Sports Desk

Fernando Mendoza will enter the NFL Draft after leading Indiana to a 16-0 season and its first College Football Playoff national championship, he announced on social media Friday. The quarterback was awarded the Heisman Trophy and is expected to be taken by the Las Vegas Raiders with the first pick of the draft.

As impressive as those accomplishments were, the moment Mendoza will best be remembered by Hoosiers fans came with 9:18 to play in the title game against Miami. He took off on a designed running play from the 12-yard line, accelerated and bounced off several defenders before diving into the end zone, thrusting the ball over his head to score.

Now there’s a bobblehead to commemorate that historic moment. And there may be no one happier than Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Rawitch doesn’t get excited by any old bobblehead. He sees so much sports memorabilia that it takes something special to grace his desk.

But he’ll make room for the “Fernando Mendoza Diving Touchdown Bobblehead,” issued this week by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. Rawitch, you see, is an Indiana graduate, even though he grew up in Northridge and covered high school football games for The Times while in high school.

“In my office I only have really unique, random bobbleheads like Dave Matthews and Jack Kerouac,” he said. “And this definitely qualifies.”

Phil Sklar, CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, said Hoosiers bobbleheads are on pace to shatter records for college championship sales.

“We anticipate the Fernando Mendoza Diving Touchdown Bobblehead to be one of the most popular that we have ever offered,” he said.

Rawitch also can appreciate a timely bobblehead. The MLB Hall of Fame and Museum features an exhibit on the history of baseball bobbleheads called “Getting the Nod.”

“We have more than 1,000 in our museum collection and it’s clear how popular they are among fans as a way of commemorating big moments,” said Rawitch, who plans to purchase the one of Mendoza. “Unfortunately, the Mendoza one won’t quite fit there, but it will look great in my office!”

Mendoza described the touchdown run on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Thursday night, saying the play was designed for him to run to his left but that he saw daylight to the right and improvised.

“It’s like when you miss your exit on maps, and you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, here we go,’” he told Fallon. “But luckily it was an exit to a touchdown. I saw these huge football players in front of me and I was like a human pinball machine. I was like, boom, boom, bang, getting banged up and all of a sudden I’m in the air and I was like ‘I might as well reach for the touchdown.’”

To which Fallon replied, “Legendary!”

Mendoza spent two seasons at Cal before transferring to Indiana, where he completed 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards with an FBS-leading 41 touchdowns. He rushed for 276 yards and seven more scores.

If he goes to the Raiders, Mendoza would join fellow quarterbacks Cam Newton and Joe Burrow as the only players to be the No. 1 overall pick after having won a national title and the Heisman Trophy.

Arsenal are having an excellent season and are seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, have won all seven of their Champions League, games, and hold a 3-2 first-leg lead over Chelsea in their Carabao Cup semi-final tie.

The Gunners are pushing for honours this season and signed a number of players, including midfielder Martin Zubimendi, Eze and striker Viktor Gyokeres as “win-now” signings.

That has meant manager Mikel Arteta has looked at using players with experience to get results, with Odegaard and Zubimendi preferred in midfield, while the Spaniard has favoured Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie at left-back this season.

Hincapie has experience of winning a league title after being part of the Bayer Leverkusen side that won the Bundesliga in 2023-24.

That has also made things difficult for Nwaneri’s fellow academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly.

The 19-year-old full-back also took his chance during Arsenal‘s injury crisis last season, making 42 appearances in all competitions, including playing in both games of the impressive Champions League quarter-final win over Real Madrid.

Lewis-Skelly’s performances were so good he was given an England debut by Thomas Tuchel, scoring against Albania in a 2-0 win and looked a strong contender to be the Three Lions’ starting left-back at the World Cup.

But he has started in just nine of his 23 appearances this season, including once in the Premier League, and dropped out of the England squad.

It was always going to be hard for young players to break through from the academy into the first team at a club like Arsenal and stay there.

And after two excellent breakthrough seasons for Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri, it looks as though the development path will be slightly different to what the pair imagined at the start of the season.

From Broderick Turner: Lakers coach JJ Redick understands there’s a “human element” to players looking for more minutes so they can score more points. He knows future contracts are important and his team isn’t immune to focusing on that.

The Lakers have five players on the final seasons their contracts and three more that have player options, making it eight potential free agents for the Lakers this offseason.

Redick broached this subject of contracts after the Lakers lost 112-104 to the Clippers on Thursday night at Intuit Dome for their sixth loss in nine games.

“Guys are worried about their futures,” Redick said. “And that’s what happens when you got a team full of free agents and player-options. I think it’s just natural that you’re gonna worry about the offense … and I’ve been there. (It gets) in your head a little bit: ‘Played five minutes (and) haven’t got a shot yet.’ And that’s a human thing. It’s not anybody’s fault.”

LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber and Jaxson Hayes are all in the final year of their contracts. Austin Reaves has a player-option for next season, but he’s going to see what he can earn in free agency. The Lakers can offer him the most — up to five years and $241 million.

DeAndre Ayton and Marcus Smart also have player-options.

When a team is in a tailspin — much like the Lakers, who’ve lost 10 of their last 17 — playing time and points can become major issues for players looking for new contracts.

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Lakers-Clippers box score

NBA standings

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: LeBron James downplayed any suggestion of a rift between him and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss on Thursday following an ESPN report that detailed how the now-minority owner of the team had started to turn on the Lakers superstar.

“Quite frankly, I don’t really get involved in that, or the reports, or whatever the case may be,” James said after the Lakers lost 112-104 to the Clippers at Intuit Dome.

The report detailed how years of in-fighting between the Buss siblings led to the family selling a majority stake of the team to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year. As the franchise struggled to recapture the magic established under Jerry Buss, Jeanie had grown distant and resentful, the report said, that James didn’t take accountability for involvement with the decision to acquire Russell Westbrook in 2021. She reportedly floated the possibility of trading James to the Clippers in 2022 and didn’t believe James was grateful when the Lakers drafted Bronny James in 2024.

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Rams have intercepted plans

From Gary Klein: Kobie Turner makes his living as a pass rusher and run defender for the Rams, not a defensive back.

But the last time the Rams played the Seattle Seahawks, the third-year defensive lineman snatched a Sam Darnold pass near the goal line for his first career interception.

“It was like time almost stopped,” Turner recalled Thursday. “It was a perfect spiral. It was beautiful.”

Turner’s turnover was one of seven the Rams forced in two games this season against the Seahawks, including six interceptions.

Of the Rams’ 16 interceptions this season, more than a third came against the Seahawks.

The Rams aim to continue their torrent of takeaways against the Seahawks on Sunday when they play in the NFC championship game at Lumen Field.

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NFL playoffs schedule

All times Pacific
Conference championships
Sunday

AFC
Noon
No. 2 New England at No. 1 Denver (CBS, Paramount+)

NFC
3:30 p.m.
No. 5 Rams at No. 1 Seattle (FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes)

Super Bowl

Sunday, Feb. 8, 3:30 p.m., NBC, Peacock

Where will Kyle Tucker fit in batting order?

From Ed Guzman: The Dodgers made the signing of free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker official Wednesday, capped off with an introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium.

Tucker’s four-year, $240-million deal included a $64-million signing bonus, and the $60-million average annual value is the second-highest in baseball history, without factoring in deferred money, behind Shohei Ohtani’s $70 million in his 10-year deal with the Dodgers.

Despite lucrative offers from the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays, Tucker went with the two-time defending World Series champions, who made room on their 40-man roster by designating outfielder Michael Siani for assignment.

“It’s a big decision, so you still got to weigh out everything,” Tucker told reporters, “but this team and this city and the fan base kind of makes it a little bit easier to make some decisions. That is just ultimately what we wanted to do, is come here and be part of that and try to win another World Series.”

With Tucker firmly in place, here are three takeaways from Wednesday:

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USC women lose to Michigan State

Kennedy Blair scored 21 points, and the No. 13 Michigan State women held off USC’s late surge for a 74-68 victory on Thursday night.

Michigan State opened the fourth quarter on a 13-5 run to stretch its lead to 66-54 with 5:15 remaining. Jazzy Davidson scored the last five points in a 10-0 run to help pull USC to 66-64 with 4:10 left before the Spartans sealed it from the free-throw line.

Kara Dunn scored 23 points and Davidson added 21 to lead USC (11-8 overall, 3-5 in the Big Ten). Kennedy Smith scored 15 points.

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USC box score

Big Ten standings

Darcy Kuemper cleared to return

Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, one of three netminders on Canada’s upcoming Olympic hockey roster, has been cleared to return after suffering a neck injury against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Kuemper said after returning to practice Thursday that he lost feeling in his arm when Rangers forward Jonny Brodzinski ran into him in the first period of the game. He said he tried to shake it off, but had to be replaced by Anton Forsberg.

“Yeah, kind of got hit on the side of my neck, and it pinched my neck and pinched the nerves, and my arm went dead,” Kuemper said. “So, yeah, wasn’t allowed to come back in until we did some further testing yesterday.”

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This day in sports history

1944 — The Detroit Red Wings defeat the New York Rangers 15-0 to set an NHL record for consecutive goals.

1959 — In the NBA All-Star game in Detroit, St. Louis’ Bob Pettit and Elgin Baylor of Minneapolis become the first co-winners of the MVP award, leading the West to a 124-108 victory.

1979 — Willie Mays is named on 409 of 432 ballots and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

1980 — George Gervin of San Antonio scores 55 points in a 144-130 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

1987 — Hana Mandlikova upsets Martina Navratilova 7-5, 7-6 to win the Australian Open.

1988 — Steffi Graf wins the Australian Open with a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Chris Evert.

1993 — Mike Gartner of the New York Rangers sets an NHL record when he reaches 30 goals for the 14th consecutive season. Gartner, with three goals in the Rangers’ 8-3 victory over the Kings, surpasses Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull and Wayne Gretzky.

2001 — Sam Cassell scores 22 points and the Bucks hit a franchise record 14 three-pointers to beat the Knicks 105-91 and snap New York’s NBA-record 33-game streak of holding opponents to under 100 points.

2005 — Jennifer Rodriguez becomes the first American woman in nine years to win the World Sprint Speedskating Championship.

2008 — Baylor, which waited 39 years to get back into the Top 25, plays five overtimes in its first win as a ranked team. Curtis Jerrells scores a career-high 36 points, including 11 in the fifth overtime to lead No. 25 Baylor to a 116-110 win over No. 18 Texas A&M.

2010 — Lindsey Vonn makes it five wins in five downhills this season. Her 30th World Cup victory ties her with Croatia’s Janica Kostelic for eighth place on the career list and nearly halfway to Austrian leader Annemarie Moser-Proell’s 62 wins.

2011 — Francesca Schiavone wins the longest women’s match in Grand Slam history — a 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova that takes 4 hours, 44 minutes at the Australian Open. Schiavone saves six match points, then converts on her third match point in the longest women’s match at a major in terms of time in the Open era.

2011 — Aaron Rodgers runs for a touchdown and makes a saving tackle, B.J. Raji returns an interception for a score and Sam Shields has two interceptions to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 21-14 win over the Chicago Bears in the NFC championship game. The Packers, with road wins in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago, become the first NFC No. 6 seed to advance to the Super Bowl.

2011 — The Pittsburgh Steelers advance to their third Super Bowl in six years with a 24-19 victory over the New York Jets.

2012 — Skylar Diggins matches a season high with 27 points and No. 2 Notre Dame routs No. 7 Tennessee 72-44, holding the Lady Vols to their lowest scoring output in modern school history.

2015 — Klay Thompson sets an NBA record for the most points in a quarter, a 37-point third period that powers the Golden State Warriors to a 126-101 victory over the Sacramento Kings. Thompson makes all 13 shots and finishes with a career-high 52 points.

2022 — Buffalo wide receiver Gabriel Davis scores an NFL playoff record four TDs in the Bills’ epic 42-36 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in their divisional-round playoff at Arrowhead Stadium.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Interim manager Darren Fletcher started the 20-year-old in the FA Cup third round defeat by Brighton this month and Mainoo kept his place for Michael Carrick’s first game in charge as United beat Manchester City convincingly in last weekend’s derby.

Carrick first came across Mainoo towards the end of his time as a player with the club.

“This club needs young players coming through,” said Carrick.

“They are the foundation of the club – they understand what it means – and for the supporters as well.

“It’s something we need to keep building on and Kobbie is a prime example.

“I was working with him at 13 or 14 when I was doing my (coaching) badges.

“To come through so quickly, have such a rapid rise and play in some big games at such a young age shows a lot of quality in terms of his character and being able to handle it.”

Mainoo signed a contract in 2023, but it was thought a new deal would be agreed after his goalscoring contribution to United’s 2024 FA Cup final win over City, which was followed by his starting England’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain.

However, there was no agreement, and the treatment he received following Amorim’s arrival left the Mainoo camp wondering whether United value him.

History is expected to happen this weekend for Rolling Hills Prep boys’ basketball coach Harvey Kitani. The only question is whether it takes place Friday or Saturday.

Kitani has 999 career coaching victories and has two opportunities to reach 1,000 with games against Bishop Gorman on Friday at Mater Dei and Hawthorne Math & Science Magnet on Saturday at Harbor College.

Only two other coaches in California history have reached 1,000 wins — Gary McKnight at Mater Dei and Mike LeDuc at Damien, according to stats compiled by CalHiSports.com.

“You kind of are trying to comprehend that,” Kitani said. “It’s nothing I signed up for. You hear the old coaches say you’ve been coaching a long time. It’s just unbelievable being fortunate to be healthy and my support system at home has allowed me to do that stuff.”

Most of Kitani’s wins came coaching 35 years at Fairfax. He left the City Section after the 2015-16 season to coach at Rolling Hills Prep, where he has won four section titles. It’s 15 minutes from his home and two of his sons attended Rolling Hills Prep.

One tidbit from Kitani is that he spent one season — 1979-80 — coaching at San Fernando. He said he probably would never have left, but he got displaced, leaving him with no teaching job. He spent 1980-81 helping coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills and taking classes to become a special education teacher. Then he ended up at Fairfax and never left again until retiring from teaching.

Former Westchester coach Ed Azzam holds the City Section record for most coaching victories.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Tottenham have begun talks with Liverpool in an effort to sign left-back Andy Robertson.

Robertson, 31, is out of contract at Anfield in the summer and said last week that he was undecided on his future.

The Scotland international has started just four times in the Premier League this season and wants regular involvement before the World Cup.

BBC Sport understands Spurs have made an approach but no outcome has been reached at this stage.

Liverpool signed Robertson from Hull for £8m in 2017 during Jurgen Klopp’s reign and he has made 363 appearances for the Reds.

Robertson’s most recent appearance came from the bench in the 1-1 draw against Burnley on 17 January.

Before that game, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said Robertson had been “important” to the club and praised him for the way he has handled losing his starting position to summer signing Milos Kerkez.

The trip was long — about 1,100 miles from Manchester, England, to Bodø, Norway.

The temperatures were freezing — around 28 degrees, with the wind chill around 10 degrees.

The results were not ideal — at least not for the 374 Manchester City fans who traveled to the fishing town north of the Arctic Circle only to see their team suffer one of the biggest upsets in Champions League history.

None of this was lost on Manchester City’s team captains after their club’s shocking 3-1 loss to Bodø/Glimt. In a joint statement the following day, the four players — Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Rodri — announced they would reimburse every Machester City fan who bought a ticket for the game.

“Our supporters mean everything to us,” the statement read. “We know the sacrifice that our fans make when they travel across the world to support us home and away and we will never take it for granted. They are the best fans in the world.

“We also recognize that it was a lot of traveling for the fans who supported us in the freezing cold throughout a difficult evening for us on the pitch. Covering the cost of these tickets for the fans who traveled to Bodø is the least we can do.”

According to the BBC, away tickets to the game cost around $33.75 in U.S. dollars, which would make the total amount to be handed out by the thoughtful and embarrassed group of Manchester City team leaders close to $13,000.

One of England’s most successful soccer teams, Manchester City has spent more than $500 million on its superstar roster over the last year. But for at least one day, it was no match for a club playing in its first Champions League.

Bodø/Glimt took a 3-0 lead on two first-half goals by Kasper Høgh and one in the 58th minute by Jens Petter Hauge. Rayan Cherki scored Manchester City’s only goal in the 60th minute.

“It’s embarrassing,” City’s Norwegian striker Haaland said after the loss, which came three days after a 2-0 defeat to Premier League rival Manchester United.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Multiple World Cup gold medallist Kirsty Muir was Team GB’s youngest athlete four years ago in Beijing, and at the age of 21 she returns for her second Olympics to compete in the freestyle skiing slopestyle and big air alongside Chris McCormick.

Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, who retired after the 2022 Games but returned to training last year, returns to the Olympic stage in the halfpipe alongside Liam Richards, while Maisie Hill and Txema Mazet-Brown join Brookes in competing in snowboard slopestyle and big air.

Like Ryding, Andrew Musgrave will compete at his fifth Olympics as he participates in the cross-country. He is selected alongside Beijing 2022 veteran James Clugnet and debutants Joe Davies and Anna Pryce.

Ollie Davies is Team GB’s sole representative in the ski cross, while Makayla Gerken Schofield and Mateo Jeannesson will compete in the moguls.

“Over the past four years, our skiers and snowboarders have shown they’re capable of mixing it with the very best in the world, and the squad that’s heading out for these Games is a real reflection of the talent, grit, and will to win that makes British sport so special,” said Vicky Gosling, GB Snowsport chief executive.

UK Sport believes Team GB could win between four and eight medals at next month’s Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

The nation’s best medal haul at a Winter Games is five, achieved at Sochi 2014 and matched in Pyeongchang four years later, but Team GB came home from Beijing in 2022 with just two medals.

The BBC will broadcast more than 450 hours of live action from the Games, which run from Friday 6 to Sunday 22 February.

LeBron James downplayed any suggestion of a rift between him and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss on Thursday following an ESPN report that detailed how the now-minority owner of the team had started to turn on the Lakers superstar.

“Quite frankly, I don’t really get involved in that, or the reports, or whatever the case may be,” James said after the Lakers lost 112-104 to the Clippers at Intuit Dome.

The report detailed how years of in-fighting between the Buss siblings led to the family selling a majority stake of the team to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year. As the franchise struggled to recapture the magic established under Jerry Buss, Jeanie had grown distant and resentful, the report said, that James didn’t take accountability for involvement with the decision to acquire Russell Westbrook in 2021. She reportedly floated the possibility of trading James to the Clippers in 2022 and didn’t believe James was grateful when the Lakers drafted Bronny James in 2024.

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Lakers star LeBron James responds to a report stating there is a rift between him and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss.

But LeBron James brushed it off.

“At the end of the day, when I came to this organization, my whole mindset was about restoring excellence,” James said. “The things that I seen growing up with the Lakers — obviously, I didn’t get an opportunity to watch Showtime [era], but I know the history. Then the early 2000s with Shaq [O’Neal] and [Kobe Bryant], and then what Kob did and those couple runs with him and Pau [Gasol]. So my whole mindset was like, ‘How can I get that feeling back to the Lakers organization?’ … And then I was able to do that along with, you know, 14, 16, other guys winning the championship, bringing the championship here.”

The Lakers’ 2020 championship — in James’ second season with the team — helped the franchise tie rival Boston for the most championships in league history. But the Celtics have since pulled ahead with an 18th NBA title.

The Lakers have won two playoff series in the five seasons since their last championship and have been eliminated in the first round in back-to-back seasons. They stunned the NBA by acquiring Luka Doncic in a midseason trade last season but are struggling to hang on in the competitive Western Conference. They have lost six of their last nine games.

James scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Lakers (26-17) cut a 26-point third-quarter deficit to three points with 1:28 remaining when James converted a three-point play. But the Clippers, who have won 14 of their last 17 games starting with their last win over the Lakers on Dec. 20, answered with a reverse dunk by Ivica Zubac and a dagger three-pointer from John Collins.

“LeBron, for what seems like the 20th straight game, just gave us — he emptied the tank and gave us everything he had,” coach JJ Redick said.

After he missed the first 14 games of the season because of sciatica, James is averaging 22.5 points, six rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. Since guard Austin Reaves re-injured his calf on Christmas Day, James has averaged 24.9 points and played more than 31 minutes in each of the 12 games, including playing two back-to-backs in a week.

The 41-year-old James has achieved some of the most significant milestones of his career with the Lakers. He became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in purple and gold. He is the first player to play 23 NBA seasons. Now in his eighth season with the Lakers, L.A. has been his continuous NBA home for longer than any other city, not counting the separate seven- and four-year stints he had in Cleveland.

When he came to the Lakers, James told Buss that he wanted to return the Lakers to glory, he recalled while accepting the NBA Finals most valuable player award in 2020. Buss, standing nearby in the socially distant trophy ceremony, smiled and clutched her hands to her chest when James brought up her father.

Lakers star LeBron James dunks over Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis on Jan. 9 at Crypto.com Arena.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

When asked Thursday of how he thought the partnership with Jeanie Buss has been, James said he thought “it was good, but somebody could see it another way.

“So it’s always two sides of the coin,” James continued.

The two have not talked since the report was published Wednesday, but that’s not out of the ordinary, James attested.

“We never talked,” James said. “I don’t understand. It’s not like me and Jeanie be on the phone talking, guys. I never heard a report about that. Don’t make something out of it that it’s not. It’s always been mutual, it’s always been respect, it’s always been a great partnership.”

LeBron James hugs Jeanie Buss after the Lakers’ NBA championship win on Oct. 11, 2020.

(Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)

“I’ve been here two years, everybody in this organization appreciates LeBron and appreciates what he’s done for the Lakers,” Redick said before the game. “He’s carried on the legacy and also truthfully the burden of being a superstar for the Los Angeles Lakers for eight years. And he’s done it with class. And then personally, I can just speak to it: I’ve enjoyed coaching him at the highest level, like 10 out of 10. That’s not to say LeBron and I don’t have our disagreements, but I know with that guy, he’s gonna put everything into this and it’s been awesome to coach.”

James picked up his $52.6 million player option this summer. It’s the first time in his 23-year NBA career that he’s played on the final year of a deal. He will be up for free agency this summer along with several other players, including guard Austin Reaves, forward Rui Hachimura and center Deandre Ayton.

With the trade deadline approaching, James brushed off questions about what steps the Lakers can do to improve their roster. As he turned to walk out of the locker room, James pointed to his hoodie that was printed with the name of his wife Savannah’s podcast.

“Everybody’s crazy,” James said.

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

BOYS

CITY SECTION

Alliance Bloomfield 39, Alliance Ted K. Tajima 36

Animo Robinson 72, New Designs University Park 30

Animo Venice 89, Burton 40

Animo Watts 65, New Designs Watts 26

Bert Corona Charter 44, Lakeview Charter 32

Central City Value 76, Animo Bunche 37

Collins Family 48, East College Prep 46

Downtown Magnets 90, Annenberg 23

Hollywood 60, Northridge Academy 58

LA University 94, New West Charter 40

Orthopaedic 49, Aspire Ollin 28

Rise Kohyang 50, Stern 45

San Fernando 59, Panorama 54

Triumph Charter 102, CHAMPS 43

WISH Academy 71, Animo Pat Brown 53

SOUTHERN SECTION

Alpaugh 39, Coast Union 28

Alta Loma 32, Colony 30

Beaumont 45, Redlands 43

Cantwell-Sacred Heart 67, Paraclete 49

Channel Islands 47, Fillmore 42

Chino 90, Ontario 47

Chino Hills 69, Los Osos 67

Colton 57, Rim of the World 32

Compton Early College 49, Pacific Lutheran 47

CSDR 71, Anza Hamilton 25

Don Lugo 65, Chaffey 56

Eisenhower 67, Bloomington 47

Elsinore 89, West Valley 54

Excelsior Charter 84, ACE 36

Geffen Academy 52, New Roads 44

Glendale Adventist 64, Beacon Hill 55

Glenn 39, Edgewood 36

Godinez 70, Garden Grove 43

Highland Hall 43, Lighthouse Christian 21

Holy Martyrs Armenian 66, Buckley 46

Jurupa Hills 58, Grand Terrace 41

La Palma Kennedy 69, Placentia Valencia 63

Mesrobian 82, Southwestern Academy 29

Milken 68, AGBU 62

Montclair 66, Diamond Ranch 59

Nordhoff 46, Carpinteria 40

Ocean View 81, Westminster 36

Palm Desert 66, Shadow Hills 55

Palm Springs 52, Xavier Prep 22

Rancho Cucamonga 66, Upland 37

Rancho Mirage 79, La Quinta 34

Redlands East Valley 71, Citrus Valley 68

Riverside Notre Dame 61, Kaiser 59

San Jacinto Valley Academy 67, SJDLCS 20

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 50, Tustin 41

Santa Clarita Christian 73, Lancaster Baptist 45

Santa Rosa Academy 63, California Military Institute 46

Segerstrom 49, Santa Ana 38

Summit 80, Carter 57

Tahquitz 48, San Jacinto 36

Tarbut V’ Torah 77, Newport Christian 63

Temecula Prep 78, Nuview Bridge 26

Thousand Oaks Hillcrest Christian 61, Sequoyah School 47

Trinity Classical Academy 72, Desert Christian 61

Vistamar 83, CAMS 25

Weaver 51, Noli Indian 27

INTERSECTIONAL

Georgia-Cumberland Academy 52, Loma Linda Academy 30

San Fernando Valley Academy 80, Summit View 19

San Gabriel Academy 56, Greater Atlanta Adventist (GA) 18

San Gabriel Academy 75, Chisolm Trail Academy (TX) 47

Spencerville Adventist Academy (MD) 49, Loma Linda Academy 43

GIRLS

CITY SECTION

Alliance Ted K. Tajima 32, Alliance Bloomfield 22

Animo Robinson 41, New Designs University Park 4

Animo Venice 34, Burton 12

Animo Watts 88, New Designs Watts 2

Annenberg 32, Downtown Magnets 12

Aspire Ollin 44, Orthopaedic 9

Central City Value 56, Animo Bunche 16

East College Prep 32, Collins Family 13

New West Charter 40, LA University 21

Northridge Academy 82, VAAS 11

San Fernando 63, Panorama 16

Stern 41, Rise Kohyang 17

Vaughn 34, Fulton 10

SOUTHERN SECTION

Adelanto 67, Granite Hills 14

Alemany 100, Marymount 40

Alpaugh 53, Coast Union 27

Beaumont 54, Redlands 36

Beckman 59, San Clemente 43

Bishop Diego 59, Coastal Christian 47

Bishop Montgomery 63, St. Anthony 48

Buena 49, Santa Barbara 18

Calvary Baptist 67, Bethel Christian 29

CAMS 43, Vistamar 42

Cantwell-Sacred Heart 46, Bishop Conaty-Loretto 8

Cate 56, Santa Barbara Providence 18

Chaffey 52, Don Lugo 40

Chino 68, Ontario 47

Chino Hills 54, Upland 26

Citrus Valley 41, Redlands East Valley 27

Colony 57, Alta Loma 32

Colton 36, Arroyo Valley 31

Corona Centennial 65, Moreno Valley 54

CSDR 64, Anza Hamilton 30

Elsinore 60, West Valley 18

El Toro 49, Mission Viejo 34

Fontana 67, Grand Terrace 35

Foothill Tech 42, Thacher 35

Gardena Serra 74, Ramona Convent 29

Harvard-Westlake 55, Marlborough 36

Highland 40, Littlerock 21

Holy Martyrs Armenian 46, ISLA 28

Jurupa Hills 47, Bloomington 23

Kaiser 41, Rim of the World 15

Knight 61, Palmdale 27

Laguna Beach 45, Capistrano Valley 27

Lakewood St. Joseph 54, St. Monica 45

Lancaster 46, Quartz Hill 41

La Quinta 68, Rancho Mirage 18

Los Alamitos 65, Corona del Mar 33

Marina 45, Fountain Valley 40

Mary Star of the Sea 58, San Gabriel Mission 16

Mater Dei 58, JSerra 48

Milken 45, AGBU 30

Montclair 35, Diamond Ranch 24

Newport Christian 28, Anaheim Discovery 20

New Roads 32, Geffen Academy 15

Notre Dame Academy 50, Flintridge Sacred Heart 27

NOVA Academy 55, First Baptist 9

Oakwood 55, Le Lycée 7

Pilibos 61, Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 59

Rosary Academy 58, Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 37

Samueli Academy 57, Legacy College Prep 9

San Dimas 52, South Hills 28

San Jacinto 50, Tahquitz 39

San Marcos 62, Oxnard 24

Santa Clarita Christian 61, Lancaster Baptist 44

Santa Margarita 78, Orange Lutheran 73

Shadow Hills 54, Palm Desert 39

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 74, Louisville 49

Sierra Canyon 93, Chaminade 35

South Hills Academy 23, Animo Leadership 15

Southlands Christian 66, Vista Meridian 0

Spring Valley Academy 46, Loma Linda Academy 32

St. Bernard 62, Pomona Catholic 8

St. Bonaventure 85, Santa Clara 12

St. Genevieve 52, Paraclete 38

St. Paul 55, Sacred Heart of LA 44

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 70, St. Mary’s Academy 43

Temecula Prep 66, Nuview Bridge 30

Trabuco Hills 60, Tesoro 57

Trinity Classical Academy 67, Desert Christian 32

Valley Christian Academy 46, Lompoc Cabrillo 38

Victor Valley 45, Barstow 30

Western Christian 49, Webb 8

Xavier Prep 41, Palm Springs 36

Yucaipa 68, Cajon 37

INTERSECTIONAL

Loma Linda Academy 37, Collegedale Academy (TN) 28

Redlands Adventist Academy 51, Pine Hills Adventist 23

“It might be innocent, but I don’t like that,” former Villa defender Joleon Lescott said on TNT Sports.

“Regardless of what it was for, if it was the other way around and the player refused to shake his manager’s hand, there would be uproar, and his mentality and professionalism would be questioned.

“I’m sure it’s more innocent than it looks, but I don’t like the look of it.”

Emery, who has won the Europa League a record four times as a manager, was managing his 100th game in the competition and said he is “dreaming” of a fifth title.

When the Lakers and Clippers faced each other at Intuit Dome on Dec. 20, both teams were struggling. After that game, they began to move in opposite directions.

The Lakers were 19-7 before that game and the Clippers stood at 6-21. Since the Clippers’ win that night, they’ve gone 14-3 — and the Lakers are 7-10.

The Lakers continued their tailspin Thursday, falling into a 26-point hole they were unable to climb completely out of in a 112-104 loss to the Clippers, losing for the sixth time in nine games.

Luka Doncic nearly had a triple-double with 32 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, but it wasn’t enough to extend the Lakers’ modest two-game win streak. LeBron James finished with 23 points, six assists and five rebounds.

Clippers forward John Collins dunks during the first half Thursday against the Lakers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The Clippers won for the seventh time in eight games behind seven players scoring in double figures.

Kawhi Leonard had 24 points, giving him a career-best 23 consecutive games with 20 points or more. James Harden had 18 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds and Ivica Zubac had 18 points and 19 rebounds.

The Lakers were down 26 in the third quarter, but trimmed it to 86-72 at the end of the quarter and then to 93-91 in the fourth on a three-pointer by Doncic and by playing defense like it mattered.

The Lakers kept clawing back, getting to within 105-102 on a three-point play by James, but they couldn’t stop the Clippers from closing out.

Even with Deandre Ayton back after missing the second half against Denver on Tuesday because of a left eye injury, the Lakers still lost to the Clippers for the second straight time. Ayton, who wore goggles during the game, had four points and five rebounds in 20 minutes.

Leonard had been listed as questionable before the game with left knee contusion. He had missed three games with the injury, but Lakers coach JJ Redick was confident before the game the Clippers star would play.

“We assume everybody’s going to play against the Lakers,” Redick said. “(It’s) backed by statistical data. We talked about this last year.”

And Leonard made his presence felt, drilling a three-pointer to give the Clippers a 72-49 lead in the third, prompting Redick to call a timeout.

Leonard, Harden and Zubac are a big reason why the Clippers have won 14 of their last 17 games.

“It was just being positive with our guys every step of the way,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said before the game. “I think that bled over to just coming together, understanding that first game against the Lakers (the Clippers won in December) and it was kind of like we could exhale then. Now we can start playing better basketball and we’ve been able to do that.”

Etc.

Austin Reaves, who has missed 14 games with a calf injury, played in some three-on-three “stay-ready” games in practice, Redick said. “He’s looked great,” Redick said. “He’s progressed really well. And the last couple live exposures, he’s looked like Austin. So we’re hopeful he’s back soon.”

After Hatate’s dismissal in the 34th minute, it was a backs-to-the-wall Celtic performance, with Trusty’s back-post tap-in a rare venture into Bologna territory.

Attack after attack was repelled by the Celtic backline as Trusty and Liam Scales stood up to the Bologna onslaught.

The hosts dominated possession, pinned Celtic in their own half and had 63 touches in the Celtic box.

And yet, the stubborn defence was undone frustratingly easily as Dallinga’s header went through Schmeichel from close range and the Denmark veteran was then rooted to the spot as Rowe’s powerful shot flew over his head.

“There will be a feeling of ‘what could have been?’ – and I think Schmeichel could do better for both goals,” former Scotland forward James McFadden said.

“So it will be mixed emotions.”

O’Neill questioned whether Schmeichel was unsighted for Rowe’s leveller, but chose to focus on the efforts of his centre-backs in the valuable draw.

Trusty alone made 17 clearances and three interceptions, marshalling the depleted visitors to great effect.

“Trusty was magnificent, as he has been during my time here,” O’Neill said.

“I couldn’t give him higher praise, he was absolutely magnificent as were the team. Him and Scales have been great as a defensive two in the time I have been here and my expectation of them is quite high.

“Trusty epitomised the spirit of the team tonight. It was colossal and keeps us in the competition for at least one more week.”

Another former Celtic manager also praised the way they battled to a point.

“Brilliant character from the players,” Neil Lennon said. “You can see what it means to them.

“Auston Trusty and Liam Scales were immense. They had to defend so many crosses.

“It’s a massive point.”

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Kennedy Blair scored 21 points, and the No. 13 Michigan State women held off USC’s late surge for a 74-68 victory on Thursday night.

Michigan State opened the fourth quarter on a 13-5 run to stretch its lead to 66-54 with 5:15 remaining. Jazzy Davidson scored the last five points in a 10-0 run to help pull USC to 66-64 with 4:10 left before the Spartans sealed it from the free-throw line.

Kara Dunn scored 23 points and Davidson added 21 to lead USC (11-8 overall, 3-5 in the Big Ten). Kennedy Smith scored 15 points.

Blair shot eight of 15 from the field overall, made five of six free throws and had five steals. Grace VanSlooten scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Michigan State (18-2, 7-2), which rebounded from a 75-68 loss to then-No. 10 Iowa. Rashunda Jones scored 16 points and Ines Sotelo added 12 to go with seven rebounds for the Spartans.

Michigan State scored 25 points from 24 USC turnovers.

While Youssef Chermiti earned rave reviews for his Old Firm heroics at the start of the month, he and Bojan Miovski passed up chances on Thursday and questions still linger over their ability to hold down the number nine shirt.

“Rangers aren’t the finished article, there’s still work to be done but they’re going in the right direction,” McFadden said. “There has been big progression, but they need to strengthen at the top end.

“They’re winning games. Are they at their free-flowing best? No, but it doesn’t matter. Somehow, they’ve managed to get themselves into a title race.”

At least there have been some reinforcements. Toko Chukwuani has come in as a defensive midfielder, and Rohl has also brought in left-back Tuur Rommens – a problem position given Jayden Meghoma was the only natural in the position – and winger Andreas Skov Olsen.

The latter is considered a big coup, on loan from Wolfsburg, and adds much-needed quality to the wings. Djiedi Gassama’s form has tailed off, and although Mikey Moore has come onto a game, Oliver Antman is still out injured.

Ineligible for the win over Ludogorets, the trio are expected to feature in some capacity against Dundee. That game could be vital in the grand scheme of the season, due to Hearts and Celtic meeting at Tynecastle the same day.

“I thought this season was a write-off,” admitted pundit Steven Thompson at Ibrox. “There were changes at board level, the recruitment wasn’t anywhere near good enough but Danny Rohl has flipped the script.

“You’ve got to give him so much credit for that. At times the football was good tonight, at times it was just OK. But it’s a clean sheet in Europe, and it just keeps this feel-good factor going.”

If the other two title contenders knock points off each other, Rangers could be within three points. Heady heights from the early days of Martin.

“Danny Rohl has done an absolutely fantastic job with this group of players,” said ex-Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday. “There is that lingering question – can they go that extra yard? A lot of people didn’t this group of players could step up.

“I think they need help, and the biggest help they could be given is a number nine at the top end of the pitch.”

Curt Cignetti was salty.

Asked at a news conference about how he planned to sell his vision to young players, the recently hired Indiana coach didn’t even look up while delivering his now-famous response.

“It’s pretty simple. I win,” answered Cignetti, who then paused two seconds before delivering the final two words.

“Google me.”

A little over two years later, there’s no need to Google the 64-year-old coach who just finished leading the Hoosiers to an improbable 16-0 season and their first national championship in football.

But anyone who does happen to use the technology giant to look up Cignetti’s name will find something interesting at the very top of his search result page. It’s just three words:

“Yup, he won.”

Google left the Easter egg following Indiana’s 27-21 victory over Miami in Monday’s College Football Playoff championship game. A representative from the company told The Times the phrase would remain atop Cignetti’s page for the next few weeks.

Here are some other facts a search on Cignetti might produce. His first head coaching gig came in 2011 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where his father, Frank Cignetti, played and then coached for 20 seasons. In six seasons with the Crimson Hawks, the younger Cignetti went 53-17 and led IUP to three NCAA Division II playoff appearances.

He then coached at Elon in 2017 and 2018, going 14-9 and taking the Phoenix to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs both years. As the coach at James Madison from 2019 to 2023, Cignetti led the Dukes to an overall 52-9 record, three FCS playoff appearances — including the 2019 national championship game — and a 19-4 record in JMU’s first two seasons after moving up to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

Last season at Indiana, Cignetti took over a team that had won a combined nine games over the previous three years and led it to a program-best 11-2 record and a CFP postseason appearance. That set the stage for the Hoosiers’ historic 2025 season and Cignetti’s second straight Associated Press coach of the year award.

Yup, he wins.

Kobie Turner makes his living as a pass rusher and run defender for the Rams, not a defensive back.

But the last time the Rams played the Seattle Seahawks, the third-year defensive lineman snatched a Sam Darnold pass near the goal line for his first career interception.

“It was like time almost stopped,” Turner recalled Thursday. “It was a perfect spiral. It was beautiful.”

Turner’s turnover was one of seven the Rams forced in two games this season against the Seahawks, including six interceptions.

Of the Rams’ 16 interceptions this season, more than a third came against the Seahawks.

The Rams aim to continue their torrent of takeaways Sunday when they play Seattle in the NFC Championship game at Lumen Field.

Four of second-year safety Kam Kinchens’ six career interceptions came against the Seahawks, including two in the first matchup between the teams this season.

“Usually, you hope a guy doesn’t make the same mistake twice,” Kinchens said of Darnold. “In my case, I’m hoping he makes the same mistake twice, because that’s more picks for me.”

Are the Seahawks his favorite team to play against?

“Yes,” Kinchens said, “Because they like to test the secondary. They have good receivers and Sam Darnold wants to throw the ball down the field and push it down the field. That’s a lot of opportunities, and I love when I get to show people my receiver skills.”

Rams cornerback Cobie Durant runs with the ball after intercepting a pass against the Chicago Bears in the divisional playoffs on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Cornerback Cobie Durant, nicknamed “The Land Shark,” intercepted three passes during the regular season, including one against the Seahawks.

Durant intercepted a pass in a wild-card victory over the Carolina Panthers, and he picked off two passes in last Sunday’s divisional-round victory over the Chicago Bears.

“The Land Shark shows up when you need him the most,” coach Sean McVay said.

The key, Durant said, is the combination of pressure from the Rams’ front and ball-hawking skills of the secondary.

“No rush,” Durant said. “No picks.”

Turner, edge rushers Jared Verse and Byron Young and linemen Braden Fiske and Poona Ford will be on the spot Sunday as they attempt to slow down Darnold, running back Kenneth Walker III and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba among others.

If the front can get to Darnold, whether for a pressure, quarterback hit or sack, “he knows that we’re coming,” Verse said. “He knows that he’s going to feel us, and that makes any quarterback cautions, no matter who you are.”

Rams defensive end Braden Fiske (55) and linebacker Byron Young (0) close in on Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold during a Rams win in November.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

In a Week 11 game against the Seahawks at SoFi Stadium, the Rams intercepted four passes in a 21-19 victory that was not assured until Jason Myers’ 61-yard field-goal attempt on the final play fell short.

Kinchens intercepted two passes, and Durant and cornerback Darious Williams each intercepted one.

Five weeks later at Lumen Field, the Seahawks defeated the Rams, 38-37, in overtime.

The Rams led by 16 points in the fourth quarter but could not hold off the Seahawks. Turner and cornerback Josh Wallace intercepted passes, but Darnold completed 22 of 34 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns and also converted on a pair of two-point conversion passes.

Now comes the third game between the NFC West rivals.

“I don’t think either of us are going to be tricking each other,” Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said.

The Rams must slow down a Seahawks offense that was at full throttle in Sunday’s 41-6 divisional-round victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

Walker ran for 116 yards and three touchdowns. But Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Darnold completed 12 of 17 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown. Smith-Njigba caught three passes, one for a touchdown.

Crowds at Lumen Field are among the NFL’s loudest, so the Rams are expecting another one at full volume Sunday.

Safety Kam Curl, whose interception in overtime against the Bears set up the winning field goal, noted that the crowd in Seattle quiets when the Seahawks offense is on the field.

“It’s good for us,” he said. “We get to make all our checks and our communication. They think they’re helping the offense but they’re really helping us too.”

Turner said Darnold showed his mettle by directing the winning drive against the Rams the last time they visited Lumen Field.

“He’s a tough quarterback,” he said. “A veteran experienced guy.”

Turner would like to experience another interception.

“If Sam wants to throw me another pass,” he quipped, “I would recommend throwing another spiral just like that one because it was beautiful.”

Etc.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is a finalist for NFL most valuable player and receiver Puka Nacus is a finalist for offensive player of the year. Stafford led the league with 46 touchdown passes and 4,707 yards passing. Nacua led the NFL with 129 receptions. MVP finalists: Stafford, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence, New England quarterback Drake Maye and San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey. Offensive player of the year finalists: Nacua, Maye, McCaffrey, Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson and Smith-Njigba. … The Rams designated offensive lineman Rob Havenstein to return from injured reserve. Havenstein has not played since the Nov. 16 game against the Seahawks.

A lawsuit that named decorated St. John Bosco High School football coach Jason Negro as a defendant was ruled by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday to have little legal basis.

The civil suit filed a year ago by recently fired St. John Bosco president and CEO Brian Wickstrom and two other former school administrators seeks damages from Negro, the school and the Salesian Society — a Catholic religious order that oversees the school — claiming retaliation, harassment and defamation.

“Anyone can file a complaint, but when it gets to court, it has to have a legal basis and facts,” said Brian Panish, Negro’s lawyer and a longtime St. John Bosco booster.

The plaintiffs — St. John Bosco CFO Melanie Marcaurel, chief technology officer Derek Barraza and Wickstrom — also want their jobs back, according to the lawsuit. They were fired in 2024 after alleging that Negro embezzled money from the school for years and had assistant coaches pay the tuition for prized players in cash, saying the payments were from “anonymous donors.”

The lawsuit also alleged that Negro conducted all financial transactions associated with his powerhouse program in cash that he keeps in a safe in his office, with no accounting or accountability by the school.

A cross-complaint filed in June by Negro, St. John Bosco and the Salesians fired back, saying that “the school uncovered information that Wickstrom obtained loans without authorization, received excessive compensation and benefits to which he was not entitled, and breached his fiduciary duties.”

In his ruling Thursday, Judge Tony L. Richardson determined that St. John Bosco — not Negro or the Salesian Society — employed the plaintiffs, making only the school a proper target for most of the claims. Richardson said that the plaintiffs have 20 days to amend their lawsuit to focus on St. John Bosco as a defendant.

The judge also shot down an argument that Negro is responsible for punitive damages, writing “the plaintiffs have not alleged a viable cause of action against Negro and therefore have not alleged facts to support punitive damages.”

A message left with the lawyer representing Wickstrom, Marcaurel and Barraza was not returned.

Negro has twice been named national coach of the year by Max Preps, leading the Bellflower parochial school to a record of 177-30 in 16 seasons, winning four CIF State championships and two national titles.

Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, one of three netminders on Canada’s upcoming Olympic hockey roster, has been cleared to return after suffering a neck injury against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Kuemper said after returning to practice Thursday that he lost feeling in his arm when Rangers forward Jonny Brodzinski ran into him in the first period of the game. He said he tried to shake it off, but had to be replaced by Anton Forsberg.

“Yeah, kind of got hit on the side of my neck, and it pinched my neck and pinched the nerves, and my arm went dead,” Kuemper said. “So, yeah, wasn’t allowed to come back in until we did some further testing yesterday.”

Kuemper felt better when he woke up Wednesday, and additional examinations confirmed he would be available for an upcoming road trip, which starts at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and runs six games while the Grammy Awards are hosted at Crypto.com Arena.

Kuemper was named alongside St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington and Washington’s Logan Thompson to the 25-man squad for Canada that will play in the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.

The 35-year-old is a first-time Olympian for Canada, which has won the past two goal medals with NHL players participating. Kuemper is expected to be the third keeper behind Binnington and Thompson.

Kuemper, a 14-year NHL veteran from Saskatchewan and Stanley Cup winner with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022, is 12-9-9 with a 2.52 goals against average and .904 save percentage in 32 games for the Kings this season. He missed six games in December because of an upper-body injury sustained Dec. 15 when Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen hit him in the head.

In his years-long pursuit to build a great defense at USC, Lincoln Riley first entrusted the job to a familiar face from his Oklahoma days. When that failed, Riley handed the reins of his defense — and a massive paycheck — to the crosstown rival’s rising star … who then left two years later.

Now, in his third try at finding a leader for USC’s defense, Riley is working to lure a Hall of Famer to Hollywood.

USC is closing in on a deal to hire Gary Patterson, the longtime Texas Christian coach, as its defensive coordinator, a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times.

Patterson, who hasn’t been a full-time coach since 2021, would come to USC just weeks after being voted into the College Football Hall of Fame on his first ballot. Patterson spent 24 seasons at Texas Christian, where he developed his reputation as a preeminent defensive mind and masterful evaluator of talent. His 4-2-5 scheme led the Horned Frogs to finish No. 1 in total defense five times in his 21 years as coach, while he was twice named coach of the year by the Associated Press.

Patterson was the winningest coach in TCU history and the second-longest-tenured coach in Division I, behind only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, when he resigned in October 2021 after being told he wouldn’t be back the following season.

Riley, who was Oklahoma’s coach at the time, said he was “sick” when he heard the news of Patterson’s exit. The two coaches knew each other well, having crossed paths in the Big 12 for half a decade by that point.

Riley left for USC a month later, while Patterson floated around other Texas football programs in consultant roles. He worked as a defensive analyst on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas in 2022 and was offered a chance to return in 2023 but opted to take a year off. Patterson then accepted a role as a “senior level strategic consultant” on Baylor’s staff in February 2024, only to leave six months later, on the doorstep of the season.

Riley, meanwhile, was struggling to find any sense of stability for his USC defense. Under Alex Grinch, who followed Riley from Oklahoma, the Trojans unraveled on that end. The nadir came in 2023 as the defense finished 121st in the nation in points per game, giving up 34.4, and 119th in yards per game, giving up 432.8. Grinch was fired the first week of November.

The next day Riley declared USC would build “a great defense” during his tenure.

“I have complete belief, conviction,” the coach said. “It is going to happen. There’s not a reason in the world why it can’t.”

That process has been slow in the Big Ten. In two seasons as defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn made substantial progress in building a unit that could withstand the conference’s more physical nature. After hitting rock bottom with Grinch, USC gave up 10 fewer points per game under Lynn and nearly 50 fewer yards per game on the ground.

But that progress hit some snags last season as injuries ravaged the Trojans’ depth on defense. Then, just before the bowl game, Lynn left for the same job at his alma mater, Penn State, after rejecting the school’s advances a year earlier.

Coincidentally, it was Patterson’s old program, TCU, that ended the Trojans’ season a few days later with a walk-off touchdown in the Alamo Bowl.

The search that led Riley to focus on Patterson lasted more than three weeks into the offseason, through the January transfer portal window. USC still managed to add five players on defense, including one of the top defensive backs available in Iowa State’s Jontez Williams.

Patterson would inherit a defense without many of its top contributors from a season ago, including linebacker Eric Gentry, safety Kamari Ramsey and defensive lineman Anthony Lucas. But the Trojans also welcomed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class to campus recently, a group that includes five top-100 prospects on defense, according to 247 Sports.

For Patterson, getting the best out of his defenders never proved to be a problem at TCU, where he was known for unearthing underrated prospects. But how the dynamic might look at USC with Patterson, a 21-year coach, stepping into a coordinator role remains unclear.

It’s also uncertain how Patterson’s hire would impact the Trojans’ remaining defensive staff. Secondary coach Doug Belk didn’t have his contract renewed, possibly to clear the way for Patterson to coach safeties. Mike Ekeler was hired from Nebraska to coach linebackers in addition to special teams, perhaps making linebackers coach Rob Ryan expendable.

The status of defensive line coach Shaun Nua also remains up in the air.

Joe Sterling, one of the best three-point shooters in the country, tried to put up a three-point attempt from long range at the outset of the third quarter on Wednesday night at Sierra Canyon. He must have forgotten who was guarding him, because Brandon McCoy came flying like Superman to block the shot, then took the deflected ball, dribbled and delivered an uncontested dunk.

“I knew he was going to shoot it,” McCoy said.

McCoy’s athleticism was on display all night as No. 1-ranked Sierra Canyon put itself in position to be the No. 1 seed for next week’s Mission League tournament with a 55-47 home victory over Harvard-Westlake.

McCoy finished with 20 points, including back-to-back threes in the second quarter when he helped Sierra Canyon (19-1, 5-0) wipe away an early deficit. He had zero points in the first quarter and 20 points the rest of the way.

“I wanted him to be more aggressive,” Sierra Canyon coach Andre Chevalier said. “He went into attack mode.”

Not only was McCoy contributing on offense, but his defense helped the Trailblazers hold Harvard-Westlake’s leading scorer, Sterling, to a season-low five points. He made one of eight shots and got into foul trouble.

“The fact he’s playing defense at a high level is amazing,” Chevalier said. “That’s what college coaches are looking for.”

Sierra Canyon also received a strong performance from 6-foot-8 Brannon Martinsen, who had 16 points. “I found my role,” he said. “It was figuring out how to complement guys as good as me.”

Pierce Thompson led No. 3 Harvard-Westlake (21-3, 4-1) with 14 points. The Wolverines struggled against Sierra Canyon’s half-court trap and didn’t have enough offensive contributors with Sterling taken out of the game by the Trailblazers’ defense.

“They’re good,” Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said. “I don’t think they’re invincible. They’re deep and versatile. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”

The Mission League will hold a tournament beginning Jan. 29. The first two teams in the regular-season standings are guaranteed Southern Section playoff berths. Harvard-Westlake closes with tough matchups against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Saturday and St. Francis at home next week. Sierra Canyon has a home game against Crespi and a road game against Chaminade.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 68, Crespi 56: NaVorro Bowman scored 33 points for the Knights.

Loyola 104, Bishop Alemany 70: Deuce Newt had 50 points and made 10 threes for Loyola. Austin Acy, a freshman, had 40 points for Alemany.

St. Francis 66, Chaminade 56: Cherif Millogo had 20 points and Luke Paulus 17 for St. Francis.

Santa Margarita 102, Servite 69: Drew Anderson finished with 35 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles.

St. John Bosco 56, JSerra 50: Christian Collins scored 30 points and Max Ellis and Tariq Iscandari had key threes to stay unbeaten in the Trinity League.

Mater Dei 81, Orange Lutheran 79: Zain Majeed scored with 1.5 seconds left for Mater Dei. Luke Barnett had 23 points and became Mater Dei’s career three-point leader with 373 moving past Taylor King.

Corona del Mar 76, Los Alamitos 54: Ryan Mansouri scored 23 points for 23-1 Corona del Mar.

Cleveland 56, Chatsworth 55: Aaron Krueger led Chatsworth with 17 points.

Birmingham 74, Granada Hills 53: Tekeio Phillips had 16 points and Christian Graham 15 to help the Patriots set up a showdown with Cleveland on Friday to decide first place in the West Valley League.

El Camino Real 44, Taft 43: The Royals made a three at the end to win.

Narbonne 63, San Pedro 62: Branden Key had 24 points to help Narbonne pull off the Marine League upset.

This essay is excerpted from culture writer Chuck Klosterman’s new book, “Football.”

Television defined the last half of the twentieth century, outperforming all other mass media combined.

This was already understood by the onset of the 1970s, prompting countless network executives to kill themselves in the hope of creating something impeccably suited for sitting in front of an electromagnetic box and remaining there for as long as possible. This typically entailed thoughtful consideration over the content of TV: what a program was about, how it was written, and what personalities were involved. But what’s even more critical, and far harder to manufacture, is the form of the program: the pacing, the visual construction, and the way the watcher experiences whatever they happen to be watching. How a person thinks about television is a manifestation of its content; how a person feels about television is a manifestation of its form. And there’s simply never been a TV product more formally successful than televised football. This was an accident. But it turns out you can’t design something on purpose that’s superior to the way televised football naturally occurs.

I realize I’m making an aesthetic argument many will not accept, particularly if they start from the position that football games are boring, meaningless, or both. The merits of televised football as a formal spectacle are immaterial to someone who hates the thing being televised, in the same way the harmonic simplicity of Miles Davis is immaterial to someone who hates jazz. Appreciating the TV experience of football requires some casual interest in the game itself. But what makes the TV experience of football so remarkable is how “casual interest” is more than enough to generate an illogically deep level of satisfaction. The way football is broadcast manages to obliterate any difference between an informal consumer and a face-painting fanatic. This is due to many factors, the most critical being that football is always, always, always better on television than it is in person. The televised experience is so superior to the in‑person experience that most people watching a football game live are mentally converting what they’re seeing into its TV equivalent, without even trying.

The only sport universally understood to be better when watched in person is hockey. In the same way football is always better on TV, hockey is always better live. With almost every other sport, the difference is debatable. Baseball is sometimes better in person, because it’s nice to sit outside in the summer (the weather and the park have more influence than the game). Basketball becomes more compelling if you sit close to the court and less compelling if you’re in the rafters, though the prime seats in any NBA arena tend to provide ticket holders with the same viewpoint they’d get from a TV broadcast. Live tennis and live golf offer details that can’t be captured on television, but there are rules of decorum and big potential for monotony. Soccer is exclusively about atmosphere and identity, so the experience of being in the crowd and the experience of the game itself are only nominally associated, in the same way going to see the Grateful Dead in the late 1980s was only nominally about music. Live boxing and live auto racing deliver palpable electricity with subpar sightlines. In all of these non‑football examples, the debate boils down to how effectively the televised depiction of an event can translate its in‑person actuality, which is why hockey is an outlier (the ambient feeling of bodies colliding with plexiglass is not digitally transferrable). Televised football is an outlier to an even greater extent, and for a much stranger reason: The TV experience doesn’t translate the live experience at all, in any way. The game happening in the physical world only exists to facilitate the broadcast version of the game, even if the game is not being televised. Here again, it must be reiterated: Football is a purely mediated experience, even when there is no media involved. It’s not just that you can see a game better when you watch it on television. Television is the only way you can see it at all.

Football fans attend football games for lots of different reasons. However, one of the expressed reasons can never be “A desire to see what’s really happening.” If that was someone’s true desire, they would stay home and watch it on TV. No one inside a football stadium — including the coaches on the sideline and the players on the field— can see the game with the consistent clarity of a person watching remotely. The announcers have the game happening directly in front of them and still watch the action on TV monitors, in part because they want their commentary to match what the home viewer is seeing but mostly because the camera is the perspective that matters.

And even when there is no camera, our minds insert one.

By now, it’s difficult to find any football game that isn’t being filmed by someone. When CBS broadcast Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, the network utilized 165 cameras. When Super Bowl I was broadcast in 1967 (on two competing networks at the same time), the total number of cameras was 11. This is now unthinkable. Show up at a random Pop Warner football game in rural Idaho, and you might find 22 different parents recording the action on 22 different camera phones. When I played high school football in the 1980s, not even the state championship was broadcast by any local station; today, most regular‑season high school games in every state can be streamed live, sometimes with a multi-camera professionalism on par with the broadcast of Super Bowl I. A camera‑free event has become rarer than the alternative. But the mental phenomenon I’m describing has little to do with how videography has expanded. The mentally inserted “camera” is not a machine. It is a way of seeing. It’s a type of forced perspective, invented by cameras and normalized through the omnipresence of television. In other realms of existence, such a phenomenon would be bad, since what I’m describing is a kind of psychological fascism. It is, technically, a form of mind control. Yet in this one particular instance, it benefits both the sport and the audience. With football, the psychology of fascism works.

Author Chuck Klosterman

(Joanna Ceciliani)

Visualize, for a moment, a capacity crowd at Michigan Stadium, the third‑largest sports venue on earth. Imagine the Michigan Wolverines are playing the Ohio State Buckeyes, with 107,601 people in the stands. Those 107,601 people are all seeing the event in a unique way, because every individual seat is in a unique location. All 107,601 sight lines are personal. Throughout the game, the ball moves up and down the field, and — every so often — a play will happen directly in front of a handful of fans coincidentally located in the ideal spot to see the action. Perhaps a woman’s seat is in the tenth row of section 15, located in the westerly corner of the south end zone: If an Ohio State receiver runs a fade pattern and catches the ball over his shoulder in front of the southwest pylon, that ticket holder will witness the reception with an unmatched lucidity. No one else will experience that extemporaneous moment like the woman in that particular seat. However, this solitary play is probably the only time when that will be true. There will be 179 other plays throughout the game, none of which will unequivocally cater to the singular view of this specific woman in this specific location. And what will happen during those other 179 plays is a bypassing of consciousness: The woman will see a play from her unique vantage point and automatically reframe what she saw into the way it would appear on television. She will watch the play from where she is sitting, but she will process the play from the standard TV perspective of a wide‑angle camera stationed in the press box at midfield. What she sees with her eyes will not be what she sees with her mind.

“But that’s not true,” you say. “That’s not how it is for me.” And maybe it’s not. There are exceptions to everything. Maybe your mind doesn’t work like this. Maybe you’ve attended three football games a week for twenty years without ever owning a television. Maybe your visual relationship with the world is completely authentic and unchanged by technology. I can’t crawl inside your skull and prove you wrong. But this is how it works for most people, including most who insist it does not. The visual imprinting of television is more overpowering than the visual imprinting of life; a TV screen presents an enclosed reality inside the preexisting reality of your house, and that manufactured reality overwrites both your memory and your imagination. Think of the primary setting from an old multi-camera sitcom (Jerry’s apartment on “Seinfeld,” the living room on “The Big Bang Theory,” the bar from “Cheers”). The standard shot of the set is ingrained in your memory and can be instantly recalled, but try to imagine physically entering that set through a different door and meandering around, without referencing the original image and triangulating where everything is supposed to be. Think of a real place or a historical event you’ve only experienced through film (the streets of 1950s San Francisco in “Vertigo,” West Baltimore as depicted on “The Wire,” the invasion of Normandy as seen in “Saving Private Ryan”). How difficult is it to now reimagine these places or events in a manner unlike the fake images you’ve seen only a few times? If you’re still skeptical, try this test: Host a party in your home and prop up your smartphone in an inconspicuous corner. Film 20 minutes of the party while you mingle with various guests. Rewatch that footage once a week for a month. At the end of the month, try to mentally reconstruct interactions from the party that aren’t anywhere on the recording. Try to visualize how the party looked, but from a different angle. You may be alarmed to realize your own unrecorded memories are locked into the perspective of wherever you placed your phone.

“But that’s not how football on TV works at all,” you say in response. “Football is seen from multiple angles that constantly shift. A few paragraphs ago, you noted that CBS used 165 different cameras for the Super Bowl. Football is better on TV, but not for the reason you claim. It’s better on television because there isn’t one static view.”

That’s a valid response, and it might feel true on a moment‑to‑moment basis. A controversial play might be replayed from seven different angles in the span of thirty seconds. It can even be argued that the standard camera view of a TV football game is the worst camera angle available. During the college football playoffs, ESPN’s family of networks will sometimes show the same game on multiple channels, with one channel broadcasting the whole affair from the Skycam camera. This is a remote camera hovering above and behind the line of scrimmage, replicating the perspective one sees in a video game. Coaches call this the “All‑22” view, because all 22 players on the field are simultaneously observable. It’s the camera angle coordinators use for film study, and — when it’s available — it’s the way I prefer to watch football. The Skycam allows the viewer to see how the defense is aligned, to follow pass patterns as they develop, and to (almost) see the game the way it’s seen by the quarterback. In terms of absorbing what’s transpiring, it’s vastly superior to the traditional mid‑ field perspective from the press box. Yet even as I’m watching the Skycam view, I can sense what’s happening inside my brain: I’m unconsciously converting what I see into the classic sideline sight line, even though that’s an inferior shot. I prefer the Skycam, but I understand what I’m seeing through the limited perspective of the most traditional camera angle: a master shot that (a) exclusively fixates on the location of the ball, (b) doesn’t include every involved player, and (c) provides no sense of depth or spacing. It’s an inadequacy that should be a death blow.

But like I keep saying: Football is different. These are the flaws that make the magic.

Copyright © 2026 by Charles Klosterman. Published by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Klosterman is the bestselling author of nine nonfiction books (including “The Nineties” and “Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs”), two novels (“Downtown Owl” and “The Visible Man”) and the short story collection “Raised in Captivity.” He was raised in rural North Dakota and now lives in Portland, Ore.