Pregame sights and sounds from Westwood and Pauley Pavilion
Good evening TOC, from UCLA. Since it’s going to be past the rest of the staff’s bedtime, I’ll do my best to get out a timely instant recap of tonight’s action from Pauley Pavilion. So, before that, hopefully it’s OK to share some of the sights and sounds so the next article can just be about the game.
The game thread is up and below are some of the pregame happenings and observations.
Once again, the Spartan Faithful are noticeable around campus. A few hours before tip off, there was a mostly green crowd preparing at Rocco’s Bar, just down the hill from campus in Westwood Village. It will be interesting to see if the Spartans fans can take over Pauley like they did USC’s Galen Center on Saturday. It’s about 20 minutes before tip and only a small crowd has filled in so far.
Speaking of Pauley Pavilion, this is the first time I’ve been here and it’s very deceptive. It’s right in the middle of campus but almost looks like any other campus building from the outside. Most of it is underground, however and the difference between Pauley and USC’s Galen Center was striking on the inside. Galen seats just over 10,000 while Pauley Pavilion has a capacity of almost 14,000. Pauley Pavilion looks twice as big though. In Galen, the press sat behind one of the baselines but near the top of the arena. Here, the press are seated midcourt at the top of the arena but it just seems so much further away from the court.
I thought the more intimate setting at USC produced a really good game day atmosphere. There is obviously a lot more history here but it will be interesting to see how the crowd and experience here compares to USC.
Maybe I just missed it, but one thing I didn’t notice at SC was an NIL pitch from head coach Eric Musselman. Here, a video of Mick Cronin just finished where he thanked the “Men of Westwood” for everything they’ve done but still asked them to dig a little deeper.
Finally, the Spartans are out for their second warm up period now and, after a hard fall on his hip Saturday at USC, Syzmon Zapala appears to be moving well. So does Jase Richardson, after Coach Izzo mentioned after the USC game that he had missed some practice last week with an undisclosed injury.
Getting close to tip now. GO GREEN!