The 6th Man

In case any of you missed it this weekend, the UCLA Bruins and Stanford Cardinal both managed close victories advancing into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins were down 11 points to Texas A&M in the second half and needed monster performances from Kevin Love (7 blocks and 2 key fadeaways in the final minutes) and Darren Collison (5 threes and 1 game winning layup) down the stretch to pull it out. Stanford's coach Trent Johnson was ejected in the first half of their game against Marquette and the Cardinal pulled out a thrilling 82-81 Overtime win riding the 7 foot twins Robin and Brook Lopez to the victory.

Being dedicated sports journalists, Robert and I were on the scene in Anaheim to bring you the freshest analysis of the Bruin and Stanford wins. Here are the major observations from the day:

1. Beer and Pistachios make for great pre-game meal
2. The Lopez twins are big
3. Texas A&M has some crazy elaborate male cheerleader routines
4. Big West Refs are terrible
5. Someone sitting in our section has some serious gas issues- could be Boob
6. People are annoying, especially dude sitting in front of us who insists on talking to anyone who'll listen (or not) about how he knows the game. He doesn't. Feel sorry for his kid.
7. Stanford Band Leader rocks! She blows away the competition with her suspenders and dance moves. The big hand props are gold!
8. Kevin Love is good
9. Darren Collison is fast
10. Hugging strangers is only acceptable in a few situations; one of which is in celebration of a fellow sports team's amazing victory. The Honda Center was pumping!

After the Bruin Game, Kevin Love said "we won this game because of the fans, especially BJ and Bob." Literally, he said that. Or figuratively. The point is he was right. K Love correctly gave props to us for that win. We deserved it. Duh. Which brings me to my point; the 6th man in basketball is the most powerful in all sports. If you don't believe ME, then listen to this highly-technical analysis from our resident Doctor with a real Ph. D. and everything; Dr. Smith:

"K Love was right on with the props there. Fact: fans play a larger role in basketball than really any other team sport. It's simple if you think about it. In football fans are the 12th man, same in soccer, but in basketball the fans are the sixth man, which makes a lot more of a difference. Six is 20% more than 5 while twelve is only 9% more than eleven. That is the reason that golf fans have to be quiet - because 2 on 1 is really unfair."

It's SCIENCE.