PORTLAND, Ore. – It's about 30 minutes into the Portland Pilots' first home playoff game in 16 years. They're taking on the UCLA Bruins in a game that's bigger than just two teams duking it out. There's obviously the playoff atmosphere affecting everything, but there's the history between Portland's coach – Nick Carlin-Voigt – and UCLA in play here too.
There's also the connection between Benji Michel and UCLA. Carlin-Voigt first tried to recruit Michel to the blue and gold when he was the associate head coach before making the leap to Portland. One day he was wearing UCLA colors trying to convince the superhuman athlete from Florida to be a Bruin.