Going on 17 months now that we have been out of California — and out of the United States.

I feel as if I have kept fairly good track of several American sports. Others, however, I hardly realize I haven’t been paying any attention until I blunder into some online story and realize that I not only didn’t know that, I didn’t even know the context of it.

The American sports I am losing contact with?

–College basketball. I somehow had decided UCLA was having another bad season, and was wondering what the deal was with Ben Howland, how he could be so good for four seasons or so and then just suffer a meltdown … but now I see that they are tied for the Pac-10 lead. I looked at the box from their last game, an upset of 10th-ranked Arizona, and I recognized only one name in the starting five. Lee, the guard.

Who is good in college hoops nationally?  Duke, I think. Ohio State. Probably the other usual suspects. I know that only because espn.com covers college basketball relentlessly, and about twice a week I go to the site and see college kids storming the court after an upset.

I do know Long Beach State just win the Big West. Good for the Niners.

–College football. And this is a sport I care about. It’s just hard to follow, and one of the reasons is the same as for college hoops — the rosters turn over so quickly. I’ve been out of the country the past two seasons, and more than half of every team turns over in that time, between guys who run out of eligibility, quit the team or go to the NFL early.

–The NHL.  This always was a sort of marginal sport from me, but living in a market (Los Angeles) with two teams allowed me to pick up on the background noise and have a vague idea of who was doing what to whom.  But it is not a sport I seek out, and in a country where no one cares about ice hockey (and we have to differentiate here, because “hockey” could easily be field hockey), I get no reinforcement from conversation around me. The Kings started well, I believe. Not sure about now. And another hockey thing: They turn over rosters quickly in that league. They make trades for the sake of making trades. I think Francois Beauchemin was on the Ducks when I left, was traded or waived or something, and recently came back. Maybe. Not at all sure, but I know I don’t know.

–High school anything. I was keen on this, back in the IE. Perhaps I flatter myself, but I would suggest I was among the half-dozen best-informed followers of high school football in the Inland Empire for a couple of decades there. I could give you a precis on nearly every school in the area and their place in prep football history. That began to erode the instant I moved to Long Beach, and since I left the country … no idea. None. Who won the California state football championships last year? Really, no clue. Same for prep basketball, prep everything.

I feel a bit sad about this. But just a bit. High schools really are the ultra in “local” sports, and if you’re not in the immediate area (like, living in town) it’s hard to care or even get information. You need to see teams, and read about them, and if you do neither … well, it’s gone in a hurry.

Meanwhile, I think I’m in decent shape with the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. Easier to follow. People around me (the Yanks, anyway) will even talk about this stuff. I haven’t lost it all, here.

But I promise you, being out of the country … it’s hard to keep up your all-round knowledge of American sports unless you work really really hard at it because, as I have said before, the rest of the world doesn’t much care about anything those nutty Yanks do on a playing field.