Long Beach, Loyola Marymount included in BracketBusters field

Long Beach State will play Creighton on Feb. 18 in Omaha in one of the marquee college basketball matchups in this year’s Sears BracketBusters series.

The annual two-day event features 13 games that will be nationally televised on ESPN’s various channels. Long Beach vs. Creighton will be the final game; it will be shown on ESPN2 with tipoff  scheduled for 7 p.m. PST.

Long Beach leads the Big West Conference with a 9-0 record, is 16-6 overall and has won nine in a row and 12 of its last 13 games. Creighton, leader of the Missouri Valley Conference, has won 10 straight to improve to 20-2 and is ranked No. 13 by the Associated Press.

Loyola Marymount (13-9) plays host to Valparaiso (15-8) in a Bracketbuster game at 6 p.m. on Feb. 17 that will be broadcast on ESPNU. 

The full schedule:

Feb. 17: Northern Iowa at Virginia Commonwealth, 4 p.m., ESPN2/3; Valparaiso at Loyola Marymount, 6 p.m., ESPNU.

Feb. 18: Drexel at Cleveland State, 8 a.m., ESPNU; Wichita State at Davidson, 9 a.m., ESPN2/3; Buffalo at South Dakota State, 1 p.m., ESPNU; Akron at Oral Roberts, 11 a.m., ESPN2/3; Drake at New Mexico State, noon, ESPNU; Nevada at Iona, 1 p.m., ESPN2/3; Old Dominion at Missouri State, 2 p.m., ESPNU; No. 18 St. Mary's at No. 10 Murray State, 3 p.m., ESPN2/3; North Carolina Asheville at Ohio, 4 p.m., ESPN3; Texas-Arlington at Weber State, 5 p.m., ESPN3; Long Beach State at No. 13 Creighton, 7 p.m., ESPN2.

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USC routs Utah to earn first Pac-12 win of the season

--Mike Hiserman

Photo: Casper Ware, left, and Long Beach State are no strangers to big games this season having played North Carolina, Kansas, Louisville and Pittsburgh. Credit: Gerry Broome / Associated Press

College baseball: UCLA draws familiar foe in NCAA baseball tournament

UCLA's baseball team begins the postseason where its regular season started -- at home against San Francisco.

The Bruins (33-22) are scheduled to play the Dons (31-23) at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday. UC Irvine (39-16) and Fresno State (40-14) are to play in the regional's other game.

Cal State Fullerton (40-15), which also hosts a regional, is set to play Illinois (28-25) on Friday at Titan Field. Kansas State (36-23) is to play Stanford (32-20) in that regional's other game.

UCLA began the season as the top-ranked team in the nation and swept San Francisco in the opening series without allowing an earned run in the three games. The Bruins labored offensively during the season but captured the Pacific 10 Conference title by winning eight of their last nine games.

For the first time since the NCAA tournament was expanded to 64 teams, the West does not have a team seeded in the top eight. Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, defending champion South Carolina, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Texas and Rice are the top eight teams.

-- Chris Foster

 

College baseball: UCLA, Cal State Fullerton will host NCAA regionals

UCLA and Cal State Fullerton were among the 16 schools awarded NCAA baseball regionals on Sunday.

UCLA clinched at least a share of the Pacific 10 conference title with a victory over Arizona State on Saturday. The Bruins, who finished second to South Carolina at the College World Series last season, hosted a regional and super regional in 2010.

Pac-10 teams will host three regionals: Arizona State and Oregon State were also awarded bids.

Fullerton, the Big West Conference champion, has hosted a regional the last four seasons and seven times in the last eight. The Titans lost to UCLA in the super regional in 2010.

South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Florida, Rice, Vanderbilt and Florida State will also host regionals, which run June 3-6.

The 64-team tournament field will be announced Monday. The eight super regionals will be announced on June 6. The College World Series begins on June 18.

--Chris Foster

Photo: UCLA's Tyler Rahmatulla celebrates his two-run home run in the ninth inning as he rounds first base behind Cal State Fullerton's Nick Ramirez during last season's NCAA super regional. Credit: Chris Carlson / Associated Press

Blake Griffin, Clippers lose opener to Trail Blazers

 

Final score: Portland 98, Clippers 88

 The Blake Griffin era dawned brightly in L.A. on Wednesday night, but by the second half, darkness had fallen and the Clippers lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 98-88, in front of an announced 18,382 in Staples Center.

Griffin, the Clippers' No. 1 overall draft pick before last season who missed what would have been his rookie year after injuring his knee, thrilled the crowd in the first half with high-flying dunks and fierce rebounding. But he was largely quiet in the second half as this Clippers team, like so many before it, couldn't sustain the kind of play necessary to become a playoff contender. Not on this night, anyway.

Griffin had 13 points on six-of-nine shooting in the first two quarters, with seven rebounds, four of which were offensive, and seemed to have enough energy to light all of L.A. for Halloween weekend. But he scored only two points in the third quarter and finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

The Clippers opened the fourth quarter with Griffin on the bench and went missed shot, turnover, foul on three straight possessions. That helped Portland take a 74-71 lead before the Clippers bounced back with Randy Foye, Rasual Butler (with a three-pointer), Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman all scoring to put the Clippers back on top, 80-76, with 8:08 to play.

Griffin returned to the game with 8:08 to play, and all five starters were back on the court shortly thereafter, but the offense stalled and Portland pulled to an 82-80 lead with six minutes to play. The Clippers continued their desultory play and Portland took advantage, running off to an 89-80 lead capped by LaMarcus Aldridge's three-point shot as the shot clock expired with 3:48 to play.

The Clippers couldn't make a game of it after that, experiencing one-shot possessions and sending Portland to the free-throw line repeatedly in the closing minutes.

All five Trail Blazers scored in double figures, led by Brandon Roy with 22 and Aldridge with 19.

Gordon led the Clippers with 22 points.  Kaman, who never got his shot working, missed 14 of 18 shots and finished with eight points.

-- Mike James

 Photo: The Clippers lose to the Portland Trailblazers on Wednesday. Credit: Kirby Lee / US Presswire.

Big West Conference coaches share their love for cooking and basketball

Correspondent Dan Arritt attended the Big West Coaches Cooking Challenge at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim on Wednesday, giving him a chance to see what coaches are cooking up on and off the court this year.

Check out the video below, leading off with Cal State Northridge men's Coach Bobby Braswell, to hear what the Big West's Southern California coaches have to say about the upcoming season. Arritt will have more from the conference's Southern California media day soon at latimes.com/sports.

Oh, and if you're wondering, Braswell and  Northridge women's Coach Jason Flowers  won the cooking challenge with their "chicken shrimp spaghettini."

-- Austin Knoblauch

NCAA baseball: UCLA to host Super Regional

The NCAA announced Super Regional sites for it baseball tournament. UCLA, as expected, will host either Cal State Fullerton or Minnesota on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The best-of-three series resumes Saturday at 4 p.m., with a Sunday game at 7 p.m. if necessary.

Texas, Florida State and Texas A&M will also host Super Regionals that begin on Friday. Arizona State, Clemson, Virginia and Coastal Carolina host Super regionals that begin on Saturday.

-- Chris Foster

NCAA baseball: UCLA defeats UC Irvine, wins regional

It’s an old baseball adage, and a repetitive one for UCLA this season . . .the best pitching wins.

That played out again Sunday night in a 6-2 victory over UC Irvine at Jackie Robinson Stadium that sent the sixth-seeded Bruins (46-13) on to next weekend’s super regional.

UCLA probably will play host to the best-of-three series; the university has put in a bid to host. But it might not matter where the Bruins play if they continue to baffle opposing batters.

A scrappy Irvine team, which eliminated LSU with a 4-3 victory earlier in the day, hung around until Cody Regis’ three-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Bruins a 6-2 lead.

UCLA batters may not like being viewed as the support staff, and they did scrap out key runs early in Sunday's game. But it is pitching that has the Bruins flirting with only the third College World Series appearance in school history, and that was evident again against Irvine.

The Anteaters (39-21) were unable to get much traction against UCLA starter Rob Rasmussen other than two lightning strikes, bases-empty home runs by Drew Hillman and Jordan Leyland .

Rasmussen has been all but unsolvable since being roughed up by Arizona State on May 2. He allowed seven runs and seven hits, three of which were home runs. Rasmussen then allowed only four runs in 26 1/3 innings over the rest of the regular season, winning three consecutive decisions.

It was more of the same against the Anteaters. Hillman homered in the second, Leyland in the fifth. Otherwise, Rasmussen (10-2) cruised along, striking out seven. The Anteaters had two on with one out following Leyland’s homer, but Rasmussen struck out Sean Madigan and Casey Stevenson to end the inning.

Erik Goeddel pitched two scoreless innings and Dan Klein one. UCLA relievers  allowed only one run in eight innings during the regional.

The Bruins’ staff is so deep that Garett Claypool, who is 7-3 with a 2.27 earned-run average as a starter, did little except sun himself this weekend. He was to be the starter if a Monday game was necessary. It wasn’t.

Irvine gutted out a victory over LSU to get to the evening game, getting six solid innings from freshman starter Evan Brock (seven strikeouts) and two innings of relief from Nick Hoover. But the Anteaters’ pitching was extended during the weekend and that became apparent against UCLA.

Starter Eric Peters, who pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief against LSU on Friday, and was less than sharp. Peters walked Regis to start the second inning and it cost him when Niko Gallegos tripled into the gap in left-center field  with two outs. An inning later, the Bruins took a 3-1 lead, with Blair Dunlap and Chris Giovinazzo driving in the runs.

--Chris Foster

College baseball: UCLA is seeded sixth in NCAA baseball tournament

UCLA was rewarded by being seeded sixth in the NCAA baseball tournament, then punished with a regional field that may be the tournament’s toughest.

The Bruins (43-13) will face Kent State (39-23) on Friday at Jackie Robinson Stadium, while UC Irvine (37-13) faces LSU (40-20). Irvine is ranked 21st by Baseball America, and LSU, the defending national champion, is ranked 23.

At Cal State Fullerton, the Titans (41-15) will play Minnesota (30-28), and New Mexico (37-20) plays Stanford (31-23). Fullerton, ranked seventh, is the only team in the regional that is in the Baseball America top 25.

-- Chris Foster

UC Irvine hires NBA assistant Russell Turner as head basketball coach

UC Irvine announced Friday that Russell Turner, an assistant for the Golden State Warriors, has been hired as the Anteaters basketball coach.

Turner, 39, replaces Pat Douglass, who was fired last month after compiling a 197-191 record in 13 seasons with the Anteaters.

Turner has been a Warriors assistant for six seasons. He played at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and coached as an assistant at his alma mater before moving to Wake Forest and then Stanford.

“Russell’s body of work makes him a superb choice for our program,” Irvine Athletic Director Mike Izzi said in a statement. “He has worked in successful programs, gaining valuable knowledge from hall of fame caliber coaches, and has thrived in academic settings.

“He has had the opportunity to help develop some of the NBA’s top players and work closely with many outstanding collegiate competitors. Our players will benefit greatly from his experience."

The university said Turner agreed to a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $205,000.

“I am honored and extremely excited to be chosen to lead the men’s basketball program at UCI,” Turner said in a statement. “In many ways this is a dream job for me because of the culture of excellence within this University. I am eager to get to work with my team and to earn the respect of the Irvine community and I will approach all of the important aspects of this job with great enthusiasm. I have tremendous respect for the coach I am following, Pat Douglass, and I am hoping to form strong relationships with the many impressive people who are a part of this program’s past as we build for the future of our team.”

Irvine finished 14-18 last season, losing to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the first round of the Big West tournament.

-- Gary Klein
 

 

Big West Conference basketball: Long Beach is favorite

Cal State Long Beach was chosen as the overwhelming favorite in Big West Conference men's basketball in a poll of 24 media members released today.

The 49ers, who return four starters, received 17 first-place votes. They were followed in the poll by UC Santa Barbara, which got six first-place votes; Cal State Northridge, which has won or shared the last two Big West titles; UC Riverside; and Pacific, which got the other first-place vote.

UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo rounded out the poll.

Long Beach returns three players off the 2009 Big West All-Freshman team. Larry Anderson, Casper Ware and T.J. Robinson combined for 44% of the 49ers' scoring last season. Anderson, who averaged 10.8 points and 4.0 rebounds, was only the second freshman in the history of the conference to be a first-team all-conference selection.

Santa Barbara returns James Powell, whose 9.0 scoring average led the Gauchos last season, and also has Orlando Johnson, who averaged 12.4 points and was the top rebounder for Loyola Marymount two years ago. He sat out last season after transferring in accordance with NCAA rules.

--Mike Hiserman