I didn’t need much of an excuse to pull for UCLA in this weekend’s Final Four matchups. I’m a former Southern California resident who still misses that great weather, and my Miracle Georgia Dawgs succumbed to reality in the first round vs. Xavier.
But the LA Times shed some light on an interesting fact and something that also is important to me. Seems Kevin Love of UCLA is part of a very interesting SoCal family.
Kevin’s uncle, Mike, is the famous lead singer of the Beach Boys, the group that exported Southern California culture to other parts of the globe, beginning in the 1960s. I became a fan of the group as an Alabama youngster in the 1960s and kept the faith until moving to California in 1985. Kevin’s father, Stan, was a college and pro basketball player and once cared for Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ guru, during Wilson’s bouts with drugs and emotional problems.
I even remember chatting with Love in the crowd in Atlanta before a Beach Boys gig there in the 1970s. I was so thrilled!
You can take the boy out of California, but I’ll still be a fan of the Bruins and other Golden State teams (unless it tests my Georgia connections). Go Bruins!
