The Sweet Sixteen is here, and I don’t mean a bunch of whiny rich kids who cry when their parent’s give them a Lexus instead of an Escalade. Boo hoo. So here are the Sweet Sixteen matchups and what to look for in each game. #1 North Carolina vs. #4 Washington State. As much as I’m a schill for the Pac-10, the Cougars of Washington State are totally outmatched in this game. They have......

So the first round of the NCAA Tournament has finished, and boy was yesterday’s action quite exciting. Here are some things of note. 1. There have never been upsets for all four games at one location. Yesterday in Tampa, the two #12 seeds and two #13 seeds beat their respective #5 and #4 seeds. It started with #12 Western Kentucky beating #5 Drake with a three-point buzzer beater in overtime. Then #13 San Diego......

Tomorrow begins the magical time of the year known as March Madness. Everyone including that executive assistant who doesn’t know her Gonzagas from her Dukes is filling out brackets for the office pool. To help everyone fill out their brackets, here are some helpful hints. 1. No Final Fours since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams have featured all #1 seeds. That means if you have North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis and UCLA as......

The sixth-ranked Bruins demolished the Oregon State Beavers 84-49. The game was over within the first 30 seconds when Darren Collison hit a three-pointer to start the game to keep the Beavers winless in the Pac-10. Kevin Love was a rebound short of his 16th double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, and Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook and Lorenzo Mata-Real rounded out the players scoring double digits. The big point of concern is the sudden......

I was hoping this moment wouldn’t happen so soon, but it has. Coach Bob Knight has resigned as the men’s basketball coach of Texas Tech. He hands the reins over to his son Pat who joined him as an associate head coach in 2005. Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that health did not play a factor in his decision. Coach Knight is the all time winningest coach in NCAA Men’s Basketball having notched his......

Trojans 87, Longhorns 68 - USC earned hard court revenge against the school that ruined their bid for a third consecutive national championship on the gridiron. The Trojans trounced Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the sweet sixteen for the first time since their elite eight run in 2001. The upset means USC will play North Carolina this week. Lakers 109, Timberwolves 102 - Kobe almost stole the headlines......

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.......

The most exciting college sports action is going down this weekend in Los Angeles and this time there's no pigskin involved. The Pac 10 Men's Basketball Tournament is taking place Staples Center. It's a little like that awkward moment just before the Big Dance. It can be expensive to go, you wish you were with one of those cheerleaders, somebody already got upset (big time), and somebody hopes to get lucky. Come to think......

The Bruins should have been worried, walking onto a court of 11,000 hardcore WSU fans, jumping and cheering at the top of their lungs -- "should have", but they weren't. Instead they bounced back from a 23-22 halftime deficit and extinguished any notion that they did not have control. UCLA finished the game 53-45 over WSU, and clinched the Pac-10 title; meaning UCLA could become the top seed entering the NCAA Tournament. Arron Afflalo led......

While we've been busy with UCLA and the men's NCAA Tournament, LAist has neglected USC. The Women of Troy trounced Louisville yesterday 65-49 in the first round of the Women's NCAA Tournament. The win was a testament to the outstanding coaching job of Mark Trakh, who has USC women's basketball on the right track. USC has one of the most illustrious women's programs in NCAA history. But it hasn't done a damn thing since......

Well, UCLA, it was fun while it lasted. But the 2004-05 came to a non-descript end last night as Bobby Knight's Red Raiders out-muscled the Bruins 78-66. While Dijon Thompson had a decent senior game, UCLA clearly needed a better performance from Jordan Farmar who was constantly frustrated and finished with a measley 3 points on 1-9 shooting. Still, LAist is actually optimistic about the Bruins future. Washington may see an exodus of their......

The NCAA Tournament brackets were just revealed, and it's fair to say UCLA got screwed. While the Pac-10 was complimented with Washington getting a number-one seed, giving UCLA an 11th seed is downright insulting. How is the 4th place team in the Pac-10 seeded 11th? How is UCLA worse than Creighton, Iowa, or St. Mary's? To make matters worse for the Bruins, they now have to play a Texas Tech team that probably should......

UCLA's Tournament hopes suffered a bit of a setback yesterday, as they were stunned in a 79-72 loss to Oregon State. The loss suddenly has Bruins fans freaked out that they won't be dancing when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committe draws up its brackets on Sunday. But fear not, Bruins fans. LAist thinks you're in anyways. Somehow the Pac-10 managed to produce the 2nd-best RPI of any conference in the country this year, so......

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.......

UCLA took a major step towards the Big Dance yesterday with an impressive 75-65 win over Notre Dame. While the Bruins relied almost entirely on three pointers to score on the Irish, they played a more physical game and prevented Notre Dame from accomplishing much of anything on offense until garbage time. The win was enormous for UCLA. Going into the contest, UCLA had essentially one quality win-- a come-from-behind thriller over Washington early......

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......