While you were watching March Madness college games last weekend and thinking, “damn, I had Long Beach State in the sweet 16,” NBA general managers and scouts were watching the games thinking, “damn, should I draft that guy?” The NCAA tournament is the ultimate smorgasbord for NBA scouts, a chance to see most of the top players playing against one another. So, among the local college crop, who should you be watching? Who do the......

Lakers 116, Blazers 111, OT - Maybe he's got a chip on his shoulder because he never played college ball and everybody's talking about March Madness. Maybe he's angry about all those NBA suspensions and the so-called witch hunt. Either way, Kobe was on fire with 65 points in the Laker's OT victory over Portland. The second highest point total in his career propelled Los Angeles to its first win in their last eight games......

Nuggets 113, Lakers 86 - When Phil Jackson went to bed on Wednesday, he was probably looking forward to the day ahead. Things were set up nicely for a home game with Lamar Odom and Luke Walton both returning from injuries. Then his alarm clock rang. Within a few hours, the NBA dished out $100,000 in fines for his comments about a Kobe "witchhunt" and the Lakers lost for the seventh time in a row.......

Long Beach is ready to party -- their basketball team is the trendy bracket-buster pick to knock off Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA hoops Tournament. Long Beach students are pumped, ready for a big party at the Acapulco Inn. (Well, they'll party at the AI either way.) But we want to pass along a friendly note to Long Beach students: Regardless of what happens with the game, just remember that things could......

While all the college hoops fans in Southern California were only paying attention to those teams up in Westwood and downtown, down in the LBC they’ve been playing some pretty good basketball too. NCAA tournament good. Playing fast and bombing threes, Long Beach State won the Big West Conference tournament, which means they get to go dancing for the first time in a dozen years, They go in as a 12 seed facing five-seed......

Dallas 108, Lakers 72 - The last time the Lakers lost at home this bad, "home" was Minneapolis. Things got so ugly that LAist writers were wondering if Smush Parker's ejection (after a second technical) might help the team. But with three players sidelined with injuries, the it turns out a streamlined roster wasn't much of a solution. Dallas rolled to its 17th win in a row and held Los Angeles to within two points......

Weekend Edition Friday - Today "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) An evening of stop-action animation starts with this one followed by "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Mysterious Island" "NHL Hockey" (5:30 p.m.) Kings @ Stars "NBA Basketball" (KCAL, 6:00 p.m.) Lakers @ Jazz "College Football" (ESPN2, 6:00 p.m.) Fresno State @ Louisiana Tech "College Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Long Beach State @ USC "Ghost Whisperer/Close To Home/NUMB3RS" (CBS, 8-11:00 p.m.) All......

The Angels' #1 pick in 2004 was called up a month ago and bro hasn't lost a game yet. The 6'7" brother of teammate Jeff Weaver, has been raising eyebrows by only giving up four ER in 26.1 innings and going 4-0 in four starts. Exactly what Anaheim needed once their ace Bartolo Colon went down. The only thing that Jered needs is someone to spell check his Myspace account, which at first glance......

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have just one day to sign 2004 first round pick Jered Weaver, otherwise he will go back into the 2005 draft pool. The latter looks more likely. This represents a colossal failure by the Angels, Weaver, and Weaver's agent Scott Boras. The idea that a pitcher coming out of college is worth $6 million before he's ever played a minor league game is absurd. Highly touted pitching prospects......

It's Championship Week, and that means two conference tournaments are taking place in the LA area. While most of you are well-aware that the Pac-10 Tournament is taking place at STAPLES Center, the Big West Tournament is also going on at the nearby Anaheim Convention Center. Call us the Grinch, but LAist has never liked conference tournaments. Sure, they're fun. And it does give plenty of underdog schools a chance at the Big Dance.......

Football season’s almost over. Basketball, well, it doesn’t really matter until June, unless you’re a college fan, then you can wait until March. And hockey, uh, what exactly happened to those guys anyway? But for baseball fans everywhere, the moment is now. Pitchers and catchers don’t report for Big League spring training for a good 3 or 4 weeks still, but if you need a little fix, LAist suggests you get in your car......

Congratulations to Cal State Fullerton on winning the College World Series! The Titans won the title despite the NCAA's routine tradition of putting all of the good west coast teams in the same regionals so they can knock each other out. But LAist recognizes that Southern California is the home of the best college baseball talent on the planet. This year alone, Cal State Fullerton, UCLA, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, and Pepperdine all......