UCLA men’s basketball faces Gonzaga set on raising ranking and revenue
Photo Cred: Etienne Laurent/AP Photo
A bubble in Indianapolis, a beach in Maui, a futuristic dome in Inglewood, it doesn’t matter where these West Coast powerhouses meet, the final moments tend to decide the game.
This iteration of UCLA and Gonzaga will be a measuring stick for the 25th-ranked Bruins (7-2), who are rounding into form after a choppy start. They beat Washington and Oregon to open Big Ten play and will play consecutive games with a fully healthy lineup for the first time this season. For the eighth-ranked Bulldogs (9-1), it’s a business trip as they try to earn their fourth win against a ranked opponent.
It’s the fifth time these nonconference foes have met in the past four calendar years. Their rivalry, however, has evaded their home courts in Westwood and Spokane. In 2025, the stakes will be decided Saturday night at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.
Two fallen football juggernauts, Crespi and Grace Brethren, start new chapters on a hopeful note
Photo Cred: Aaron Heisen
Well before kickoff, well before the captains shook hands and the bleachers filled with desperate fans looking for signs of hope, well before their two teams put on an unexpected 104-point shootout that went into double overtime, the two head coaches stood on an empty field and shared a conversation.
A conversation about how to rebuild a program, how to maintain a standard, and how to give their supporters what they deserve.
UCLA players have responded to challenges from Mick Cronin and each other
Photo Cred: David Crane/SCNG
Public image be damned, UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin has never been shy about blatantly challenging his teams. He’s done it on two occasions with this year’s group, hoping to incite a response from his players.
“At some point, you gotta have some players that say enough is enough.”
Individually, players started to look at themselves in the mirror. But in those mirrors stood their teammates because they realized, whether they were a transfer or a returner, they each shared a common theme.
Photo Cred: Tillamook Football
Tanner Hoskins remembers the state of shock. The slight headache. Stumbling off the field and onto the treatment table. Blacking out. The panic when numbness overcame his nose and the right side of his face, and then his extremities and lower body. The uncontrollable curling of his fingers and toes. Slurring his words. The fear that he’d never be able to walk again or express that these specific sensations were engulfing his entire body.
These are the symptoms present when a body enters paralysis.
As UCLA opens Big Ten play, can Donovan Dent shake his slump?
Photo Cred: Jesse/AlchehAP Photo
When Donovan Dent transferred to UCLA for his senior season, a reason behind the move, he said, was that if he endured a slump, he could go home to correct course. It took just seven games into his time in Westwood for him to need that one-hour trip east to Riverside.
Dent returned to his high school gym for Corona Centennial’s game against Los Alamitos, spending a moment in Joshua Giles’ office chopping it up with his former coaches – the ones who won’t sugarcoat things or shower him with flowery encouragement when he’s not playing like himself.
“What, are you afraid to shoot the ball now, Donny?” Dent’s longtime trainer and Centennial assistant, Shannon Sharpe, asked flatly. “What’s the matter, you can’t make a free throw now?”
Sharlize Palacios helps UCLA softball peak as Super Regional play begins with Georgia
Photo Cred: John McCoy
Sharlize Palacios gauges the demeanor of each pitcher she catches, judging their readiness as they enter a ballgame. Their facial expression, she explains, says it all.
Take UCLA freshman Kaitlyn Terry for example. When she stepped into Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech in the bottom of the second inning – the Bruins, down three runs, with Hokies occupying first and second base – Palacios noticed a stone-faced visage similar to the expression Terry flashed when she was “mowing girls down against Arizona State” on May 9.
Palacios’ notion was sound. Terry settled right in, staving off the Virginia Tech offense as the Bruins completed their fifth comeback of four or more runs this season.
Rams defense looks to stop the show in New York
Photo Cred: AP Michael Conroy
The sports market that Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris grew up in puts its athletes on pedestals, bestowing quirky nicknames that soon become household personas, sensationalizing any figure who sparks hope into the New York sports scene.
Take former New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, for example. Lin parlayed a 25-game heater into the immortalized moniker, “Linsanity,” back in 2012.
It’s a storyline that Morris feels isn’t all that dissimilar from the one that New York Giants quarterback Tommy Devito developed this season, turning his success, and Italian background into marketable fruit in the tri-state area.
Photo Cred: Jack Gillespie
On Friday afternoon, two hours before Calabasas High’s football team kicked off its Marmonte League opener against Oaks Christian, wide receiver Aaron Butler and his family were on their way to Los Angeles International Airport.
A flight was going to take them to Boulder, Colo., to be in attendance at Colorado’s football game against USC.
But just before they had loaded the car Friday, Butler, a four-star recruit who committed to Colorado in May, announced his decision to forgo the final five games of his senior season at Calabasas, enroll in online classes and graduate high school early so that he could be on campus at Colorado and begin classes and working out with the football team.
Photo Cred: Springfield Football
Ty Depaoli was the son who’d rummage through the garage for his father’s mountain bike each morning. The kid who’d ride that bike to Marist Catholic High School and be on the field at sunrise, practicing his field goal kicking.
The freshman goalkeeper impressed football coach Frank Geske with his leg strength, enough so that Geske thought “he was too good to not be kicking for us.”
As a junior, he earned Class 4A all-state praise while playing with what he said was “noticeably less pop” in his leg. It turned out there was a reason behind his diminished power.
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