UCLA: Basketball or Football School? - Sports Central Showdown
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CBS Los Angeles (via CBS Los Angeles)
UCLA is in a category of its own in college athletics! The basketball program in Westwood has always been stellar -- from John Wooden's 10 national championships in 12 seasons, to Cori Close's 2026 win with the women's basketball team. But now, new football head coach Bob Chesney has the Bruins ranked in the top ten and off to an undefeated 9-0 start. Big Ten Plus broadcaster Shane Donovan is the first to claim that Chesney has turned UCLA from a basketball school to a football school, saying the sky is the limit for Chesney while Mick Cronin and the modern-day men's basketball program has fallen behind Wooden's standards. The Sporting Tribune writer Alex Hutton is a Chesney fan as well, but he argues that the legacies of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton can't be overruled by one hot start at the Rose Bowl. Graham Metzker hosts, and ponders what it would take for UCLA to flip from hoops to the gridiron, in this Bruin edition of the Sports Central Showdown.
