Young again

When I was a kid forming college dreams, Weber State was on my list because they had an outstanding journalism program. It was a long time ago, when reporters adhered to principles like having two sources to credibly support the facts, and being uninvolved in the stories. That sounds certifiably mad today. Sportswriting was always […]

Cars and school buses

When I put my mind to avoiding spoilage of movie endings, sports scores, or news items, I can. Something happened within the University of Utah athletics department. It’s days-old, stale news, but I’m waiting for Coach Roberts to tell me about the car — or cars. Utah’s Crimson Collective — how that’s separate from the […]

A heartening loss to no. 1 South Carolina

UCLA 95Florida St. 78 As UCLA brushed Florida St. aside, I had this thought: I’m in the 96th percentile of American chessplayers. If you put me across the board from Caruana or another player in the 100th percentile, the game begins 0-0, but eventually it’s windshield vs. bug, and it was never really close. Among […]

12/9

Nevada 49UC Berkeley 76 Gianna Kneepkens’ season-ending injury has me looking at every team differently. For instance, Cal might’ve found a suitable complements-turned-replacements for Ioanna Krimili (the Golden Bears’ leading scorer until knee problems recurred) in McKayla Williams, who led the game in scoring with 20 Saturday, and Tennessee transfer Marta Suarez (14 ppg, 7 […]

Worst case, part one

Utah 74St. Joseph’s 48 Revisit the LaLooshian exchange in which media says: “In the absence of one of your best players, who needs to step up?”, and then the coach tries not to roll eyes before replying: “They all do”. In the case of the Utah women’s basketball team, stepping up to fill a Gianna […]

Harsh media light

The best interview in the business was UC Davis coach Sandy Simpson. If you let him talk, he’d quote novelists and Beat poets, but that’s now how today’s sports media works. Sideline reporter Charissa Thompson got in hot water last month for saying she fabricated football coaches’ quotes, and Erin Andrews — one of the […]

Life goes on

People with mental health issues lie convincingly when asked if we’re OK, because if you’re convinced, you’ll leave us alone. If you want to know if I’m OK, ask me if I’m writing. For some reason, I can’t lie about that. If I’m not writing, I’m not OK. I haven’t written anything in two days. […]

12/3

Utah guard Gianna Kneepkens, on the watch list for national player of the year and shown in the background picture above, is out for the season following a foot injury suffered Saturday. Utah coach Roberts said in a press release that the “entire program is devastated for Gianna”. I’m a grain of sand in the […]

December 2

Colorado 74Air Force Academy 58 Long ago, a friend made a quip about Air Force that has stuck with me. I left the office, saying I was off to watch basketball. “Who’s playing?” Joseph said. “Air Force at Saint Mary’s”, I said. He laughed. “Air Force? Air Force has a basketball team?” “Uh huh.” “You […]