San Jose’s HP Pavilion was Pauley Pavilion North on Saturday. The atmosphere in the sold-out arena was electric blue as the UCLA Bruins defeated the Kansas Jayhawks, 68-55, in the NCAA Western regional final. Kansas looked sharper and faster at the beginning of the game, but the constant crowd noise that sought to disrupt their every free throw, as well as a ball-hawking Bruin defense, eventually wore down the Midwesterners.
Even so, the game was still at issue when, with just under five minutes to go and UCLA up 55-50, Bruin guard Darren Collison hit a fallaway 25-foot three-pointer over two defenders as the shot clock was about to expire. A miss, and the shift in momentum could easily have changed the outcome. At that point, the game was over.
My seatmates and I originally didn’t have a rooting interest--none of us had connections to either school—but the incessant, even obnoxious cheering [U! – C! – L! – A !] made the no. 1 seed Jayhawks seem like the underdog. The Bruins won’t enjoy such a “home court” advantage next week in Atlanta, so they should savor this moment of triumph. © 2007 Stephen Yuen
The San Jose Caltrain station is across the street from HP Pavilion.
We stopped at the Oasis in Menlo Park. In 30 years little has changed.
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