After UCLA was eliminated by South Carolina during the 2023 Sweet 16, Bruins coach Cori Close sat at the podium for her postgame news conference. As the questions poured in, she recalls thinking just one thing over and over again. “I have to grow in some areas,” Close said ahead of the No. 5 Bruins’…

If I could have had a coaching career, I would have wanted it to be like John Robinson’s. The former USC and L.A. Rams head coach was, in my mind, one of the classiest coaches ever, in any sport. He was open and affable when he won, and he was exactly the same when he…

In an era when parents keep moving their sons looking for something (exposure, playing time, free shoes), let’s salute two four-year starters in football whose high school careers are over. They will leave their neighborhood schools as hometown heroes. Linebackers Weston Port and Noah Mikhail became stars from their freshman year through senior seasons and…

Ten pounds heavier and with bulging biceps, San Diego State commit Tae Simmons of Heritage Christian sure looked the part of a dominant inside player Monday night in Heritage Christian’s 82-48 season-opening win over Oak Park. He finished with eight dunks, 24 points and 15 rebounds. He’s 6 feet 6, 220 pounds and got a…

Mollie Marcoux Samaan is stepping down in January as LPGA commissioner, a surprise announcement Monday after record growth in prize money along with criticism women’s golf wasn’t gaining in popularity. Marcoux Samaan is leaving on Jan. 9, three weeks before the LPGA begins its 75th season. Liz Moore, the chief legal and technology officer, will…

The needles never bothered Woody Marks. Mostly because he never looks at them. All USC’s star running back knows is every Wednesday his acupuncturist will put them in whatever muscle has been aching that week. “I just close my eyes,” Marks says, “and let him do it.” Over a senior season in which he has…