little bit

Spring practice continued for the UCLA football program Tuesday morning at Spaulding Field and for the most part head coach Bob Chesney was pleased with his team’s progress.

It marked the sixth of 14 practices leading up to the annual spring game on May 2 at the Rose Bowl.

“The defense took strides today,” said Chesney, who was hired as the Bruins’ 20th head football coach on Dec. 26, replacing DeShaun Foster (fired after an 0-3 start in 2025) and interim coach Tim Skipper. “There were a couple turnovers in there. This was our second day with the officials, it was a different group and they were throwing some flags today. We just have to understand the game we’re in. As you get further along the referees step aside, but early in the season they’re excited to do their jobs and we gave them enough to throw laundry at so we’ll go back and check it all out.”

Receiver Semaj Morgan caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Nico Iamaleava, tight end Brayden Lofton made several fine catches, Troy Leigber rushed for a touchdown, and Donavyn Pellot and Robert Stafford III had interceptions on defense as the squad is motivated to rebound from a 3-9 season (3-6 in Big Ten) — its worst since its debut season under Chip Kelly in 2018.

“Practice six is usually when it dips a little bit,” said Chesney, who led James Madison to the Sun Belt Conference championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff last season. “On defense we did not, on offense we probably slowed down just a little bit. I didn’t feel a dip from the group, which is great, but usually around now is when that starts to happen. [Practices] six, seven, eight are a little bit of a fight and then you gotta come back when you get to nine, 10 and 11. I thought they did a good job today, not a great job, but you have those days. It’s the nature of the beast. I didn’t see any steps backward from anybody, just a little bit of a lull from what they were bringing the other day. ”

One position group that has impressed Chesney since he arrived in Westwood is running back — a unit that returns a number of players.

“Everybody has their pluses and minuses, everyone has things they’re really good at and things they’re mediocre at and our job every day is taking what’s mediocre and turning it into good — and eventually great — and playing to their strengths,” Chesney said. “Each of them has their own running style. I’ve been impressed with them, they’re one of the stronger groups on this team. It’s necessary as a running back for that to be the case. You have to be durable enough, you have to keep your pad level low and keep your body healthy because there’s probably not another position out there that takes as much of a beating … you’re getting tackled by guys who are sometimes much bigger than you.”

Defensive back Scooter Jackson was not at Tuesday’s practice but Chesney expects him to be back Thursday. Offensive lineman Jordan Davis is dealing with a shoulder injury.

“He’s got range, he just doesn’t feel like he has the full strength yet … but he’s close,” Chesney said of Davis. “On Saturday it was a little worse than it is today, so he’s slowly getting better.”

Chesney praised cornerback DJ Barksdale, an All-Sun Belt selection who transferred from James Madison — a player he knows well.

“The nickel and slot corner is important in the bubble game and the screen game,” Chesney said. “You’ve got to be able to fight through some things physically. You’re also tied in a lot as the bonus in the run game and then there’s times when you’re not there and you’re playing straight man-to-man on the other team’s quickest, best receiver so the skillset you’ve got to carry, the confidence you’ve got to carry and the physicality you’ve got to carry is significant. DJ possesses all of those.”

Chesney is excited about the depth in the defensive backfield.

“Rob [Stafford] did a good job,: he said. “In the red zone he’s been really sticky in coverage and he’s done a really nice job. He’s starting to click with his playbook and understand it and that’s kind of where everyone is at this stage of the game, we’re in practice six so everything we’ve done up to this point is six days of full speed stuff. Osiris [Gilbert] made a really big play on a ball that we had trouble with Saturday. To learn and carry that over from the previous practice into the film room and actuality execute it out here was great to see. Jhase McMillan is doing a great job. We’re rotating them through, we put them in different positions to test them in fire and see who can handle all of it. They’re a little more involved in the running game now, Cover 2 things and corner pressures, blitzing off the edge, they’ve done a really nice job.”

Asked who has stood out in the trenches, Chesney cited Aiden Gobaira, Julian Armella and Riley Robell.

“What’s impressed me most about Julian is his passion for this game,” Chesney said. “He’s got to harness that the right way. I’m sure there’s moments when you play with that much emotion and passion it can tip over, but I’ve been impressed with that part. He uplifts a lot of people when he’s out there. There’s never a moment where he’s just out here and it’s not important — it’s all important to him and that’s infectious.”

Pressuring the quarterback is a defensive priority for Chesney and his staff. A year ago the Bruins tied for last in the Big Ten in pass defense, allowing opponents to complete 66% of their passes.

“On the defensive side we have to continue to take bigger steps,” he said. “Our pass rush looks good, the interior pass rush is something we have to work on. A lot of the games that we’re playing inside we’ve got to continue to fine tune things because obviously the offense knows they’re coming and the element of surprise gets defeated The defense is doing a nice job setting them up, then it’s cool watching the chess match go on between both sides.”

Chesney is known for his emphasis on special teams and the Bruins ran drills throughout Tuesday’s practice focused on that phase of the game.

“I don’t want it to be an afterthought — I want to make sure it’s involved in everything we do,” Chesney stated. “I want it to feel like a game as much as it possibly can but I also want our long snapper, our holder, our kickers and our protection guys to know that the whole team is relying on you so when we put them in those situations at the end to pin the ball, they have to know they have to hold up their end of the bargain.”

What has surprised Chesney most in his first few months in Westwood?

“The alums who come out continually and who like being around this program is something I’d hoped for,” Chesney said. “I understood that practices were maybe different and closed and not open to everybody before, but it’s open to all of our alums and to high school coaches. I’d hoped it would happen and to see it actually transpiring day to day is exciting.”

UCLA’s next practice is Thursday on Spaulding Field at Wasserman Football Center.

“All Hippos, the drone is in the control room, give us your all.”

Vanessa Bonet of the installation art group Dedo Vabo watched over a mission-control monitor deck, as the buzzing craft climbed into room full of braying hippos in rumpled suits. The beasts were, ostensibly, running a menacing communications conglomerate in a satellite tower looking over the main field of Coachella, but now they were spooked. They scampered around the office looming above the Outdoor stage, while delighted fans on the ground watched them flail behind glass.

“When you put a hippopotamus in a 10 foot enclosed space for 12 hours, they tend to go a little crazy,” Bonet said, picking up her CB radio to tell one hippo their mask had slipped off. “It takes a lot of work to keep this running.”

Coachella veterans were chuffed to hit the grounds and see “Network Operations,” the long-awaited return of Dedo Vabo’s hippos. It’s a years-long installation gag on the polo fields where actors (and Coachella performing artists) in hippo masks pantomime working at evil-ish corporations before the operation blows up in their faces by Sunday evening.

Festival goers observe ‘hippos’ at exhibit, ‘Network Operations’ at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 11, 2026.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

While the project began in a room at the infamous Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A.’s Art Walk in 2008, they’re now synonymous with Coachella and back on the field for the first time since 2019. Artists from the young punk band Die Spitz and Janelle Monáe’s crew have taken spins in the costumes (they’re hoping famed animal rights activist Moby might be up for a turn this year.) Past installments have seen the hippos found a power company, join the space race and tank the stock market.

“Network Operations” is a little slice of the arty anarchy that defined Coachella’s early, pre-influencer era. In a season of Hollywood marked by mega-mergers from well-funded nepo children, there is something timely about these oblivious creatures smashing up a printing press and a broadcast studio.

“The hippos are mimetic. It’s little bit of a reflection of society with dark, absurdist humor,” said Dedo Vabo’s Derek Doublin. “This is your friendly global neighborhood multi-conglomerate telecommunications and broadcast company. They hold enormous power but they’re also clueless about where they’re going with it.”

If any of the Skydance/Paramount brass are on the field, they might find the situation a bit resonant.

“How you feeling, Sabrinawood?” Sabrina Carpenter asked as she gazed out at the tens of thousands of fans she’d gathered into a makeshift city Friday night. “I can’t believe I’m headlining Coachella.

“I mean, I can a little bit.”

Indeed, when Carpenter made her Coachella debut in 2024, the Disney kid turned pop icon vowed that the next time she played the desert festival, her name would be atop the bill.

She returned as promised this weekend as one of music’s biggest acts, with two No. 1 singles and a pair of Grammy-nominated albums under her belt and a story to tell about her rise to stardom.

Heading into Coachella, I’d wondered whether Carpenter, 26, would simply play the same show she’d already brought several times to L.A. (as recently as November) on tour behind 2025’s “Short n’ Sweet” and last year’s “Man’s Best Friend.”

To her credit, though, she created a whole new production, which began with a video in which Carpenter is pulled over by a police offer played by the actor Sam Elliott as she drives toward a new life in Hollywood. In the video, Elliott lets her go, after which she turned up in the flesh at Coachella to strut down a Walk of Fame situation and end up onstage in a detailed simulacrum of the Hollywood Hills.

The first half of the show featured a bunch of songs from the singer’s last two LPs — she sang “Please Please Please” in a mock-up of a recording-studio vocal booth, while “When Did You Get Hot?” sounded like En Vogue’s “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” — as well as an oldie in “Because I Liked a Boy.”

Sabrina Carpenter performs at Coachella on Friday, April 12, 2024.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Then came a very long appearance by Susan Sarandon, who delivered a monologue about … the trauma of childhood celebrity? Honestly, it was hard to tell — a bit of a miscalculation on Carpenter’s part, as though she’d assumed that everyone at Coachella wanted to hear her deepest (if vaguest) thoughts about the pain of growing up in the Mouse House.

“She better come out in an amazing outfit,” one woman next to me said of Carpenter as Sarandon continued to extend the singer’s costume change.

Once Carpenter was back — wearing leggings and a blue sweater — she did “Go Go Juice” and “Sugar Talking” in a sort of dance-studio setting then interpolated a bit of Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana (At the Copa)” into “Feather” before Will Ferrell appeared as an irritated stage tech moaning and groaning about the demands of Carpenter’s show. (Again: kind of a fail.)

Yet she finished strong with speedy versions of “Juno,” “Espresso” and “Goodbye” into “Tears,” which got an elaborate water show that proved Carpenter can provide the right amount of razzle-dazzle when she wants to.

DALLAS — The Lakers will be without their starting backcourt for the rest of the regular season — five more games — after Austin Reaves was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique strain on Saturday.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Reaves underwent an MRI exam on his left olbique/rib area Saturday.

The team learned earlier this week that Luka Doncic has a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and will be out for the remainder of the regular season — and perhaps beyond.

The Lakers are also dealing with an injury to guard Marcus Smart, who has missed the last six games because of a right ankle contusion and is questionable for the game.

“It’s it’s lingering soreness in the ankle,” Redick said.

Even with all of this, Redick said the Lakers’ “mission hasn’t changed.”

“We want to get the third seed and we want to win a first-round series,” Redick said.

The Lakers are the third in the Western Conference, but Denver, Houston and Minnesota are within striking distance. The Lakers hold the tiebreaker over all three.

They’ll try to hold on to the No. 3 seed over the final five games of the regular season without Doncic, who leads the NBA in scoring (33.5 points per game) and is fourth in assists (8.3).

“I know Luka’s gonna do everything he can to get back on the court,” Redick said. “We don’t know what this recovery timetable looks like.”

The Lakers likely will have to lean more on LeBron James, a role the 41-year-old is more than willing to take on. James has been designated the third option behind Doncic and Reaves yet has still averaged 20.6 points per game, 6.9 assists and 6.0 rebounds in his 23rd season.

“It probably is going to look a little bit differently with Luka being out,” James said after practice. “I’ll figure that out and then, obviously, the coaches will figure it out as well.”

The Lakers are making the mental adjustment of playing without Doncic. After the Mavericks, they’ll have tough games against Oklahoma City, Golden State and Phoenix before finishing against lowly Utah.

“I mean, it’s a challenge for us,” James said. “It’s always got to be a next-man-up [mentality]. But there’s no way you can replace that type of impact. So, it’s going to be a collective group. We all have to figure out a way to do a little bit more. But even now, you got to be even more tightened up on the things that we do. When you lose a special player like that, you can’t have as many mistakes. So, we got to figure that out.”

For Redick, speaking for the first time since news of Doncic’s injury, he had to check on the temperature of his team to make sure his group was in the right space.

The practice Saturday on the campus of Southern Methodist helped.

“I think making sure that everybody’s in the right frame of mind, first of all, and then you know we worked on just offensive stuff, just cleaning up some stuff and being really explicit with what we want to run,” Redick said. “Did some offensive breakdown. It was definitely more of an offensive day.

“We did work on defense to start the practice, but that’s again that’s the primary sort of focus. How do we score, how do we score efficiently, and our defense again is, it’s we’re interchangeable. We’ve been interchangeable now for two-and-a half-months.”

James controversy

James created a bit of controversy when he said on “Bob Does Sports” YouTube video that Memphis should relocate to Nashville.

“I’m not like the first guy to even talk about it in the NBA. We all like, ‘You guys have to move. Just go over to Nashville,” James said.

James, when asked if he wanted to clarify his remarks, then mentioned Milwaukee also as one of his least favorite cities.

“I said Milwaukee as well,” James said. “I’m 41 years old (and) there’s two cities I do not like playing in right now — and that’s Milwaukee and that’s Memphis. What is your problem with it? I don’t like going home [to Cleveland] either. … And I’m from there. People are ridiculous. They also get mad at my son [Bronny James] being on the [Lakers] team, too.

“So, what are we talking about? People need to figure out other ways to put their energy to other things that’s important. Like, seriously? I’m not talking about the city, like the people in Memphis. I don’t like staying at the Hyatt Centric [hotel]. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. What are we talking about? What are we talking about? People need to chill the hell out.”