Donovan Dent’s OT layup lifts UCLA men to upset of No. 10 Illinois

Photo Cred: Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The narrative changed. An image, restored. A resounding reminder of why this program belongs in college basketball lore.

For five days, the UCLA men’s basketball team drew negative attention on a national level. But with a gritty performance and one decisive shot, the Bruins rewrote their story, capping an interesting chapter in their illustrious history.

How’s that for an apology?

How’s that for a response?

Donovan Dent, Tyler Bilodeau help stun No. 4 Purdue

Photo Cred: Keith Birmingham/SCNG

Donovan Dent was a bystander to his worst nightmare.

His dreams of a glorious homecoming slipped before his eyes. His past brilliance, forgotten, as he and the UCLA men’s basketball team fell out of the national conversation.

“Can’t stand around when your team needs you,” Bruins head coach Mick Cronin said Tuesday of Dent’s disappointing performances. “Who sits there and lets their career end?”

Sparks can’t survive Rickea Jackson’s ejection, drop home finale to Mercury

Photo Cred: Keith Birmingham

Whether she meant to or not, Rickea Jackson tested a historically controversial theory on Tuesday night. The idea being, that if a newcomer challenges the most imposing figure in the group, they will gain the rest of the pack’s respect.

With 18 seconds remaining in the second quarter, 6-foot-9 Brittney Griner’s elbow caught Jackson’s upper body. The two then stood an arm’s length apart, jawing, before Griner lifted her right arm and Jackson swatted it away. Shoves were exchanged. Jackson, hands held high like a prize fighter on the defense, began to retreat as her veteran teammate Dearica Hamby played peacemaker.

Jackson’s backpedal wasn’t a sign that she feared Griner, nor that she regretted showing her colors as a gritty player, rather in that moment, she suddenly realized that she didn’t need to come at the league’s most lauded enforcer to earn her peers’ reverance. She has already done that with her consistent improvement this season. When she got caught up in the heat of that fracas, she lost the chance to show that once again.

UCLA and Mick Cronin finally get the better of Gonzaga

Photo Cred: Etienne Laurent/AP Photo

Briskly, Mick Cronin walked away from the media scrum and into Friday’s practice. It was the first of the season without a viewing portion, as the UCLA men’s basketball team was jumping straight into scouting Gonzaga.

Back to work, he said, in a matter-of-fact tone. His mood, he explained a day later, had been dampened by the Bruins’ collapse against North Carolina in Madison Square Garden.

“I was a miserable human for a couple days,” Cronin said.

He remained displeased, even after the No. 22 Bruins (11-2) bounced back and showed a considerable amount of poise in the final moments, scraping out a 65-62 win over the No. 14 Bulldogs (9-4).

No. 15 UCLA can’t stop Jaden Bradley late in loss to No. 5 Arizona

Photo Cred: Mark Terrill/AP Photo

It’s not early March in Las Vegas, but it was No. 15 UCLA and No. 5 Arizona all the same. A slugfest between old-school Pac-12 powerhouses, a flat-out bloodbath, as Bruins head coach Mick Cronin predicted it would be a day earlier.

While the Bruins and Wildcats have relocated to separate conferences, they continue to schedule one another each season, and that familiarity showed up frequently Friday night.

Passes were anticipated before they were thrown. Defenders beat drivers to the spot, effectively protecting the rim. The officials added to the narrative, holding their whistle apart from modern warfare.

LAFC shut out by Houston Dynamo

Photo Cred: Tim Nwachukwu

LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo recognized his goalkeeper’s effort. He knew Hugo Lloris’ heroics were the only thing keeping his team competitive, masking the fatigue it felt from playing three matches in the last six days.

At halftime, trailing by a goal, he willed them to find energy from Lloris’s brilliance, and rally behind it.

“Hugo kept us in the game,” Cherundolo told them in the locker room. “It’s up to us to make sure to capitalize on that and make sure we reward him for those big saves.”

Lloris inspired Cherundolo’s message with multiple diving saves in the first 25 minutes of the match, but had little chance to stop each of Houston’s attempts which resulted in goals, both coming inside the 6-yard box.

Jake Wightman celebrated his world championships win alongside his family

Photo Cred: FanHub

Jake Wightman’s jubilation was masked by a look of shock.

As he crossed the finish line Tuesday in the men’s 1,500-meter final at the World Athletics Championship, he placed his hands on top of his head; his jaw dropped, almost as if his mind couldn’t comprehend what his body had just accomplished.

And amid the roaring Hayward Field crowd that cheered Wightman on as he overtook Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen on the final turn, and through the front-stretch as he held on to win, a voice could be heard over the stadium’s speaker. It was the voice of his father, Geoff Wightman, the stadium’s public address announcer.