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Alexander: A low point for L.A. basketball – really low – Thursday night

January 12, 2024

The world according to Jim:

• True, it’s important not to overreact in January, and especially not important to overreact to one night’s work – but if you were paying attention to L.A. basketball on Thursday night, how could you not help but think that this is going to be a miserable springtime for two of this region’s proudest teams?

The Lakers were drilled by Phoenix, 127-109, and while it broke a two-game winning streak it’s also the team’s 11th loss in 16 games since the increasingly hollow In-Season Tournament “championship.” The Lakers are back below .500 at 19-20, tied for 10th in the Western Conference with Utah and could drop out of the play-in zone with a loss in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. And just because this franchise made a mid-course correction last year at midseason, is it really feasible to assume that it can do it again? …

• Meanwhile, a UCLA men’s basketball season already circling the drain got worse with a 90-44 embarrassment at Utah on Thursday night. It’s not the worst loss in school history only because of a 48-point drubbing at Stanford in 1997. And Channel 9 sports anchor Darren M. Haynes noted Thursday night that this was the first time since the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1960 that they and the Bruins had lost on the same night by a combined margin of more than 60 points. …

• Nor is it just the records that have been discouraging. UCLA is pretty much unwatchable, and you wonder if maybe Mick Cronin has finally realized that high-volume (as in decibel level) coaching doesn’t work with this particular mix of players. He all but dared players to leave with his postgame remarks after last week’s loss to Stanford, and I’m willing to bet a good chunk of the roster will head for the transfer portal when this season ends.

As for the Lakers? They seem disjointed, out of sync. And no, the coach is not the problem. Neither are LeBron James or Anthony Davis. That still leaves a lot of territory. …

• The talk last week that agents of some Lakers players had registered complaints about playing time and roles brought to mind one of the great stories of the distant past, which turns out to have been apocryphal. The story was that the agent for Green Bay Packers center Jim Ringo visited Coach/GM Vince Lombardi to discuss a contract, and Lombardi excused himself after a few minutes, then came back into the room and informed the agent that his client had been traded to Philadelphia. It turns out the story wasn’t accurate – there was a trade but it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment negotiation – but Lombardi didn’t discourage its retelling.

Would Rob Pelinka try that threat? Probably not, as a former agent himself. But if he is getting those calls, maybe he should remind the agents that he can arrange more minutes for their clients – with, say, the Pistons or Trail Blazers or Hornets. …

• I hesitate to write this, given the way history has been so cruel to the Clippers, but they could be SoCal’s best hope in May and June given continued growth and – most significantly – continued good health. If you’re a Clippers fan, knock on wood every chance you get, just to be safe. …

• Elsewhere, USC’s men are 8-8, have no resume-building nonconference wins in their bid to make the NCAA Tournament, and now will be without freshman star Isaiah Collier for the next month with a hand injury. There are plenty of games left, but those who thought the Trojans might have a deep tournament run in them (guilty!) might need to recalibrate. …

• SoCal’s best (only) shot at an NCAA Tournament presence could be UC Irvine. The Anteaters are 12-5, 5-0 in conference and the region’s highest-ranked team in the NCAA’s NET rating (No. 71). Then again, the Big West gets one bid, it will go to the winner of the conference tournament, and strange things happen in that conference in March. …

• As for that NET rating? USC is 92nd, and UCLA is 209th – behind Cal State Northridge (147), Long Beach State (158), Cal Baptist (176) and Loyola Marymount (208) as well as the Anteaters and Trojans. The 10 SoCal Division I men’s programs are 0-29 in Quad 1 games (defined by the NCAA as home games against teams ranked 1-30, neutral court games against 1-50 and road games against 1-75). And UCLA has accounted for six of those L’s. …

• Is Sunday’s USC-UCLA women’s rematch at Galen Center close to a sellout yet? Those teams truly are the best bets to make some March Madness noise from this region. (And if you need additional motivation to go to the 2 p.m. game between the second-ranked Bruins (14-0) and ninth-ranked Trojans (12-1), the only TV coverage is again provided by the Pac-12 Network. …

• UCLA is fifth in the women’s NET ranking, behind South Carolina, Stanford, Texas and Connecticut, the latter of which the Bruins have already beaten. USC is 16th. …

• While the coaching carousel has spun wildly out of control this week – Nick Saban retiring, Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick nudged aside, Washington’s Kalen DeBoer opting to replace Saban at Alabama while Jim Harbaugh hovers above it all – there are crickets from Costa Mesa, where the list of presumed Chargers candidates includes the traditional group of coordinators and no apparent indication as yet that the team is aiming higher.

Belichick or Carroll – and possibly Harbaugh – would almost certainly seek a certain amount of influence in player personnel, and I would need to be convinced that such a request wouldn’t be a deal-breaker with Dean and John Spanos. Thus far, I am not.

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Orange County Register

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Alexander: A low point for L.A. basketball – really low – Thursday night

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