After firing Steve Alford, UCLA is beginning to face up to the reality of its basketball program, according to Bill Plaschke of the LA Times:
“I never thought I would write this, but the stark reality is that coaching the UCLA men’s basketball team is not a great job...Your arena sits mostly quiet and half-empty...You don’t have the amenities of a Kansas or Kentucky, where every road trip is on a chartered plane and where the coaches recruit from private jets. You mostly fly commercial, which affects everything from practice schedules to body clocks.
“You don’t have the national exposure of a North Carolina or Duke, where every game is played in a full arena.