UCLA Head coach Jim Mora Jr. is not scared of L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers. Mora had his team’s effort questioned by Simers on Saturday, specifically if the team was tanking to set up a rematch with Stanford the following week in the Pac12 title game.
The Cardinal are presumed to be an easier matchup than Oregon, and a UCLA win would have brought on the Ducks. Although this logic is at least semi flawed because Stanford won at Oregon.
Here’s an excerpt of the argument, via The Coaching Search
“Is that a question or a statement?” Mora said. “If you’re asking me a question, I’ll be happy to answer it. If you’re going to make statements, then make them. … I hadn’t thought about (the Pac-12 championship). What I thought about was Stanford; playing and beating Stanford. That’s all we thought about. That was it. That was the end of world for us. The universe dropped off after the Stanford game. That’s all we wanted to do. … “Once again, is there a question?
“This is a press conference where you ask questions. If you want to come up, take the mic and make all your statements. There’s a seat here and seat here. It’d be great. I’d love to have you up here. You don’t scare me.”
You can watch the confrontation at the 22-second mark and the 4:38 mark below.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; he’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.