Not the sinister kind, who give away state secrets for money or revenge; Buckley is privy to much lower-level intelligence. But that doesn’t mean it’s not just as valuable to the people involved.
Buckley is the Kings’ goaltender coach and his chief pupil is Darcy Kuemper, who will be playing for Team Canada in the Milan Cortina Olympic hockey tournament. Buckley will be in Milan coaching for Team USA. And if the competition goes to form, Canada and the U.S. will meet in the final.
You can see where this is going.
So would Buckley give up the goods on his NHL goalie if it meant helping his national team win a gold medal?
“I probably have a little bit more insight being with him on a day-to-day basis. But at the end of the day, the players still have to execute,” said Buckley, like Kuemper, a first-time Olympian. “So if I tell someone to shoot somewhere at a certain time or a certain spot, they’re going to have to be able to execute that.”
The answer then is maybe.
Still, that’s a dilemma Buckley will probably never face since Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues, who was spectacular in goal in last year’s Four Nations Face-off, will probably start for Canada in Milan. But with the Kings sending four other players (defenseman Drew Doughty, Canada; and forwards Adrian Kempe, Sweden; Kevin Fiala, Switzerland; and Joel Armia, Finland) plus Canadian equipment manager Darren Granger to the Olympics, there’s a good chance guys who have shared a dressing room since September will be competing against one another.
Kings forward Kevin Fiala controls the puck while playing for Team Switzerland at the 2025 world championships.
(Michael Campanella / Getty Images)
The same goes for the Ducks, who are sending four players — goalie Lukas Dostal and defenseman Radko Gudas, Czechia; forward Mikael Granlund, Finland; and defenseman Jackson LaCombe, U.S. — to Milan. Ducks star Leo Carlsson, who was expected to start for Sweden, will miss the Games after undergoing surgery to repair a rare injury in his left thigh last month.
So while the Olympics may bring countries together, it also has the potential to turn teammates against one another — at least temporarily.
In the group stage of the tournament, for example, Armia and Finland will play against Kempe’s Sweden. And Canada, with Kuemper and Doughty, will face Switzerland, which is led by Fiala.
“It’s obviously going to be a little strange,” Gudas said. “It’s only for a few games. For that amount of time, you can put things aside a little bit.”
Those kinds of match-ups were rare in the last two Olympic tournaments since NHL players didn’t take part, sidelined by a dispute over insurance, travel costs and scheduling issues. This year 147 NHL players are on the 12 Olympic rosters, with all 32 NHL clubs represented.
Not all the top NHL players will be in Milan, however. Russia has been banned from the tournament because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, meaning Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, won’t play.
Granlund, who won a bronze medal with Finland in 2014, the last time NHL players participated in the Olympics, is glad to be back.
“It was such a cool experience,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest honors I can have as a hockey player, playing for a country in the Olympics. There’s no player in the NHL who wouldn’t go.”
That’s due in large part to the rush that comes with wearing your country’s colors on your chest.
“It’s tough to explain how much it means,” he said. “You grow up in a country like Finland, watching the national team play. As a kid you’re dreaming to play for that team.
“Every single time you put that jersey on, it’s such a pride you feel.”
Doughty, who already has two gold medals, agreed, saying the only time he sings along with the Canadian anthem is at the Olympics.
Kings defenseman Drew Doughty controls the puck while playing for Canada in the Four Nations Face-Off last year.
(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
“When we hear it in the NHL, I’m not singing,” he said. “But when you’re wearing a Canadian jersey, that’s one of the biggest moments you can have.”
Not just for the guys on the ice. Granger, the equipment manager, will be making his third trip to the Olympics with Canada. And the journey never gets old.
“It’s not something that you apply for. It’s something that you’re asked to do,” he said. “So I don’t take that lightly. It’s an honor.”
The equipment managers may have the most difficult job in the Olympic hockey tournament since they must prepare and maintain the sticks, skates, gloves and uniforms for 25 players, some of whom they’ve never met. That means checking in with the equipment managers of rival NHL teams to get prepared.
“We have quite a few players that are particular about certain things,” he said. “After a while, you just kind of get used to what those things are. If it’s a player that likes to use three sticks a game, then making sure he has that. If it’s a guy that likes to change gloves every other game, making sure you have enough.”
Yet if Canada wins the tournament, Granger’s reward won’t be a gold medal. Olympic rules say medals only go to the players, leaving the equipment managers, trainers and coaches — even coaches with inside information like Buckley — out in the cold.
“That’s OK,” Buckley said. “I just want the players to get one.”
The 2023 World Baseball Classic ended with a matchup between then-Angels teammates, Shohei Ohtani on the mound against Mike Trout. In a showdown between two MVPs, Ohtani struck out Trout on a 3-2 slider, giving Japan its third WBC championship.
There will not be similar dramatics for this edition. During DodgersFest on Saturday, manager Dave Roberts cleared up one key question heading into spring training and the tournament.
“[Ohtani’s] not gonna pitch in the WBC, but he will be ramping up his arm to get ready for the season,” he said, adding that the player made the call.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Roberts said. “I can’t even say I was relieved. Understanding what he did last year, understanding what he had to go through, to then how best to prepare himself for ’26 to do both, it just seemed like the right decision.”
Ohtani said in November he would participate in the WBC but did not signal at the time whether he would pitch. When Team Japan’s roster was announced Monday, manager Hirokazu Ibata did not say if Ohtani would pitch, only saying they would get a better sense in spring training.
While speaking with reporters before Roberts, Ohtani said he wasn’t sure if he would pitch during the tournament.
“In terms of the World Baseball Classic, I just have to see how my body feels, continue to feel the progression and see what happens so I’m gonna be fully prepared as a DH,” he said.
The expectation going into the season had been he would be able to pitch without restrictions from the start for the Dodgers.
“I’m not going to manage him differently as far as each outing,” Roberts said. “There’s certainly going to be extra time, it’s not a five-day, six-day rotation. So there’s going to be rest in between. But outside of that, it’s not going to be the two-inning, three-inning [start], he’s just going to be used as a normal pitcher.”
In the 2023 WBC, Ohtani won tournament most valuable player with a .435 batting average and 1.86 ERA, helping Japan to the title. Five months later, Ohtani was pulled from a start at Angel Stadium against the Cincinnati Reds for what ultimately was revealed to be a torn UCL.
During his first year on the mound for the Dodgers, Ohtani finished the regular season with a 2.87 ERA in 47 innings. In the playoffs, Ohtani posted a 4.43 earned run average in 20.1 innings over four starts — including one in Game 4 of the NLCS in which he struck out 10 batters while hitting three home runs, a performance Roberts called “probably the greatest postseason performance of all time” and earned him the series MVP.
MLB players like Ohtani and Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto are expected to join Team Japan for exhibition games on March 2. Japan will open WBC play on March 6 against Taiwan.
Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki, who will be returning to the starting rotation after missing most of last year’s regular season because of a shoulder injury, said on Saturday that the Dodgers made him unavailable for the WBC. Sasaki was on Team Japan in 2023, starting two games — including a dramatic semifinal win over Mexico.
MELBOURNE — Elena Rybakina finally won her second Grand Slam title with a victory over top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka at the Australian Open on Saturday, and it was something of a testament to quiet achievers.
After some tumult at the start of 2025, including the suspension of her coach, Rybakina finished off last year with a title at the WTA Finals in November. And now she has started the new year with a major championship.
Her low-key celebration was symbolic of her understated run through the tournament: a small fist pump, a quick embrace with Sabalenka, a handshake with the chair umpire, a smile, and a few hand claps on the strings of her racket and a wave to acknowledge the crowd.
It happened quickly after Rybakina closed with an ace to cap a third-set comeback and a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over a regular rival who beat her in the final here in 2023.
“The heart rate was definitely beating too fast. Even maybe [my] face didn’t show, but inside it was a lot of emotions,” the 26-year-old Rybakina, who was born in Moscow but represents Kazakhstan, said of her calm and clinical finish.
She knew she had to capitalize quickly this time, after she acknowledged getting tight and needing almost a half-hour from her first match point to her match-winning point in a semifinal win over Jessica Pegula.
Elena Rybakina plays a backhand return during the women’s singles final at the Australian Open on Saturday.
(Dita Alangkara / Associated Press)
Three years ago, Rybakina won the first set of the Australian Open final but lost the match in three.
This time, after breaking in the first game and taking the first set, she rallied after losing the second set and going down 3-0 in the third. She won five straight games to regain control.
“It gives me a kind of relief,” she said, “also, a lot of confidence for sure for the rest of the season.”
It was a second major title for fifth-seeded Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022 and entered that Australian final three years ago as the only major winner in the contest.
While Sabalenka went on to win another three majors, including back-to-back triumphs in Australia and the 2024 and ’25 victories at the U.S. Open, Rybakina’s results dipped and she didn’t reach another major final until this tournament.
Career change
A win over Sabalenka at the season-ending WTA Finals has changed her career trajectory. She has the most match wins on tour since Wimbledon, and is now on a roll of 20 wins in 21 matches.
“Last year I didn’t start so well,” she said. “I qualified for the [WTA] Finals late. I just hope I can carry this momentum. Do a good job with the team and continue this way.”
Rybakina is 10-0 in her last 10 matches against top-10 players, and she’ll return to No. 3 in the rankings.
Kazakhstan’s flag was unfurled on the court at Rod Laver Arena after Rybakina had paraded the trophy around and posed for photos with her team.
Coaching team
She paid tribute to her coach, Stefano Vukov, who spent time under suspension last year by the women’s tour. Vukov received a silver plate from the tournament organizers for being the champion’s coach.
“Of course I would like to thank my team,” she said. “Without you it wouldn’t have been possible. Really. We had a lot of things going on [last year]. Thank you to all of you, and hopefully we can keep on going strong this year.
“It’s a win for all the team, all the people who support me,” she said. “I just hope that I can carry this moment throughout the whole season and keep on improving.”
She said she’d been working with Vukov since 2019 and she finds it helpful to hear the constant stream of technical and tactical advice he conveys from his seat beside the court. The more, the better, she said, because eventually she listens.
“We won many titles together,” Rybakina said. “And even last year in Ningbo, WTA Finals, and now this trophy I felt just, again, proud and thankful to my team for the work.”
Win some, lose some
Aryna Sabalenka reacts after winning a point against Elena Rybakina in the women’s singles final at the Australian Open on Saturday.
(Dita Alangkara / Associated Press)
For Sabalenka, it’s back-to-back losses in the final in Australia after going down in an upset last year to Madison Keys.
“Of course, I have regrets. When you lead 3-love and then it felt like in few seconds it was 3-4, and I was down with a break — it was very fast,” she said. “Great tennis from her. Maybe not so smart for me.
“But as I say, today I’m a loser, maybe tomorrow I’m a winner. Hopefully I’ll be more of a winner this season than a loser. Hoping right now and praying.”
Rybakina went on the attack from the start and her serve was strong, with six aces and — apart from the two breaks at the end of the second set and the start of the third — she fended off six of the breakpoint chances she faced.
While Sabalenka’s emotions intensified, Rybakina maintained a determined quietness throughout.
England’s Lottie Woad hit a three-under-par 69 on day two of the Tournament of Champions to share the lead with three-time major winner Lydia Ko.
The 22-year-old, who only turned professional last year and was invited to play at the season-opening LPGA tournament in Orlando, built on her opening round of 67 to jointly lead with New Zealander Ko on eight under.
Olympic Champion Ko, 28, added a 67 on Friday to Thursday’s 69 round the Lake Nona course.
Woad, who hit four birdies and one bogey, said: “I looked at the leaderboard quite a lot because I was getting annoyed.
“The pins were probably a little trickier, so [there] weren’t as many birdies as [Thursday], so I just had to keep giving myself chances.”
Ko, meanwhile, is bogey-free through 36 holes but the 2024 Women’s Open champion said she would never call the Florida course “easy”, adding: “I think this golf course changes a lot depending on how the conditions are.”
England’s Lottie Woad is one shot behind leader Nasa Hataoka after the first round of the Tournament of Champions in Florida.
Woad, 22, who only turned professional last summer and was invited to play at the opening LPGA tournament of the season in Orlando, is one of four players on five under par.
Japan’s Hataoka claimed seven birdies for a round of 66 to lead on six under from Woad, Thai pair Chanettee Wannasaen and Atthaya Thitikul and Sweden’s Linn Grant.
Woad had the lead thanks to six birdies through 14 holes but made her only bogey of the day at the 18th.
She said the Lake Nona course “definitely challenges you”, adding: “The practice days were pretty cold… so it played a little bit easier today.”
Woad was an amateur when she won her first Ladies European Tour title in dominant fashion at the Women’s Irish Open in July.
She then then delivered a statement victory on her professional debut three weeks later when she secured her second tour win at the Women’s Scottish Open.
It’s time to see which Mission League basketball teams are ready for some March Madness in February.
The tournament is set to begin Thursday after Tuesday’s final results clarified seedings.
The final game of the night was Crespi pulling out a 65-61 win over Loyola when Isaiah Barnes scored while falling down with 15 seconds left for the game-clinching basket. Despite the loss, Loyola claimed fourth place in the seedings while finishing in a three-way tie for fourth with Crespi and St. Francis.
The Cubs, though, are 14-14 and will need a win Saturday against the winner of Thursday’s Bishop Alemany (No. 8) vs. St. Francis (No. 5) game to keep alive their Southern Section playoff hopes. You need a .500 or better record to be considered for an at-large berth.
The other Thursday game has No. 7 Chaminade at No. 6 Crespi. That winner will play at Harvard-Westlake on Saturday.
Crespi was led by 6-foot-9 Rodney Mukendi, who scored 17 points. Deuce Newt had 15 points for Loyola.
Harvard-Westlake 90, St. Francis 56: Joe Sterling got back his shooting touch, making seven threes and finishing with 27 points. Amir Jones added 17 points for Harvard-Westlake. St. Francis did not play center Cherif Millogo.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 81, Bishop Alemany 48: The Knights claimed second place in the Mission League and an automatic spot for the Southern Section playoffs. Zach White had 26 points and 10 rebounds. Notre Dame played without NaVorro Bowman.
Sierra Canyon 79, Chaminade 28: Brandon McCoy had 18 points and Maxi Adams added 17 points for the Mission League regular-season champions.
Crean Lutheran 76, La Habra 67: The Saints took over first place in the Crestview League.
Mira Costa 53, Peninsula 41: Logan Dugdale has 17 points and 10 rebounds for Mira Costa (23-4).
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the college football season has finally, officially come to an end. Indiana is our national champion — a sentence I never thought, as a long-ago IU sports columnist, that I would write under any circumstances. Many have tried since last Monday to make sense of what Indiana’s title says about this new era of college football. But in truth, I don’t know that we learned much more than we already knew.
A great quarterback is, as always, a must. Winning at the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball, is essential. Older, more experienced players — like Indiana’s fleet of 24-year olds — are usually better than younger, inexperienced ones, especially in this age of the transfer portal. And a great coach, in the college game, can make up for pretty much anything.
Fight on! Are you a true Trojans fan?
None of those lessons are really all that revelatory. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to apply. But what Indiana has shown definitively this season is that more programs are capable of winning a national title now than ever before. USC has always been among those annual contenders. Only now, the waiting room is a bit more crowded than before.
But with the college football season firmly in the rearview mirror, let’s set aside football briefly to zoom in this week on USC’s basketball programs, both of which are facing a make-or-break stretch of their schedules.
The return of Alijah Arenas was supposed to be USC’s saving grace midway through the conference slate, as he swooped in just in time for the home stretch. But nothing came smoothly the five-star freshman last week. After Arenas left Galen Center gasping with an early, 360 lay-in, he hit just one of his remaining 10 shots from the field against Northwestern. Then on Sunday, he made three for 12.
He was understandably rusty. Coach Eric Musselman took the blame after the game for putting too much on the freshman’s plate in his debut. But I could understand why he played Arenas as much as he could. Because, in many ways, it feels like the rest of USC’s season hinges on the freshman finding his stride as fast as possible.
Sunday’s road win at Wisconsin, however, offered an alternative case. Arenas continued to struggle, but USC’s offense rolled on without him. Chad Baker-Mazara scored 29, and Ezra Ausar scored 17 as the Trojans charged back to beat the Badgers in front of a hostile crowd.
The win was USC’s first against a Quad 1 team and arguably its biggest statement of the season. Still, the Trojans rank 51st in the NCAA’s NET rankings and are firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble, according to ESPN’s bracketology.
Sunday offered a glimpse of what they’re capable of. But so did Wednesday’s loss to Northwestern.
The truth is that the Trojans, especially in this injury-ravaged form, have to play their best to beat teams like Wisconsin. They have to rely heavily on Baker-Mazara, who has been anything but reliable with his performance the past month, and hope that someone else, such as backup point guard Jordan Marsh, scores in bunches.
In the wake of Wednesday’s loss, it was clear there was frustration in the locker room.
“This is all about habits and consistency,” Ausar said. “That’s where we lack — all around as a team.”
The margin for error is similarly thin for Lindsay Gottlieb and the USC women, who sit at 11-9 and 12th in the Big Ten after a narrow loss to Michigan on Sunday. But the women of Troy are still 25th in the NET rankings, a point that Gottlieb was sure to reiterate to me when we spoke on Friday.
I asked her what silver linings she could see after losing five of six.
“None of [our losses] have been terrible relative to resume. Three of them, we didn’t have Kennedy [Smith]. We still had big leads in some. That doesn’t absolve us from not taking them to the finish line, but what you take from it, other than [the] UCLA [game], we’re not getting blown out.”
Kara Dunn has been on a roll for USC.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Five of the Trojans’ last eight opponents are currently ranked in the top 20, so the recent losing streak doesn’t mean USC is a lost cause the rest of the way. What it does mean is that the ceiling of this year’s squad is looking lower than we might have thought it would be without JuJu Watkins.
That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise with its superstar sidelined. But USC has pieces that could have helped replace her in the aggregate. Freshman Jazzy Davidson continues to improve. Kara Dunn has been a revelation recently on offense, having scored 21 or more in each of her last six games. Smith is still the same lockdown defender as ever.
It’s elsewhere that USC’s roster is lacking this season. And like with the Trojan men, there aren’t many ways to rearrange the hand that Gottlieb has been dealt. The frontcourt has little in the way of firepower (USC’s four-big rotation has taken just 164 shots combined this season, eight fewer than Londynn Jones on her own), and the point guard position has been a problem at times, too.
Both teams still have a path to the NCAA tournament. Both offer some reason to believe. But as both enter a critical stretch of their season, there’s still plenty of time left to stumble as well.
Eric Gentry after last season’s win over Nebraska.
(Bonnie Ryan / Associated Press)
—The Gary Patterson hire could be a huge success. There’s also some risk baked in. Patterson’s credentials, among the coaches accessible to USC in its search, are unmatched. Ask anyone who has been around college football, and they will tell you that he’s one of the best evaluators of defensive talent this century. Few coaches have gotten more out of less on that end than Patterson. But if you’re searching for reasons to be skeptical, the fact that he hasn’t been a full-time coach since 2021 — or that he left his last consultant gig at Baylor right before the 2024 season — might give you some pause. A lot has changed about coaching college football since then. Even at the time, the perception at Texas Christian was that his tenure there had grown stale. Whether the game has passed him by or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But from 2017 through 2020, Patterson still had arguably the Big 12’s best defense, ranking in the top 30 nationally in yards allowed all four seasons. It sounds like he’s been itching to be back in an on-field role. Maybe, at USC, he’ll be reinvigorated. Because if he can get his Trojan defense to that level, USC will be in the Playoff.
—The College Football Playoff is sticking to 12 teams … for now at least. This was the expected outcome, given the ongoing disagreement between the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference over the format. The Big Ten wanted 24 (!!) teams. The SEC wanted 16. The Big Ten wanted more automatic qualifiers. The SEC wanted more at-large bids. The stalemate leaves us with the status quo, which is … really not that bad. A 24-team playoff would totally de-emphasize the regular season to a degree that I personally think would have a negative impact on the game. There’s already a calendar issue, as is, with 12 teams. Imagine how expansion might make that worse.
—Remember Abdul-Malik McClain, the former USC linebacker arrested for EDD fraud? I wrote pretty extensively five years ago on the strange saga that started with his brother, wideout Munir McClain, being suspended from USC’s football team suddenly and without any clear reason. As it turned out, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, it was his brother, Abdul-Malik, who was the target of federal scrutiny for a scheme that sought to defraud the government of over $1 million in COVID-related unemployment benefits. Abdul-Malik McClain, who the DOJ says was responsible for at least three dozen fraudulent applications, pleaded guilty in June 2024 to one count of felony mail fraud. He was finally sentenced last Tuesday to time served and ordered to pay $228,995. But he’ll pay a fraction of that. The Court, in its opinion, ordered McClain to pay just $50 per month.
—Eric Gentry’s measurables at the Shrine Bowl were even more insane than you’d expect. When I first wrote about Gentry, upon his transfer to USC a few years back, I wrote how there wasn’t a linebacker like him in the NFL. His most recent measurables bare that out. He ranks in the 99th percentile in height (6-6 ⅜) and in arm length (35 ¼”), and in the 96th percentile in hand size (10 ½”)
—2026 hoops signees Adonis and Darius Ratliff both shot up 247’s recruiting rankings this week. The twin sons of former NBA player Theo Ratliff moved up 34 spots and 20 spots, respectively, in the site’s latest re-rank. Musselman and his staff were high on both early on – seems like others are getting on board with their evaluation.
Times of Troy survey
After an anxious few weeks for Trojan fans, USC finally has its next defensive coordinator. So after all that anticipation, how do you feel about the Gary Patterson hire?
—Thrilled! We got a Hall of Famer! —Cautiously optimistic it could work —Mildly concerned it will fail —Convinced this will be a disaster
USC’s women’s golf team, which opens the spring season ranked No. 2 in the nation, kicked off the spring with a 3 ½ to 1 ½ match play victory over crosstown rival UCLA.
USC did so without its top-ranked player, Jasmine Koo, in the five-woman field. The sophomore ranks No. 9 in the nation at the start of spring. Instead, Elise Lee (No. 16), Sarah Hammett, and Kylie Chong (No. 44) won to edge out UCLA.
George R. R. Martin at the world premiere of “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ in Berlin.
(Ebrahim Noroozi / Associated Press)
When HBO decided to green-light a half-dozen ideas for “Game of Thrones” spinoffs, the executives in that conference room were probably imagining someone like yours truly in front of my TV, devouring whatever they put in front of me. So I was pretty much guaranteed to gravitate towards “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms,” the latest Thrones spin-off to premiere on HBO.
But what I didn’t expect was how different the tone would be in this slice of the Thrones universe. The story follows Ser Dunk, a bumbling and abnormally large hedge knight, who resolves to enter a tournament that seems impossible for him to win. The show is much lighter and funnier than its predecessor, and Dunk might actually be a character you’d want to root for. It’s too early to know where this spinoff is headed. But the pilot gave me enough to get me invested.
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 ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
