In Dan Guerrero's nearly 14 years as UCLA's athletic director, he has overseen 27 national championships, the renovation of Pauley Pavilion and the beginning of construction on new basketball and football facilities. He has also never experienced anything quite like the outrage recently directed...
Cori Close played basketball for UC Santa Barbara and was an assistant coach for 18 years at three different universities before taking over as UCLA's coach in 2011. But her roots at UCLA run deep and are personal. UCLA was her first stop as an assistant, and it was there she met John Wooden, who...
Nirra Fields and Kacy Swain, seniors on the UCLA women's basketball team, are coming to grips with the realization that the end of their college careers — whether that be as NCAA champions, the victims of an early-round upset, or somewhere in between — is fast approaching. "I'll catch myself just...
Myles Jack returned Tuesday to the UCLA practice field. It wasn't to resume his college career, but to take another step toward his dream of playing linebacker in the NFL. Still, he's approaching his next chapter with patience. He didn't run the 40-yard dash on his surgically repaired knee — he...
UCLA has a basketball team taking high expectations into the NCAA tournament. Its 10th-ranked women's team. On Monday, hours after a plane pulling a banner calling for men's basketball Coach Steve Alford's firing was seen over the campus, UCLA was announced as the No. 3-seeded team in the Bridgeport...
A number of UCLA basketball fans are unhappy with Coach Steve Alford, and on Monday, they took to the sky to express their displeasure. On Monday morning, a plane was spotted in Westwood, above UCLA's campus, towing a banner calling for Alford's dismissal. In all caps, the banner read, "UCLA DESERVES...
How the Bruins look next season Player; Pos.; Ht.; Yr.; Comment Bryce Alford; PG; 6-3; Sr.; Often clutch, but led the team in shots despite 38.5% shooting. A leader but defense needs improvement. Prince Ali; G; 6-3; So.; Averaged more than 10 minutes a game during nonconference games; didn't reach...
UCLA's basketball season was plummeting. The team was splintering. And no one knew how to fix it. It was the last weekend in February and the Bruins had just been defeated by Stanford, one of many frustrating losses in a rare UCLA season full of them. For weeks, some Bruins thought teammates were...
No. 8 USC vs. No. 9 Providence THURSDAY AT PNC ARENA, RALEIGH, N.C. How they got here: USC lost six of eight games in a stretch late in the season but used a 95-71 victory over UCLA in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament as a strong closing statement. Providence endured its own...
The snack bar sells Cheetos and Funyuns. The banners behind the basket advertise massages and sheet metal. The white sign on the wall reads, "Maximum Occupancy 1316", a number that was reached an hour before Friday's game, when long lines of fans standing in chilly dampness were allowed entry into...
Hate to have to remind angry UCLA fans following their basketball team's humiliating season-ending defeat Wednesday night against USC, but Coach Steve Alford won't be fired this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. If you care enough about UCLA basketball to demand a coaching change, then...
Officially, the game, UCLA's season and probably USC's stint in NCAA tournament purgatory, ended at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday. Effectively, it was over before halftime, in USC's 95-71 victory in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament. If ever one sequence captured two widely divergent seasons,...
The Pac-12 Networks is in its fourth year, which network President Lydia Murphy-Stephans says makes it "a toddler now." Network officials hope that means maturation. For college basketball fans, it means changes to how some people will watch the Pac-12 tournament beginning Wednesday. As always,...
UCLA's Christoph Bono hit a bases-loaded chopper behind the Dodger Stadium mound in the 14th inning and the ball slid under USC shortstop Reggie Southall's glove, allowing two runs to score, giving the Bruins a 5-3 victory in the finale of the Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic. "It's an outstanding...
Sydney Wiese scored 18 of her 21 points in the first half while No. 8 Oregon State built a 27-point lead and Ruth Hamblin added 23 points and a career-high 20 rebounds in a 69-57 win over No. 12 UCLA on Sunday night that gave the Beavers their first Pac-12 Conference tournament title. After winning...
With 1:25 remaining in UCLA's regular-season finale at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins were trailing Oregon State by nine points and quickly approaching a fourth consecutive loss. But four offensive rebounds, two forced turnovers, and a trio of three-pointers later, UCLA managed to pull within two...
Monique Billings had 18 points and eight rebounds, and No. 12 UCLA raced past Arizona for a 72-51 victory in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals Friday in Seattle. The Bruins (23-7) used a big first half to take a 21-point halftime lead and cruised into the semifinals. They will face California...
UCLA VS. OREGON STATE When: 3:30 p.m. Where: Pauley Pavilion. On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks; Radio: 570. Update: The last time these teams played, on Jan. 20, UCLA harbored hopes of a Pac-12 Conference title and Oregon State looked destined to occupy a place somewhere near the bottom of the conference...
The game had been completed for barely five minutes, and the saddest gym in Los Angeles was already mostly empty. Students had run out of the end zone bleachers. Boosters had spun on their heels, turned their backs on the final seconds, and climbed hastily of the lower section. UCLA had lost another...
After another loss to a conference opponent, UCLA senior Tony Parker admits he sounds like a broken record. At this point, he's not sure what else there is to say. After all, Wednesday night's matchup against the No. 9 Oregon Ducks was the eighth consecutive game that the Bruins failed to eclipse...
Last season, the UCLA women's basketball team limped out of the Pac-12 Conference tournament with a losing record, hoping to salvage what it could from the NIT. Before the Bruins' first NIT game, Coach Cori Close invited a speaker to address the team: Ed Schilling, an assistant coach for the UCLA's...
UCLA VS. NO. 9 OREGON When: 6 p.m. Where: Pauley Pavilion. On the air: TV: ESPN2; Radio: 570. Update: UCLA (15-14, 6-10 in the Pac-12 Conference) must win at least one of its final two games to avoid a losing regular-season record. The Bruins are coming off losses at California and Stanford. A...
UCLA Coach Cori Close admitted doing what she asked her team not to do. She let her thoughts creep into the postseason before Sunday's regular-season finale against No. 9 Arizona State. “I didn't sleep much last night,” Close said after the 14th-ranked Bruins beat the Sun Devils, 74-61. “I knew,...
By the time UCLA's locker room doors swung open late Saturday afternoon, the Stanford band had finished its postgame set. The fans had filed out. Workers were using leaf blowers to clean up hot dog wrappers and ticket stubs. UCLA took a long time to digest its 79-70 loss to Stanford. Among the...
Nirra Fields led six players in double figures with 13 points and No. 14 UCLA rolled to an 80-53 win over Arizona on Friday night. Paulina Hersler had 12 points and seven rebounds and Jordin Canada had 12 points and five assists for the Bruins (21-7, 13-4 Pac-12). UCLA has won 10 of 12, with the...
Before showing off his fancy footwork to NFL scouts, Myles Jack gave a sneak peek at another of his talents. His fancy footwear. As the only player at the scouting combine that Under Armour has signed to a shoe and apparel deal, Jack — who played linebacker and running back at UCLA — got to flex...
Tony Parker walked out of the UCLA locker room Thursday night ready with some jokes. Only 20 minutes before, UCLA had lost to California. It was close to a mortal blow to the Bruins' hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. But Parker was unusually upbeat. He made fun of his low free-throw...
Only twice in the last 54 years has USC made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament when UCLA did not. This year could mark the third time. Who would have imagined? With a 75-63 defeat at Cal on Thursday, UCLA is on the outside looking in. Anything short of winning the Pac-12 tournament and the Bruins...
As the final buzzer sounded and the California crowd buzzed into a frenzy, Bryce Alford sat on the bench.He lingered for maybe five seconds. Then he buried his bruised, pained face into a towel.Snce 1985, when the field expanded, UCLA has qualified for the NCAA tournament in all but six seasons....
UCLA VS. CALIFORNIA When: 6 p.m. Where: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley. On the air: TV: ESPN2; Radio: 570. Update: UCLA (15-12, 6-8 in the Pac-12 Conference) has little margin for error in its bid for the NCAA tournament. With four games remaining in the regular season, the Bruins may have to win all...
When UCLA tips off against California on Thursday, the referee will toss into the air an orangish inflated sphere with eight panels. Most everything else about the game ball is up to the Bears. It can be leather. Or not. It can be 29 1/2 inches, or 30. If he wants to, California Coach Cuonzo Martin...
They spent the last two months intensely preparing for the next step in their football careers.Immediately after their teams' college bowl games, most draft-eligible USC and UCLA players set their sights on readying for the NFL scouting combine.The weeklong, invitation-only evaluation event at...
Tony Parker had been saving his impersonation of center Thomas Welsh for weeks. But until UCLA's 77-53 victory over Colorado on Saturday night, he never had a chance to use it. Usually a media hound, Parker hadn't been available for interviews since January, when he was benched for the nimbler...
After UCLA's 77-53 victory over Colorado on Saturday, Coach Steve Alford laughed. Sometimes, the difference in the Bruins' performance from game to game has been striking. At times, the Bruins have been lethargic, or their defense has lagged, and they've lost close, winnable games. Other times,...
Kevin Chappell was deep into his third round at Pebble Beach last Saturday, heading for a missed cut, when he turned on his phone to check for flights out and got awful news in a text. Chris Roth, the caddie for Chappell's former UCLA teammate Patrick Cantlay, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident...
Nirra Fields had 23 points, Jordin Canada scored 20 and both had key points in the final minute as No. 12 UCLA ended Oregon's five-game winning streak Friday night, 77-72. A tip-in by Jillian Alleyne tied the score at 70 with 52 seconds left but seven seconds later Canada's layup put the Bruins...
Five regular-season games remain on UCLA's schedule, and the Bruins may have to win all of them to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament. Each game will have its own level of pressure. That, UCLA Coach Steve Alford has indicated, might not bode well. Earlier this week, Alford declared his team hasn't...
For UCLA, the margins are as slim as floaters that don't float quite enough. They are as tiny as a mistimed ally-oop or a botched defense on an inbounds play. Small plays, within the context of a season. But the Bruins' sluggish Pac-12 Conference start meant these mini breakdowns may have torpedoed...
The Southland's 10 Division I college baseball programs are scheduled to open the season Friday, with the usual suspects appearing primed for a run toward a regional invitation. UCLA and USC, regional teams last season, are expected to be among the top contenders in the Pac-12 Conference, with...
UCLA VS. UTAH When: 7 p.m. Where: Pauley Pavilion. On the air: TV: ESPN2; Radio: 570. Update: Of UCLA's six remaining games, five are against teams in the top 40 of the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). That means a strong finish could propel UCLA (14-11, 5-7 in the Pac-12 Conference) into the NCAA...