By Don Wanlass
Contributing Writer
The beauty of sports is that anything can happen in any given game and hope always springs eternal.
That’s the way the USC and UCLA men’s basketball teams have to approach the Pac 12 Tournament, which began March 13. By the time this sees the light of day, both local teams could be back in Los Angeles.
The Trojans opened the tournament with a game against Washington. UCLA followed with a game against Oregon State. If the Trojans get past Washington they get Arizona, a team they just got through beating March 9, 78-65. Believe me, Arizona will be trying a lot harder in the tournament.
UCLA faces Oregon if the Bruins get past Oregon State. If the Bruins and Trojans both win their first two tournament games, they face each other in the semifinals March 15.
Both the Trojans and the Bruins have to win the conference tournament to make the 68-team NCAA Tournament because they played so poorly during the season.
The Trojans, ranked 21st in the Associated Press’ preseason Top 25 poll, finished the regular season 14-17 and they had to win four of their last five games to get to that record.
The Bruins finished 15-16 and snapped a five-game losing streak with a 59-47 win over Arizona State March 9. The losing streak caused them to fall out of the fourth-place seed in the conference tournament, forcing them to win four games in four days to advance.
What may be surprising is that both the Trojans and Bruins have enough talent to surprise four opponents this weekend and advance. It isn’t likely to happen, but it’s sports — anything’s possible.
The Trojans have a dynamic backcourt in senior Boogie Ellis and freshman Isaiah Collier, who both average 16.6 points a game. Ellis is steady, Collier can be spectacular at times.
Kobe Johnson is a wing man who is the third leading scorer who can score inside or out. Joshua Morgan and Vincent Iwuchukwu provide size and defense underneath and DJ Rodman and Bronny James have NBA Hall of Fame genes if they haven’t fully developed their fathers’ talent.
Couple those players with coach Andy Enfield, and you can understand the Trojans’ preseason ranking. Injuries to Ellis and Collins slowed the Trojans in January when they suffered a six-game losing streak that knocked them out of contention for the Pac 12 regular season title.
But the Trojans are playing as well now as they have at any time this season. The same can’t be said of the Bruins.
To be fair, the Bruins are a young team. Only four players on this year’s roster were with the team last season.
Junior center Adem Bona is the best player, averaging 12.4 points a game and 1.8 blocks a game. But Bona is prone to foul trouble and the Bruins are significantly weaker defensively when he isn’t on the floor.
Dylan Andrews is learning how to play point guard on the fly and it looks like it most of the time. Freshman guard Sebastian Mack is the Bruins best offensive player.
Junior Lazar Stefanovic, a transfer from Utah, is the team’s best three-point shooter, but he shoots only .386 from behind the arc.
Berke Buyuktuncel and Aday Mara were highly touted freshmen recruits from Turkey and Spain, respectively, but neither was as advanced as was originally thought.
Thus, head coach Mick Cronin has spent more time teaching this young roster instead of actually coaching and that has been the Bruin’s biggest problem all season.
But Cronin was optimistic on a radio interview earlier this week, saying his team was capable of getting on a role and sweeping through the tournament.
Again, it’s sports and anything is possible. I wouldn’t count on it. And I certainly wouldn’t drive to Las Vegas to bet on it.
LADIES’ SPOTLIGHT: While the UCLA and USC men are fighting for their lives in Las Vegas this week, the Lady Trojans and Lady Bruins are at home waiting to find out where they are placed in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Both teams are in the top 10 of the latest AP rankings. The Trojans jumped up to third after defeating Stanford, 74-61 in the Pac 12 Tournament championship game. It is the highest the Trojans have been ranked since 1986.
The Bruins are ranked sixth, giving the Pac 12 three of the top six teams in the rankings. Stanford is ranked fourth.
The NCAA selection committee releases its tournament bracket March 17 at 5 p.m. USC and UCLA both know they are going. They are just waiting to find out where.
More on that next week.
PLAYING FOR POSITION: The Clippers continue to spin their wheels in the battle for positioning as the NBA schedule heads into its final month. The Clippers were 2-2 in the past week, defeating the woeful Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls and losing to the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, two teams also fighting for playoff position.
Since going 6-1 on the annual Grammy road trip at the end of January into February, the Clippers are 6-8. Their 118-100 loss to the Timberwolves March 12 was disappointing on several levels.
First, the Timberwolves were playing without star Karl-Anthony Towns, who had knee surgery last week. Secondly, the Clippers led by as much as 22 points early in the second quarter before going into the tank. They were outscored 97-66 the last three quarters.
Most importantly, Kawhi Leonard left the game after the first quarter suffering from back spasms. Without him, the Clippers fell apart.
Shooting guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker came off the bench to score 28 and Anthony Edwards scored 37 to lead the Timberwolves, who are in third place in the NBA Western Conference standings, three games ahead of the Clippers.
With Leonard, out Paul George led the Clippers with 22 points, but no one else had more than 12.
The Timberwolves led in all of the effort statistics (rebounds, steals, second-chance points, points off turnovers) as the Clippers appeared to be suffering from playing back-to-back home games March 9 and 10 and losing an hour’s sleep in between.
The Clippers continue their busy March with three games in four nights on the road against the Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans March 14 and 15 before returning home to face the Atlanta Hawks March 17.
Leonard’s availability is unknown.
The Lakers remain in ninth place in the NBA West, securely in the play-in tournament but hoping to move up into the top six in the last month. The Phoenix Suns are currently sixth, 2½ games ahead of the Lakers, who also must leapfrog seventh-place Sacramento and eighth-place Dallas.
The Lakers are on a two-game winning streak after defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and Timberwolves March 8 and 10.
D’Angelo Russell continued his fine play with 44 points against the Bucks in a game in which LeBron James sat out because of an ongoing ankle problem.
James returned against the Timberwolves and scored 29 points to lead the Lakers. Anthony Davis added 27 points, 25 rebounds and 7 steals in the win. He also had 5 assists and 3 blocked shots, a statistical showing that demonstrates how good Davis can be when he wants to play.
The Lakers have a light schedule coming up with only three games in nine days. They face the Warriors March 16 on national television (ABC) and the Atlanta Hawks March 18.
They appear to be healthy and primed for their playoff push.
OPENING DAY: Thanks to the powers that be in Major League Baseball, we don’t have to wait until April for the regular season to start. It starts March 20 — at 3 a.m. our time.
That’s when the Dodgers face the San Diego Padres nearly 6,000 miles away in Seoul, Korea.
Major League Baseball wants to expand its influence around the world so the Dodgers and Padres will start the season nine days ahead of everyone else and then return home March 23 to play their last three spring training games.
The Dodgers then resume the regular season against the St. Louis Cardinals March 28 at Dodger Stadium.
Starting the season nine days early means the starting pitchers for both the Dodgers and Padres will barely be ready to go five innings on opening day. The Dodgers are opening with two newcomers to the starting rotation — Tyler Glasnow in the opener and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — against the Padres’ Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove.
The Dodgers have been mashing the ball most of spring training. They scored eight runs in the first inning of their first exhibition game (against the Padres) and have scored seven or more runs 10 times in 18 games so far. They split their squad March 2 and scored 8 runs against the Cubs and 11 runs against the Brewers.
Hitting will not be a problem for the Dodgers this season. Starting pitching and defense are potential problems.
After watching Gavin Lux look terrible at shortstop for two weeks, the Dodgers decided last week to move him back to second base and move Mookie Betts to shortstop.
The move raised some eyebrows because Betts has played 16 games at shortstop at the Major League level and they all came last year.
But Betts, who is an incredible athlete, grew up playing shortstop. The Red Sox made him a second baseman after drafting and signing him and then converted him into an outfielder because it was a faster track to the big leagues.
Betts has always taken infield drills during batting practice and said his goal as the Dodgers new shortstop was the same one he had at second base: to win the Gold Glove as best fielder.
Whether playing shortstop will wear down Betts over the course of a 162-game season remains to be seen. If Lux doesn’t hit, or continues to have difficulties fielding, Betts can move back to second and Miguel Rojas can return to shortstop.
The pitching situation is different.
Emmet Sheehan, who had a great rookie season last year, has a bad shoulder and won’t be with the team in Korea and will probably start the season on the injured list. Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw already were starting the season on the injured list.
That leaves Bobby Miller, newcomer James Paxton and prospects Gavin Stone and Michael Grove for manager Dave Roberts to choose as starters after Glasnow and Yamamoto.
Yamamoto has always pitched on a once-a-week schedule in Japan. A five-man or six-man rotation will be something else he has to adjust to.
For those of you already raising another National League West pennant for the Dodgers, it is something to think about. And it’s a long grind until October.
