To see a 16-year-old sophomore basketball player blossom over the course of a five-month high school season and go from a player with potential to a player making three-pointers in an NBA arena and playing such suffocating defense that the other team’s star player is almost invisible explains how valuable 6-foot-8 Nikolas Khamenia has been during March Madness for Harvard-Westlake.
It culminated on the biggest stage at Golden 1 Center on Saturday night with Harvard-Westlake (33-2) validating itself as the No. 1 team in California after a 76-65 victory over Santa Maria St. Joseph in the state Open Division championship game. Though Harvard-Westlake has five starters who surely are headed to college, the player who elevated the Wolverines to state champion in the toughest division was Khamenia.
He took down three-time defending Southern Section Open Division Corona Centennial last week with a 20-point performance. This time, he was assigned to guard St. Joseph’s talented 6-8 Tounde Yessoufou, averaging 28.2 points. He limited him to six points in the first half and 14 points in 32 minutes. Khamenia also scored 16 points, making three three-pointers.
Harvard-Westlake’s Trent Perry drives past St. Joseph’s Luis Marin in the first quarter of the Wolverines’ championship win Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
(Jose Luis Villegas / For the Times)
Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo celebrates with his team following a 76-65 victory over Santa Maria St. Joseph for the state boys’ basketball Open Division title Saturday.
(Jose Luis Villegas / For the Times)
“Like anything, maturation takes its course, and he’s just matured,” coach David Rebibo said. “To see him blossom at this time of the year when the pressure is highest is incredible.”
Harvard-Westlake led at halftime 35-31. The Knights were able to hang around because 6-6 guard Luis Marin kept using his size to maneuver inside and had 15 points, making seven of his eight shots. As usual, the Wolverines were getting contributions from all five starters and Christian Horry came off the bench to make a baseline three-pointer that had his father, Robert, sitting courtside, feeling good.
In the third quarter, the Wolverines made a big adjustment. Brady Dunlap, at 6-8, was assigned to cover Marin, who suddenly stopped scoring. He made one shot the rest of the game. Harvard-Westlake went on a 7-0 surge and took a 48-35 lead.
The players who needed to come through did for Harvard-Westlake. Point guard Trent Perry, the Mission League player of the year, had 16 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. The 10 assists was a state record for the Open Division. Dunlap scored 16 points. Jacob Huggins had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The legacy of this Harvard-Westlake team might be in discussion for best in school history. The teams of 1996 and 1997 that won consecutive state Division III championships with the Collins twins, Jason and Jarron, have always been used as the measuring stick for basketball greatness. The 1997 team went 36-1, was ranked No. 1 in California and only lost to national power Mt. Zion Christian Academy of Durham, N.C. Going 33-2 with close losses to Henderson (Nev.) Liberty and Bellflower St. John Bosco were the lone defeats this season. And each time, the Wolverines responded with a vengeance, learning from their mistakes.
“I feel it humbled us,” Perry said of a playoff-pool play loss to St. John Bosco. “We came together and got it done.”
Said Rebibo: “Sometimes a reset is a good thing.”
The future is also bright.
Three of their five starters are underclassmen — Perry, Robert Hinton and Khamenia. Add Horry, the key sixth man, and developing freshman big man Dominique Bentho, and the Wolverines have the makings for another powerful starting lineup for 2023-24.
Arte Moreno just couldn’t do it. The Angels owner, who put the team up for sale in August, told Sports Illustrated he wasn’t ready to give up his team despite receiving three offers worth more than the record $2.42 billion Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for in 2020.
“I had some big numbers,” Moreno said in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci. “Yeah, it was above the Mets’ number. Well, it was considerably above the Mets’ number.
“I had one buyer come to [Angel Stadium] to close the deal,” he said, then recounted the exchange with the buyer. “When you got right down to it, I didn’t want to go.”
Moreno has not spoken to local media in three years. His interview with Verducci represented his first detailed comments about the Angels in at least two years.
He told SI that last year the Angels had five real trade offers for Shohei Ohtani and declared they would not trade him this year while they are contending for a playoff spot. Asked whether he would consider trading him if the Angels are not in playoff contention, Moreno replied:
“We expect to be a playoff contender. Everything in our plans putting this team together is about getting to the playoffs. So, I’m not going to sit here and wonder what happens in an outcome we’re not planning for. That would be like a fighter going into the ring and thinking, ‘What if I lose?’ If he does that, he will lose.”
While opening up about his decision not to sell, Moreno said his previous decision to put the team up for sale was not because he fell out of love with baseball.
“It was more circumstantial than it was a change of heart. It wasn’t a change of heart,” he said.
Moreno announced his decision to explore the sale of the team in August 2022. The team was 52-71 at the time and mathematically eliminated from the playoffs 27 days later.
Four months earlier, the Anaheim City Council killed the deal to sell Angel Stadium and its surrounding property to Moreno’s management company, which planned to develop the property and either renovate or replace the stadium. It was a swift effort to limit the fallout after an FBI affidavit revealed Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu was under investigation for public corruption, with investigators alleging he provided confidential city information to Moreno’s management company with the hope Angels executives would reciprocate with at least $1 million in donations supporting his re-election campaign.
The FBI never accused Moreno and the Angels of any wrongdoing and it was far from the only major company Sidhu and city representatives were accused of courting. Sidhu resigned and the council is still sorting through the fallout.
The corruption probe triggered a deeper look at the Angels’ lost decade, with fans booing Moreno during onfield celebrations as the club posted its seventh consecutive losing season. The Angels spent too heavily on a handful of stars who didn’t always stay healthy, failed to develop a farm system that ranks among the worst in baseball, had no plan for upgrading one of the oldest stadiums in baseball, cycled through four managers in five years and four general managers in 12 years and are defendants in two high-profile lawsuits — one a wrongful death claim following pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ overdose and the other a defamation claim filed by former clubhouse manager Bubba Harkins.
Moreno declined to say why he decided to put the team up for sale, but SI reported sources close to Moreno indicated he was shaken by the intense negative discourse surrounding the franchise.
“I sort of learned a long time ago, you know, some things are better left unsaid,” Moreno told SI when asked why he briefly put the team on the market.
Moreno said he was not cheap when it came to building a roster. He shared his thoughts on the luxury tax rules, explained why he voted against raising the luxury tax and noted that he doesn’t hate super spenders such as the Mets or Dodgers.
“I like the fact that people want to win,” he said. “But I just would like everybody to have a chance. Like if somebody came to my house [for a card game] and everybody is putting a thousand dollars in and one guy puts in a hundred, I mean, how many hands can he play? It’s just no fun.”
He said although he has not always spent money on players who panned out, he has still invested in trying to win.
“We have been in the last eight to 10 years in the top 10 payrolls. I can’t tell you we’ve always spent the money right. But we spent money,” he said. “So, if anybody criticizes me that I’m not committed to winning, well, I am committed to winning.”
With barely a minute remaining in a blowout of Porterville College in mid-December, Cerritos College basketball coach Russ May was faced with a heart-tugging dilemma.
“C’mon coach, let him play!”
Sitting at the end of his bench was Kade West, a 20-year-old who is deaf and autistic. His hands were folded in prayer. He was silently pleading to play in his first game.
West had been hanging around the fringes of the junior college team for more than a year, trying to impress, hoping to belong, shooting countless shots each day at a rickety basket in the alley behind his house, showing up for every practice at the Cerritos gym and playing until it had emptied.
May was so awed by his resilient effort that he added West to this season’s roster to serve as a bench-warming inspiration. West celebrated the awarding of his new No. 15 uniform as if he had just joined the Lakers.
There was one problem. Because West’s special needs prevented him from completing the required 12 academic units required to play, he needed an eligibility waiver from the California Community College Athletic Assn. Despite the family’s best efforts, the waiver appeal had not yet been processed. When the game against Porterville had reached its final 1:39, West was still not yet officially allowed to play.
Yet suddenly, that didn’t seem to matter. The team’s players and assistant coaches and even fans were begging for one shining moment.
“Coach, coach, put him in!”
Kade West, left, a deaf and autistic athlete at Cerritos College, goes up for a shot during a practice session with coach Russ May.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
May looked down at the end of the bench and sighed. The game was in Visalia and West’s family had paid his way so he could travel with the team. This could be the fulfillment of a dream of a player who didn’t let an inability to hear or speak or read above a third-grade level stop him from playing his way into the Falcons’ hearts. His teammates would applaud him by waving both hands in the air. The Cerritos fans would cheer him by stomping their feet on the bleachers so he could feel the vibration.
May couldn’t help himself. He knew Kade West wasn’t officially on the team, but, at that moment, no one on the team was more important. May looked down to the praying figure. He motioned to the court. It was a gesture he knew West would understand.
“Get in there, Kade.”
West shot out of his seat. He raced into the action. He sprinted up and down for those final moments while working up the sweat of a lifetime. He took one shot, and missed it, but by the time Cerritos had finished off an 81-60 victory, he was being cheered by the tearful Porterville fans, hugged by everyone in sight, and celebrated for representing all that is right about this increasingly cold world of sports.
“I know the rules, but the human part of me took over,” said May. “It was an incredible moment.”
Followed, sadly, by a series of even more incredible moments.
May was suspended for a game. Cerritos was ordered to forfeit the victory. And West was temporarily stripped of his uniform.
Kade West with coach Russ May at Cerritos College.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The extra loss cost the Falcons a first-round bye in the postseason tournament, where they distractedly lost that opening game to lower-seeded Copper Mountain in double overtime, their sterling season collapsing under the weight of the kindest of gestures.
The CCCAA had dropped the hammer, Cerritos College had administered the blow, and what was once so beautiful became broken.
May is still stunned.
“Yes, I broke a bylaw, but is this what our society has become?” he said. “Shouldn’t this be something we celebrate?”
Lucy Favro, West’s great aunt and caretaker, is still disheartened.
“It was such a beautiful moment, Coach May and the team saved Kade’s life, and then…how could that have happened?” she said.
Kade West still cries.
“It’s all my fault,” he signed.
In an alley behind a Long Beach bungalow, the definition of determination can be found on the bodies of a light gray Kia and dark gray Honda.
The cars, parked next to a basketball goal, are riddled with pock marks.
Kade West plays here.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Kade West demonstrates how he plays basketball at his home in Long Beach.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
“You can see how much he practices by the number of dents on the hoods,” said his cousin and guardian Sasha Svimonoff, smiling. “But, you know, they’re just cars.”
This is where West, a bearded 5-foot-10 force of nature, retreated in the spring of 2021 upon the death of his mother Dijana from bladder cancer.
He had lost the woman who raised him. He was lost in a world that didn’t quite know how to handle deafness and autism. He had no close friends, only bad childhood memories.
Growing up in Long Beach, he attended schools that literally strapped him down in his school-bus seat to control him. Despite the best efforts of his single mother, he had bounced around from classroom to classroom, passed off from one wretched situation to another by those unable to deal with his unique condition.
He finally found stability during his high school years at the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Mass. However, when he returned home upon completing the program, his mother was dying and his options were limited.
“He had been through a lot of trauma,” said Favro. “He needed something to help him survive.”
He found that escape in basketball, a sport he began playing as a 15-year-old. He loved it because it was a sport he could practice alone, a place he could be judged only by his effort.
“Basketball leveled the playing field,” said Svimonoff. “Basketball was a way he could communicate.”
Kade West points out the goals he has taped to his bedroom wall at home in Long Beach.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
Upon his mother’s death, he began playing so much, he would dribble the air out of his weathered basketballs. Soon the television in the bungalow’s family room was constantly tuned to YouTube videos of 15-year-old Lakers games. Soon a list of traits inspired by Kobe Bryant was carefully printed on a piece of yellow note paper taped to his wall, ideals like humility, unity, discipline, thankfulness.
“I love basketball, I adore it, it’s my girlfriend,” he recently signed. “Basketball is my whole world.”
Then, that summer, West’s family signed him up for a Cerritos College basketball class taught by Russ May, and the Falcons joined that world.
“He came up to me and said he wanted to play in the NBA,” said May. “And he worked like it.”
Through interpreters provided by the school, West would grill May and his coaches about how he could improve, then he would stay late after class to hone those skills. He joined several recreation leagues around Long Beach. When the Falcons began practice, he began showing up with the team, chasing balls, helping on drills, an unofficial manager.
“Kade worked harder than all of us,” said Jalen Shores, a sophomore point guard. “He would be there an hour before us, stay an hour after us. The love he has for basketball, he worked super hard, we were feeling for him.”
Kade West watches interpreter Antonio Beltran use sign language while practicing.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He stayed on the fringes of the team the entire 2021-22 season and remained with them last summer when he made a decision.
“He cut his hair, shaved his beard, and said he wanted to look nice because he was trying out for the team,” said Favro.
How could May put him on the roster? How could he not?
“He outworked everybody, he had so much hustle, so much determination, what choice did I have?” said May. “Kade had earned his spot.”
He warned West that he might not play very much. He didn’t even give him a uniform until after they had played four games. But, goodness, that uniform … West was so excited he grabbed whatever he was handed without checking the size.
“He comes home and it’s a XXL and he’s swimming in it,” said Svimonoff. “He doesn’t care. He puts it on and announces how good he looks.”
The family applied to the CCCAA for the waiver appeal on Nov. 17 with the understanding that Cerritos already possessed the necessary paperwork. They were later told they needed to provide transcripts, a letter detailing his necessary accommodations and an explanation of his educational capabilities, which they did on Dec. 3.
The CCCAA and its Disability Appeals Board has a combined 12 working days to render a decision. When the team took its first road trip of the year to Visalia in mid-December, even though the Falcons had already played 10 games and the family had initially applied a month earlier, the waiver had not yet been granted.
“I just wanted someone to hear Kade’s story. But nobody would listen.”
— Russ May, on his appeal to the CCCAA
May informed the family that he was not yet eligible and should stay home. West went anyway, paying his own expenses just for a chance to hang out on the road with his guys. This is the same welcoming group that once invited West to join them on a bowling outing, marking another milestone.
“Kade told us it was the first time anybody had ever invited him anywhere,” said Favro.
He wanted to be in Visalia. His teammates wanted him to be in Visalia. And with 1:39 remaining and his team leading Porterville by 20, May wanted West on that court.
“I just thought, isn’t this what sports is all about?” he said.
After West’s brief appearance, he FaceTimed several members of his extended family with the dazed smile of a champion.
“He was over the moon,” said Favro. “Those two minutes meant the world to him.”
Kade West laughs with teammates while using sign language during practice.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Yet that 1 minute and 39 seconds also meant enough trouble to damage a season.
First, the CCCAA suspended May for a game, the reasoning explained by executive director Jennifer Cardone in an email response to this columnist’s questions.
“The suggestion to suspend Coach May for at least one game was made to Cerritos College and the South Coast Conference after I learned that the coach intentionally played a student-athlete while ineligible…” Cardone wrote.
May did not argue.
“I wasn’t happy about it, but I accepted it, I understood it, fine, we move on,” he said.
But then it got worse. Four days after the Porterville game, when West showed up at the school for a trip to San Diego County, a school official refused to give him his uniform.
When the other players weren’t looking, West broke down in tears.
“Kade is in a crack in the system, nobody knows what to do with him. The only people that have really shown him patience, respect and allowed him to be himself are the Cerritos basketball team.”
— Sasha Svimonoff, Kade West’s cousin and guardian
“He was heartbroken,” said Svimonoff. “He thought they had thrown him off the team. He just couldn’t understand.”
Rory Natividad, dean of athletics at Cerritos College, explained that the school was simply following the directive of the CCCAA.
“Unfortunately, the situation we’re in, we had to respond, obviously to the bylaws,” he said, adding, “Our normal process is that we don’t issue uniforms until they’re eligible…after we got the letter from the commissioner, we obviously had to respond at that point until we got the clearance.”
West was denied the uniform for two games before he was cleared for the rest of the season. But wait, it gets even worse. After assuming they were finished paying the price for their good deed, the Cerritos team was later ordered to forfeit the Porterville game. The loss eventually dropped their final record to 19-10 and lowered their postseason enough to cost them a first-round bye. West was certain he had caused all of it.
“He was devastated,” said May. “He was stigmatized.”
Cardone cited the precise wording in the association bylaws that mandates a “forfeiture of the contest,” in the event of “participation of an ineligible student-athlete.”
“The men’s basketball program intentionally played an ineligible student-athlete,” she wrote.
Kade West shoots a free throw while practicing at Cerritos College.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
May had accepted the suspension, but the forfeit was too much. He sent emails to each of the 12 CCCAA board members. He didn’t receive one response.
“I just wanted someone to hear Kade’s story,” he said. “But nobody would listen.”
In her email, Cardone said her association supports student-athletes like West.
“Russ May and Cerritos College are to be commended for providing Mr. West an opportunity to be a part of something as valuable as being a member of a team,” she wrote. “The inclusion and compassion showed by the coaches and student-athletes exemplifies what we’re trying to do.”
If that is really the case, in Kade West’s situation they miserably failed.
West quickly recovered from the humiliation. He always does. He finished the season with five appearances for 10 total minutes while sinking two baskets and a free throw.
“What happened wasn’t fair at all, but no hard feelings, and Kade kept working,” said Shores. “Every day at practice he would smile at us, wave to us, hug us, give us high fives, bring the same energy every single time.”
There are a couple of video snippets of his triumphant plays. One of them is hard to watch. As the play proceeds, the videographer’s hand begins to shake.
“The person taking the video is stomping their feet like the rest of the crowd,” said Svimonoff.
West plans to play during his sophomore season. May plans on having him back. They will have to endure the waiver appeal process again. They say it’s worth it.
“I don’t guarantee any players spots on next year’s team but let’s just say, it will be difficult for me to foresee a reason not to have him on the team,” said May, who will be entering his 15th season.
West said he will earn that spot.
“Coach May cares for me,” he signed. “He won’t give up on me. I’ll practice hard and do the best I can.”
Kade West uses sign language while standing next to Cerritos College teammate Malik Johnson.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
May said if faced again with the choice of playing an ineligible West, “I wouldn’t do anything different.”
Indeed, by summoning that praying player at the end of the bench, May did more than just make a substitution, he helped change a life.
West is now working with a teacher on marketing a line of athletic clothing adorned with the logo K.A.D.E…Keep Advocating for Deaf Empowerment.
“Kade is in a crack in the system, nobody knows what to do with him,” said Svimonoff. “The only people that have really shown him patience, respect and allowed him to be himself are the Cerritos basketball team.”
After the final game of the season, after May had delivered his final locker room speech and the final tear had been shed, a couple of kids started shooting baskets in the Cerritos gym.
West returned to the court in his street clothes and started playing with them. His family was waiting in the stands to take him home. He kept playing. And playing. And playing. They sat there for an hour. In a world that had now been opened, he once again closed down the gym.
“I love my team,” Kade West signed. “And my team loves me.”
The Rams, in a major move to rebound from a disastrous 2022 season and to build draft capital, have agreed to trade star cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins, a person with knowledge of the situation said Sunday.
The person requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about a transaction that will not become official until the start of the NFL’s new league year on Wednesday.
In exchange for Ramsey, the Rams acquire tight end Hunter Long and third-round pick in the upcoming draft. The Rams now have 11 picks in the draft, though they have not had a first-round pick since 2016, when they traded up a record 14 spots to select quarterback Jared Goff with the first pick.
The trade did not come as a surprise to Ramsey, the fifth player selected in the 2016 draft. After the season, he hinted several times on social media that he was aware he might be dealt.
“I prayed for this specifically for about a month & now it’s happening!,” Ramsey tweeted. “@MiamiDolphins LETSGO!”
I prayed for this specifically for about a month & now it’s happening! 🙏🏾@MiamiDolphins LETSGO! 🧡
— Jalen Ramsey (@jalenramsey) March 12, 2023
Ramsey was acquired by the Rams near midseason in 2019 in a trade that sent two first-round picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The three-time All-Pro was a cornerstone for a Rams team that won Super Bowl LVI to end the 2021 season.
In 2020, Ramsey signed a five-year, $100-million extension that included $71.2 million in guarantees, at the time the largest contract for a defensive back in NFL history.
Ramsey, 28, is scheduled to carry a salary-cap number of $25.2 million in the upcoming season, according to overthecap.com.
The cap for the 2023 season is $224.8 million. As of Feb. 21, the Rams were about $15 million over the cap, according to overthecap.com.
Trading Ramsey is the Rams’ third move involving a star player since they finished 5-12, the worst season-after performance by a Super Bowl champion in NFL history.
On Feb. 23, the Rams and linebacker Bobby Wagner agreed to part ways after one season. Last week, the Rams released edge rusher Leonard Floyd.
In three-plus seasons with the Rams, Ramsey intercepted 10 passes, including two in last season’s finale against the Seattle Seahawks. He also made several victory-clinching plays.
In 2020, under then defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, Ramsey’s role in the Rams expanded beyond shutdown cornerback. He played on the outside and inside, and he also lined up as a safety, hybrid linebacker and pass rusher.
Raheem Morris, who replaced Staley, continued to utilize Ramsey at multiple positions.
Ramsey’s departure leaves the Rams with a huge void in the secondary. Cornerbacks Troy Hill and David Long Jr. and safeties Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott are pending free agents.
It wasn’t always the smoothest ride, all the way down to the long wait on Selection Sunday. But for the third straight season, USC is on its way to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, punching its ticket as a No. 10 seed.
The Trojans will face Michigan State, the No. 7 seed in the East region, on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
USC (22-10) spent most of its season squarely on the tournament bubble, its status swinging back and forth, depending on the week. But an early defeat in the Pac-12 tournament couldn’t keep the Trojans from matching the longest streak in program history with three bids in a row.
Like USC, Michigan State (19-12) enters the tournament after a swift exit in the Big Ten Conference tournament and largely uneven season. The Spartans haven’t won three in a row since early January.
But in Tom Izzo, Michigan State boasts one of the tournament’s most respected coaches. Izzo is college basketball’s active leader in Final Four appearances among coaches with eight. His 53 NCAA tournament wins rank third among active coaches.
Another trip to the NCAA tournament for the Trojans under coach Andy Enfield was by no means assured in November. USC slipped up in a season-opening loss to Enfield’s former team, Florida Gulf Coast, a team that finished 7-11 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Outside expectations for USC cratered.
USC guard Drew Peterson, shown in a game in February against Stanford, has been slowed the last two weeks by a stiff back.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
It took another month or so for the Trojans to finally find their footing. But soon enough, the pieces started to fit. Sophomore Kobe Johnson took a major step forward, emerging as one of the best perimeter defenders in college basketball. Freshman Tre White developed into a reliable third scorer, stepping into a major void in USC’s offense. By January, another talented freshman joined the fold, as Vincent Iwuchukwu returned from cardiac arrest to help fortify a paper-thin frontcourt.
A resounding win over UCLA in January seemed to announce the Trojans’ late arrival and their point guard’s ascent into stardom. Boogie Ellis scored 31 in that win over the Bruins and would dominate the Pac-12 from there, averaging 24 points per game and twice setting career highs in scoring over USC’s final dozen.
Still, Ellis alone couldn’t always carry an inconsistent offense. A late trip through Oregon saddled the Trojans with two more losses to non-tournament teams, including one to 11-21 Oregon State. A loss to Arizona State in the Pac-12 tournament a month later wouldn’t inspire much confidence, either.
But the selection committee had already seen enough to put USC in the field.
Now, the Trojans will have to hope they can get more out of its second-leading scorer, Drew Peterson, who has struggled through a stiff back over the past two weeks. He played through the pain in USC’s loss to Arizona State, but struggled mightily from the field, shooting two for 12.
Without him, USC may have a hard time keeping up with Michigan State, a team known to get hot from three-point range. The Spartans rank fourth in college basketball in three-point percentage.
Another prolonged cold stretch, and USC could find this tournament trip ends just as quickly as the last one.
No matter how many times she’s heard her team’s name called during the NCAA tournament selection show, Lindsay Gottlieb still gets nervous.
The USC head coach anxiously bounced her 5-month-old daughter Reese in her arms as the names ticked across the screen at a pub near USC’s campus. Her players stared at the TV with phones recording the show in anticipation of their moment.
When USC was announced as a No. 8 seed in the Seattle I Region, ending a nine-year NCAA tournament drought for the Trojans, Gottlieb threw her hands in the air and USC players yelled and danced. USC (21-9) will play No. 9 South Dakota State on Friday in Blacksburg, Va., where No. 1-seeded Virginia Tech will host.
The Trojans were picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12’s preseason poll, but will dance into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014.
“We’re trying to build something special for USC,” forward Kadi Sissoko said. “It’s been a minute since they actually won anything or been to March Madness so it’s very exciting and we’re all trying to come together and prove something.”
USC wasn’t the only team surpassing preseason expectations. UCLA began the season unranked and secured a No. 4 seed, hosting Sacramento State in the first round Saturday in the Greenville I Region. No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 12 Portland round out the four teams playing at Pauley Pavilion.
Trojans are dancing, literally!@USCWBB celebrates earning a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament. Trojans play South Dakota State at Virginia Tech in the first round on Friday. pic.twitter.com/fzREFgAqNa
— Thuc Nhi Nguyen (@thucnhi21) March 13, 2023
The Bruins are making their sixth appearance in the last seven NCAA tournaments. Since 2015, when the NCAA began using top-four seeds as host sites for the two rounds, UCLA has hosted three and advanced to the Sweet 16 every time.
“You still have to execute your game plan,” UCLA coach Cori Close said, “but if you look throughout history, being able to play at home has proven to be a pretty big advantage.”
While the Bruins are returning to the NCAA tournament after a one-year hiatus, the path back to postseason prominence has been much longer for the Trojans. USC earned an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006, clearing the first major hurdle of the program’s rebuild in Gottlieb’s second year at the helm.
The team celebrated with a watch party near campus. Athletic director Mike Bohn, donors, cheerleaders and band members packed a reception area at Rock and Reilly’s Irish Pub among players and coaches. This is the first time since 1997 that USC has sent its men’s and women’s teams to the NCAA tournament in the same year.
“We ultimately have much greater and bigger goals, Final Fours and national championships, but you have to take steps,” Gottlieb said. “And from where we were at this time last year to where we are now, it’s a really special accomplishment.”
Gottlieb noted how the team had just six players during the summer after players transferred out. The Trojans reloaded with seven incoming transfers, led by Sissoko (Minnesota) and Destiny Littleton (South Carolina). They blossomed into All-Pac-12 players along with returner Rayah Marshall, who was the only player in the Pac-12 to average a double-double with 12.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game.
Led by senior Charisma Osborne (15.5 points, 5.6 rebounds) and freshman Kiki Rice (11.7 points), the Bruins defeated Arizona and Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament en route to the championship game, where they fell to Washington State.
With the No. 1 freshman class in the country, Close received excited feedback earlier this year from WNBA and USA Basketball officials that the Bruins would be “so good next year.” But they didn’t settle for next season.
“It was like, we were never going to make it to where we are,” Close said. “So to earn a chance to play at home and watch these young people grow in the midst of having so many new faces and new players, it’s been really rewarding.”
After a disappointing first-round exit in the Pac-12 tournament, USC regrouped on campus for practice last week. The Trojans got in the March Madness mood by watching the HBO documentary “Women of Troy” chronicling USC’s rise to power when led by Cheryl Miller from 1982-86. The film brought chills to Marshall, the sophomore from L.A. said.
“It gave us a chip on our shoulder, if they can get out there and compete, we wanted to get out there and do the same thing,” Marshall said. “We wanted to represent for them. If they can do what they can do, we can at least go out there and give our all for them.”
Here’s a rundown of the matchups for the First Four and the first round of the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament:
After a season spent clawing its way back from the wrong side of the bubble, just one more win seemed as if it would be proof enough to assure any lingering doubters of USC’s rightful place in the NCAA tournament field. One measly victory in the conference quarterfinals, and USC could rest easy on Selection Sunday.
But there was no reassurance to be found for USC in Las Vegas, nor will there be restful nights ahead. If the committee still needed any convincing, USC didn’t make much of a case in a 77-72 loss to Arizona State.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. scored 27 points, including six three-pointers, to lead the Sun Devils.
Now USC will have to sit and wait, crossing its fingers that enough bubbles burst between now and Sunday.
The Trojans didn’t look at all like a team intending to make a statement Thursday, as they were outplayed and outhustled from start to finish by Arizona State, a team desperate to win its way into the field.
There was no such desperation from USC, at least not until near the end when the Trojans started firing at will from deep. They made three-pointers on three straight possessions, cutting Arizona State’s lead to four points.
But the hole they’d dug was too deep. For the first time since 2014, the first season of the Andy Enfield era, USC was ousted in its opening matchup of the Pac-12 tournament.
USC forward Kobe Johnson (0) looks to pass the ball as Arizona State forward Jamiya Neal defends during the first half in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament on Thursday in Las Vegas.
(David Becker / Associated Press)
This time, it had the chops to make a deeper run. But its offense ran out of gas and didn’t find its reserves until it was too late.
Freshman Tre White would lead the way, scoring 16 points. Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson each scored 15, and Drew Peterson struggled from the field, making only two of 12 shots.
Five nights earlier, these two teams went down to the wire, despite Arizona State shooting a paltry 29% from the field, its second-worst shooting performance of the season. USC let them hang around anyway, even giving the Sun Devils a shot to send the game to overtime. It missed, and the Trojans breathed a sigh of relief, knowing their tournament hopes were probably safe.
There was no such relief to be found Thursday. Arizona State flew out to an 8-0 lead in the first minute.
Nothing came any easier for USC from there, as the Trojans looked like a team that had run out of gas.They shot a miserable 26% in the first half, with multiple scoreless stretches of five minutes or more. At one point, they turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions, prompting Enfield to throw up his hands on the sideline.
It wouldn’t be much longer before USC would do the same, left to hope that its resume was enough to earn an invite.
Selection Sunday is almost here, meaning March Madness is about to hit in full force.
The 68-team bracket for the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournamentwill be revealed on Sunday at 3 p.m. PDT on CBS. A live stream of the bracket reveal also will be streaming on NCAA.com and the March Madness Live app for iOS and Android devices.
Greg Gumbel will be hosting the selection show and will be joined by analysts Seth Davis, Jay Wright and Clark Kellogg as they look at the seedings and team selections made by the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
Thirty-one teams will receive automatic bids, and 37 teams will make up the rest of the at-large pool. The tournament tips off Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, with the First Four games. The first round starts Thursday.
The women’s 68-team bracket will be revealed Sunday at 5 p.m. on ESPN.
