Oh yeah, she can my valentine.

Hello readers and happy Hallmark, er, uh, I mean Valentine's Day!

Lots of news going on in Cougar land but it's all been covered pretty well here and elsewhere, so I'm gonna take a break from pulling my hair out over blown second half leads and pay homage to those we love, or at least... to those Cougs we love.

Read on for the much anticipated, Longball's Crimson Valentines:

Update 3:09 PM:

Uh, no upset.

Today, our Cougs fell victim to a 15-0 run to end the game and lost a real tough one 86-70.

A few thoughts:

1) Tough weekend for Bone.

I know some of you don't like the "Blame the Coach" stuff.  But it goes with the territory folks.  To be clear: I think Bone's a great coach.

But this weekend, he didn't have it.

I HATED the decision to bench Capers when he picked up his fourth foul.  HATED it.

I HATED even more his decision to rest Casto from the 7:30 mark all the way down to 4:30.  I know the idea, "we'll be fresher by the end of the game."

I HATED the loss of emotion in picking up a T when CAL was up five headed for a one-and-one.  The result: CAL goes up nine.  Game over at that point.

What is too bad about all of it, is that the kids played great for 37 minutes.  Casto was a god. Klay was unbelievable in the first half.

And the rest of the kids played really hard.

So, give us your takes.  Is the season over? 

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Hello Followers.

Well, our Cougs are taking a 45-34 lead into half time against the Golden Bears after playing a near flawless first half against CAL.

Last week, I told Lucas Coug in an e-mail that Klay Thompson's struggles were eerily similar to the struggles we saw Taylor Rochestie go through in the first 2/3 of last year's conference slate.

Of course, on a Saturday afternoon in Pauley Pavilion, Taylor broke out of that slump and led us to a thrilling victory against the then defending champs.

Today, Thompson has 23 at halftime and the rest of the crew are going crazy, including an unofficial 8 blocks AT HALFTIME.

Obviously, the second half will determine the fate of our season.

A few keys to the second half:

1) Keep the current rotation "structure." On Saturday, some of us wondered about Bone's inability to get guys into the flow of the game early. Today, thanks to Moore's foul trouble, Thames, Motum, and Harthun have seen key minutes.  Motum, in particular, looked good defensively.  All of which is good.

2) Defensive intensity.  The fact that we've gotten several guys several minutes means that we should have the legs to keep up what has been the best defensive effort of the year.   CAL is going to come out of the gate with their pants on fire.  I'm also looking at what happens when Klay Thompson comes out of the game.

3) Rest Klay from 15-10.  (or some such).  Klay logged lots of minutes on Saturday and has yet to come out today.  He needs to sit during that critical stretch so he's in from 10:00 left on.

4)  Moore Driving.  Reggie sat for the basically the last 15 of the first half due to two quick fouls.  We need to get him involved early the second half, and much like the last time, he needs to take Randle off the dribble over and over and over and over and over again.

5)  Weather the Zone.  Gotta think that Montgomery will come out zoning us big time.  Now is the time to show that we've turned that corner.

6)  Make Free Throws.  I see a lot of Hacka Casto coming.  Lets hope that he and the rest of the boys are ready to step up the charity stripe.

Thursday night becomes a wash if we can pull this one out.

The season's on the line, boys.  Lets see if they can gut it out.