe you. I don’t know. I don’t think that has anything to do with anything. Maybe more in football, because of elements, right? Cold, rain, whatever.
“Basketball — somebody cheers, so you’re going to play better? I’m not a big believer in that. I think it’s got more to do with Juwan Gary and Brice Williams.”
we will BE THERE baby!!
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I swear to god the entire “Pac 10 schools played in empty gyms” discourse began by Cronin saying that playing in front of living humans would be an adjustment for his team
(I take it back, it actually seems like he was saying that it was hard for his team to play with energy in empty gyms, but thought the Big10 environs would give that shot of adrenaline.
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USC 247 was adamant that the Michigan takeover at Galen made a huge difference. they were shooketh
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Had to miss USC for work. Not making the mistake of being employed for UCLA. See you all at Pauley! Where does one get a beer around Brentwood? I’m rarely west of La Cienega.
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10/10, great shout!
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Feels like the average attendance stats needs to show % to capacity vs. just scale of fans in seats. Cameron Indoor being completely full with 9,000 seats vs. Georgetown filling 1/4 of Cap One is a major difference.
What would you say the ratio was?
They illegally used pumped in sound and announcer to start chants the whole game during live play so it seemed like they had more fans than they really did
They objectively cheated 
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Some observations from my experience at the Galen Center:
I would guess the crowd was roughly 1/3 Michigan fans? Maybe more? There were a couple loud “Let’s Go Blue” chants, and there was one point in the game where a bad call went against Michigan and there was a very loud chorus of boos. And Michigan fans were pretty hype at the end of the game as USC fans were filing out and Michigan was running out the clock with the outcome more or less decided.
Galen Center is pretty nice, I had been to a couple USC games 10+ years ago, and it seems to have held up pretty well. We sat on row 1 behind the basket closest to USC’s bench, which was awesome, but a word of caution about those seats…if we were in the seats 3 or 4 over to my left we would have been almost completely obstructed by the basket. As it was I was a little obstructed when the ball was on the right wing on that end of the court, but otherwise great seats. You can see me on the broadcast (shaved head, maize t-shirt over blue long sleeve T) quite a bit, and at 10:52 of the second half you can hear me yelling at the refs after Wolf blocked Claude from behind because the ball went off Claude’s face (wasn’t really clear from the broadcast and they didn’t show much of a replay).
I know Scottie Pippen was there from the broadcast but I didn’t see him at the game, he must have been at the other end closer to Michigan’s bench. Rob Pelinka was in the first row directly across from the USC bench, and Warde Manuel and Matt Leinart (not together lol) walked right in front of us a couple times. Obviously TWill was there on the end of the bench with his cast, I was surprised how tall he seemed. On TV he always seemed more like 6’5", but he looked all of 6’7" in person.
I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but Muss blew off Dusty in the handshake line to go yell at a ref. Dusty lingered near the USC bench after he made it through the line, and Muss had another chance to shake hands but just walked right past him. Great guy!
Speaking of great guys, there was a USC fan behind us yelling at Wolf all game, including some borderline antisemetic stuff toward the end (“Hey Wolf, can you smell me?”). To the USC security’s credit they sent multiple people over there right away at that point and shut it down. Wolf took it in stride, maintaining eye contact with this doofus and then pointing at the scoreboard with a little smirk on his face.
All in all a really fun night. Looking forward to tomorrow at UCLA, I’ll be in section 125 which is the lower bowl corner nearest the Michigan bench.
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In my decade of experience as a freelancer, saying something like this almost guarantees that one will get booked. Lo and behold, I am now working for this game. Luckily, I’ll be in Beverley Hills, and the interviewee is an absolute legend so will probably want to be in and out in a hurry.
Prayers up I make it to the game 
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Is there any threat to the game from the Palisades fire or are the prevailing winds going in the other direction? Topanga State Park is pretty close to UCLA.