Steve Alford, fresh off leading New Mexico to a three seed – and subsequent early exit – in the NCAA Tournament, is UCLA’s new basketball coach, replacing the fired Ben Howland. This despite signing a 10-year contract extension with UNM 10 days ago.

UCLA was dealt a blow by the NCAA Friday after freshman star Shabazz Muhammad was ruled ineligible for their season opener for, what else, allegations that Muhammad received illegal donations.

The USC Trojans recently put up 30 billboards around Southern California featuring a hopeful Matt Barkley’s face and the slogan, “We Play To Finish” emblazoned to the left. That’s OK. What wasn’t OK for someone, or some entity, was the fact that one of those billboards was a short walk from UCLA’s campus. The details, after the jump.

UCLA’s football hasn’t won a bowl game since 2009, or a Pac-10/12 title since 1998, but the team has a new strategy to propel them back to college football glory: recruit the son of every hip-hop star available.

Poor Reeves Nelson. One minute you’re playing basketball for the UCLA Bruins, the next you’re in Lithuania and Sports Illustrated comes out with a story that you pissed on your teammates clothes and you’re just generally a crappy guy. But when the story is written by a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, it’s hard to argue that you’re not “a scumbag,” as Nelson is trying to do.

Ah, another March, another controversial Duke basketball media moment. Last year’s, if you remember, involved Jalen Rose and “Uncle Toms.” And this one involved ESPN’s Colin Cowherd and the use of a word that’s acquired an ugly racial context to it in the sports world: “thug.”

As someone who absolutely loves the Kiss Cam, I have to say that the big screen, sporting event marriage proposal is far too painful for my taste. Everything about it just feels wrong. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the stomach to witness the possible rejection.

A day after losing a coach, UCLA football gained a future cornerback in Justin Combs out of New Rochelle, N.Y. As far as verbal commitments from high schoolers go, Combs’ pledge is getting a ton of attention.

USC destroyed UCLA 50-0 last night, and if that’s not enough to convince you that the swagger of the heights of the Pete Carroll era is returning to the L.A. Coliseum, maybe the video after the jump will.

Arizona is currently demolishing both UCLA and Rick Neuheisel’s chances at keeping his job, but the craziness of the game’s 42-7 halftime score has nothing on the sequence you’ll see after the jump. Suffice to say, both a streaker and a huge brawl are involved.