Reality TV shows based on news-making families cannot be all goodness and light. Some weird stuff going on? Some family tension? That helps feed interest in shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians, which has been runnnig since 2007. And, also, about the Balls and their much more recent reality debut. LiAngelo Ball’s run-in with […]

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From the eastern side of the Atlantic, LiAngelo seemed like the “other” Ball. We had big brother Lonzo Ball, one-year standout at UCLA, now with the Los Angeles Lakers. We had LaMelo, the little brother, the quick one who makes tons of threes, who would be a junior in high school if not for his […]

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In American sports, I will not abide the criticism of two (and only two) men — Vin Scully and, especially, John Wooden. (Here is my obit on him, from 2010.) Wooden coached UCLA’s basketball program to 10 NCAA championships, in the 1960s and 1970s, and he did it with consummate class and sportsmanship, nearly forgotten […]

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UCLA trailed Texas A&M 44-10 late in the third quarter at the Rose Bowl in a season-opening intersectional football game tonight. And won 45-44 with touchdowns in their final five possessions, including the winner with 43 seconds left. It was the second-biggest comeback victory in the history of major-college football. When it was over, UCLA […]

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Yes, I was a Gonzaga partisan, in the NCAA final. I tend to pull for the West Coast team, if one is available, and Gonzaga qualifies because it plays in the Pacific time zone. Alas, it a ragged, herky-jerky and poorly officiated game (44 fouls!?!) ended at North Carolina 70, Gonzaga 65 — at about […]

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We return to the Wayback Machine of NCAA basketball today, recalling two close calls between my journalism self and the Final Four. It is the one annual sports event I regret never covering in my 40 years in print journalism. To be sure, there were other big events staged annually that I never covered. The […]

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Oh, wait. There is. Scads of it. In the NCAA Tournament, anyway. Talking the guys, here. The women might be doing it, too, but they aren’t televised where I live. I have been impressed … or at least seen this often enough over the past 10 days to take note, again … at how many […]

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The question for Lonzo Ball now is this: Just how memorable will his one-and-done NCAA Tournament be? He certainly will leave UCLA after this season, moving on to the NBA/multi-millionaire portion of his basketball career. This is Ball’s one chance to leave a lasting impression, as a freshman, on March Madness. Could he channel John […]

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I didn’t plan this. It was early on a Saturday evening and many of the regular TV options were not available, so on went the second half of West Virginia vs. Notre Dame in the NCAA basketball tournament, which I could see via ESPN GB … And nearly eight hours later I had watched much […]

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After leaving the U.S. for Abu Dhabi, in 2009, my interest in college basketball waned. As I noted in blog posts from recent years, while living in the UAE, it requires work to follow the college game from the other side of the world. Too many teams, too many games, too big a time gap […]

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