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From Ryan Kartje: Before he’d ever played the position, Jayden Maiava had a sense of what a Samoan quarterback could mean to his community. Growing up in Oahu’s Palolo Valley in a big Samoan family, he’d felt that power firsthand. Like so many other boys his age on the islands, he watched Marcus Mariota at Oregon and Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama with a sense of awe and wonder. He watched as the whole of Hawaii seemed to galvanize around them and boys emulated them, promising their friends they would be the next Marcus or Tua someday.
Maiava, at the time, had never been so bold as to envision a similar path for himself. Playing football had always been a foregone conclusion, but he’d never really considered playing quarterback. In his own family, where football roots ran generations deep, no one had ever tried the position. Most had settled along the defensive or offensive fronts, where Polynesian prospects were so often penciled in. Plus, Maiava was a quiet kid — not the type you’d first expect to welcome the pressure of the position.
But one day, soon after his family moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas, his new youth football team was in need of a quarterback. Uriah Moenoa, a former Hawaii offensive lineman who Maiava calls uncle, was helping coach the team. Moenoa expected, with his size and athleticism, that the seventh-grader would gravitate to defense. Until someone asked if anyone could throw, and Maiava raised his hand.
“He’s been a quarterback pretty much ever since,” Moenoa says.
Now that shy Samoan boy who watched Marcus and Tua captivate the Samoan community is poised to step into a place of similar cultural significance. When he takes the field Saturday against Nebraska, he’ll become the first passer of Polynesian descent to start a game at quarterback for USC.
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UCLA SPORTS
From Ben Bolch: UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond, who shepherded the school’s revolutionary move to the Big Ten Conference amid a time of unprecedented change in college athletics, has received a three-year contract extension through 2029.
Among other achievements, Jarmond helped the Bruins land a new apparel contract with Jordan Brand and Nike after Under Armour abandoned its commitment to a record-setting deal with the school and has positioned UCLA’s 25 varsity sports to compete in the evolving name, image and likeness space with several initiatives.
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Ben Bolch: UCLA’s latest high school basketball signing class could make history.
It might not exist.
For the first time in at least a quarter of a century, the Bruins are not expected to bring in a high school prospect during the early signing period that started Wednesday.
It’s possible they might not land a high school player in the spring or summer either, largely because of their roster construction. The team has just two seniors in addition to three players who plan to redshirt in hopes of a larger role next season.
Plus, there’s this thing called the transfer portal.
“There’s really only one rule: You can transfer every year,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, who has referred to all players as free agents. “So who the hell knows [what will happen] next spring? Who knows? And then you sign early now, it used to be binding, now it’s just an aid thing. If a guy wants to change, he can sign with you and if he decides to change his mind, they’re going to let him out [of his scholarship]. There are no rules, let’s just be honest about it.”
LAKERS
From Dan Woike: History and hindsight have made it a little difficult to contextualize what the Lakers accomplished last winter, the team hoisting a trophy and hanging a banner after winning the NBA’s first in-season tournament.
On one hand, only the Lakers and the Boston Celtics were able to celebrate championships last year. On the other, no one would compare the two, the first nothing more than a novelty the Lakers would’ve happily traded, prize money and all, for even a long-shot chance to win that 18th NBA title instead of the Celtics.
And while the Lakers gladly accepted the hardware and cash bonus that came with winning the NBA Cup, they lost 10 of their next 13 games — a stretch that highlighted the inconsistency that marked last season and led the team to fire Darvin Ham and his coaching staff.
So as the Lakers open their NBA Cup title defense Friday in San Antonio with virtually the same roster as a year ago, it’s more than fair to wonder what, if anything, this stretch of games means to them.
LeBron James’ mind is on ‘dear friend’ Gregg Popovich’s health, not Lakers vs. Spurs
RAMS
From Gary Klein: Matthew Stafford has played in 215 regular-season games and eight playoff games during his 15-plus NFL seasons. But the Rams quarterback has played only once against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.
It did not go well.
In 2014, while playing for the Detroit Lions, Stafford completed 19 of 46 passes for 264 yards, with an interception, in a 34-9 defeat. His 39.1 completion percentage remains the lowest in his career.
“It was a tough day,” he said Wednesday. “It wasn’t pretty.”
On Sunday, Stafford returns to Gillette Stadium looking to lead a Rams rebound from their 23-15 defeat by the Miami Dolphins on Monday night.
NFL Week 11 picks: Can Bills knock off unbeaten Chiefs? Bengals test Chargers defense
ANGELS
Infielder Kevin Newman and the Angels agreed Thursday to a $2.75 million, one-year contract.
Newman gets a $2.5 million salary next season, and the deal includes a $2.5 million club option for 2026 with a $250,000 buyout.
A 31-year-old veteran of seven major league seasons, Newman hit .278 with three homers, 28 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 111 games for Arizona last season. He played 55 games at shortstop, 44 at second, 10 at first, six at third and one in left.
LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX
From Kevin Baxter: Roger Penske didn’t invent motorsports. But he certainly found a way to dominate it, winning 17 championships in the IndyCar series he owns and five NASCAR titles. His drivers have won the Indy 500 a record 20 times, which may be one reason he decided to buy that track as well.
On Thursday he expanded his empire by acquiring the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the longest-running major street race in North America and one of the largest and more important events on Southern California’s sporting landscape. Financial terms of the deal between Penske and Gerald R. Forsythe, the long-time owner of the event, were not disclosed. Forsythe and partner Kevin Kalkhoven paid a reported $15 million for the event in 2005.
Not that the cost mattered to Penske, who said he considers the Grand Prix priceless.
“It’s an iconic race,” he said. “When you think about markets and where we want to be sure that we have IndyCar long term, this is a place we want to invest in for sure.”
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1879 — Princeton beats Harvard 1-0 in a college football game held in New Jersey. The Tigers unveil the concept of using blockers to help advance the ball.
1890 — Minnesota and Wisconsin square off for the first time in what has become the most-played series in college football history. The Gophers beat the Badgers 63-0 in Minneapolis.
1901 — Jim Jeffries knocks out Gus Ruhlin in the sixth round to retain the world heavyweight title in San Francisco.
1952 — An NBA-record 13 players, five Baltimore Bullets and eight Syracuse Nationals, foul out in an overtime game. The Bullets win 97-91. So many Syracuse players fouled out that the officials let some of the players back into the game so the Nationals could keep five men on the court. Whenever those players fouled, Baltimore was given a technical foul shot in addition to the free throws.
1960 — Elgin Baylor of the Lakers scores 71 points, an NBA record at the time, in a 123-108 victory over the New York Knicks.
1964 — Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson fumbles seven times in a 28-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers.
1969 — The New York Knicks run their record to 17-1, the best start in NBA history, by beating the Boston Celtics 113-98.
1969 — Bill Cappleman of Florida State passes for 508 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-26 loss to Memphis State.
1975 — Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh rushes for 303 yards and scores a touchdown in a 34-20 victory over Notre Dame.
1980 — Dale Earnhardt wins his first NASCAR Winston Cup championship. Earnhardt finishes fifth in the Los Angeles Times 500, the final race of the season, to win the title by 19 points over Cale Yarborough.
1983 — Mike Bossy scores his 75th hat trick for the New York Islanders.
2002 — Tampa Bay forward Dave Andreychuk sets an NHL record by scoring his 250th career power-play goal in the first period of the Lightning’s game against San Jose.
2003 — Brian Vickers becomes NASCAR’s youngest champion ever, claiming the Busch Series title with an 11th place finish behind first-time winner Kasey Kahne at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
2011 — Mike Krzyzewski becomes Division I’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach when No. 6 Duke beats Michigan State 74-69 in the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Blue Devils give Coach K his 903rd win, breaking the tie with Bob Knight, Krzyzewski’s college coach at Army and his mentor throughout his career.
2014 — Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon rushes for 408 yards to break the single-game major college football rushing record before sitting out the final quarter in a 59-24 rout over Nebraska.
2015 — Matthew Stafford throws for two touchdowns, and the Detroit Lions ends a 24-game road losing streak against the Green Bay Packers with an 18-16 victory. It’s Detroit’s first win at Green Bay since a 21-17 victory on Dec. 15, 1991.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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