UCLA Athletics Whip-Around 4/27: Volleyball on Top, Draft Day Looms
Also inside: quick looks at softball, women's golf, baseball, and spring football.
The offseason is a time to try some things, so in the spirit of that I’m introducing the UCLA Athletics Whip-Around. The general idea is that this lets us do quick blurbs on a bunch of different sports similar to how we used to have the Olympic Roundup back at BruinsNation, but in a way that gives you all a place to talk about those things. We’re also not limiting this to the Olympic sports, which is why you’ll see some football stuff here today. I want to get to this on a semi-regular basis, so bear with us while we work out some kinks.
Men’s Volleyball
They’re probably the highlight here, as the men’s volleyball team won the MPSF Tournament last week to help clinch the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
(Also, apologies for not being able to just embed Twitter links here. Elon is having a feud with Substack for reasons, which means the API was disabled for now).
Anyway, with the #1 overall seed, UCLA earned a bye into the semifinal round of the NCAA Tournament. I’m guessing it speaks to the relative lack of men’s volleyball teams in the country that the men’s tournament bracket only consists of seven teams while the women’s bracket is 64 teams deep. Either way, UCLA has a pretty straight shot at winning National Title #121; they’ll face the winner of Long Beach State and Grand Canyon on Thursday, May 4, and a victory puts them in the championship game on May 6.
The Bruins have had a very dominant 2023 season, putting up a 29-2 record. They’ve only dropped 16 sets all season, which feels pretty impressive, especially given the competition they’ve faced. That said, a national championship is not a given here; the Bruins split a series with Penn State (the #3 ranked team in the tournament) and lost their lone meeting with Hawai’i, who has the #2 seed. Even their semifinal match should not be overlooked - the Bruins faced both Long Beach State and Grand Canyon during the season, and while they won every single meeting, the sets were competitive.
Softball
The softball team completed a sweep in their final Pac-12 homestand this past weekend, beating Arizona State in three games to clinch a share of the Pac-12 regular season title with a few weeks to go.
I’m not sure what to say about this team, really. They’ve been impressive all season, currently sitting on a 44-4 record and the #2 spot in the softball rankings behind Oklahoma. They basically ran away with the conference, which feels as much a sign of their dominance as it is a small decline in conference power, simply because they also spent most of the non-conference slate beating up on other top teams (outside of a really bad game against Oklahoma). I am hoping to get out to Easton Stadium next Friday to try and see one game with my friend who is a softball coach just to get his read on the team, so maybe I’ll have more about them in the near future.
Women’s Golf
Couple of things here. First, head coach Carrie Forsyth announced that she would be retiring following the conclusion of the season. Forsyth has led the Bruins for 24 seasons and has two NCAA titles to her name as a coach, along with five Pac-12 championships and a bevy of Coach of the Year honors. She coached a host of current LPGA Tour pros, including Lilia Vu, who just won the Chevron Championship a week ago. Forsyth will remain with UCLA as a special advisor to Martin Jarmond, and a search is now underway for her replacement.
Less surprisingly, the Bruins will play in the San Antonio regional of the NCAA tournament from May 8-10, marking their 30th straight appearance in the tournament.
Baseball
Look, I want to sit down and have a longer discussion of this team at some point but suffice it to say they’re currently fine and will probably make the NCAA tournament, though it won’t be as easy a road as it was before. I’ve been to Jackie Robinson Stadium a few times this year, and things have just felt weird. The team has talent, but there’s been a weird run of injuries (for example, the team just lost sophomore shortstop Cody Schrier for the rest of the year) and some weird personnel usage.
Football
Yeah, there’s spring practice. UCLA has really turned down anything that could be considered “sexy” about spring football under Chip Kelly, including getting rid of the Spring Showcase this season which had already replaced the standard spring game. I’m sure Kelly likes the idea of having as much actual practice as allowed under NCAA rules, but the spring game is a great way to sell your program (see what Colorado just did with Deion Sanders, and also don’t look at the mass exodus that took place after that game) and I just don’t think Kelly is all that interested in selling the program in general.
It’s also hard to talk about because we have to sift through practice reports from various sources to find anything of value, especially as only a small part of the practice is open to the media. So here are the tidbits I pulled that you can use at your next family gathering if anyone asks how UCLA football is looking:
The quarterback battle isn’t settled, but it looks down to the final two. Dante Moore, the heralded five-star true freshman, is still in the hunt, and he’s being challenged by last year’s backup QB Ethan Garbers. Kent State transfer Collin Schlee seems settled as the third option at the moment, and we are officially on #JustynMartinTransferWatch.
For other skill position spots, TJ Harden looks to be controlling the top spot at running back while Carson Steele seems to be struggling to lock in a significant spot. On a more positive note, the wide receiver group looks to be the most talented group UCLA has seen in decades, which should help because the offensive line looks incredibly shallow in depth.
The defense…I don’t know. They appear to still be running a base 4-3 defense at the moment, which isn’t that surprising considering D’Anton Lynn is likely still evaluating personnel and we won’t see real tweaks until the fall. But the number of names I’m seeing from last year’s group that are still in top spots is maybe a bit frustrating considering the performance of the defense in general. Who knows, maybe Lynn sets this group up for more success, but I’m putting this whole thing in wait-and-see for now.
And now you know everything about spring ball! Horray!
Football (Again)
Oh yeah, the NFL Draft starts today.
I don’t expect we will hear any UCLA players get their names called during today’s opening round, but Friday may see the first UCLA player come off the board. Specifically, I’d look to running back Zach Charbonnet getting drafted late in the second round or at some point in the third, but it would be a shock to see him last into day three. Charbonnet has established himself as one of the best non-Bijan Robinson running back options in this draft and may represent a great day-two value for teams looking for an every-down back.
UCLA’s long-tenured starting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson should be the next Bruin to come off the board. Thompson-Robinson looks to have established himself among the second tier of quarterbacks in this draft, not near the top five of Young/Stroud/Richardson/Levis/Hooker but as a value developmental option late in the draft. There’s a possibility he sneaks into the fourth round, but the fifth round feels about right for him and should set Thompson-Robinson in a good position to develop.
Outside of those two, UCLA has some fringe prospects. I think both Jon Gaines and Atonio Mafi will offer some intrigue for teams picking late in the draft as cheap developmental offensive line prospects. Jake Bobo may be able to draw favorable comparisons to Kyle Phillips, who got drafted by the Tennessee Titans and carved out a solid role in his rookie season, and that comparison might be enough to get him a look. Stephan Blaylock and Kazmeir Allen should get signed somewhere as UDFAs.
That’s all for this Whip-Around. See you guys next time!
Go Bruins!
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The lack of a spring game feels like a self fulfilling prophecy for the apathy surrounding the football program. They don't care about the product which leads to fans not caring about the product which leads them investing less into the product while extracting what value the product has (which is a bloated number from the mythical "CFB LA Market" which you can say exists but it exists because of transplants coming in with prior allegiances).
I'm not excited to go to home games once the B10 era starts, the home crowd will be outnumbered the first eight years (or whenever the first cycle of pod play ends) because of the lack of meaningful engagement and willingness to create something worth dragging our asses out to Pasadena for.
Look at the before/afters of the crowd for Colorado's spring game. They're creating something, granted it's all based on hype at the moment, that people want to participate in.
UCLA football is becoming the equivalent of the traveling roadshow Yankees from Interstellar except we don't leave LA and if you think we're the Yankees in this scenario then pass the blunt because we're the Washington Generals, for the likes of OSU, Mich, MSU, PSU, Wisc to beat the money out of the pinata of road ticket sales in a city where a lot of their graduates move to (see Rutgers, NYC's college football team).
NCAA Men’s Volleyball Semifinal 1: UCLA vs Long Beach State
Set 1: UCLA 25, LBSU 16
The Bruins established an early 4 point lead and never allowed LBSU to make a run. The Bruins pulled away behind some outstanding serving, scrappy defense, and smart attacking decisions. UCLA looks very confident but LBSU played a disappointing first set and will likely provide a stiffer test in set 2.