Basketball Games

Because of my deep family ties to the University of Oregon and my long-held sense of Eugene as an open-minded and tolerant place, the ugly, bigoted way that some Ducks fans behaved during the men's basketball home game last week against UCLA was an embarrassment. That feeling, and my outrage, deepened when a school spokesman said after the game that little could have been done to keep unruly fans from yelling whatever they pleased.

This summer my mission was to discover the five best public places to play pickup hoops in Greater Los Angeles. I've been playing basketball most of my life. I grew up in Seattle and played guard at Seattle University, then transferred to Occidental College in Eagle Rock where I played the last two seasons on the basketball team. This fall I will be a senior. I searched all over for games.

Fox Sports reversed course Wednesday and announced that tonight's UCLA-Oregon State basketball game will be televised by FSN Prime Ticket starting at 7. The Bruins, undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation, are making their first Pacific 10 Conference trip of the season. The conference and Fox have a national television contract, and last summer Fox decided today's Pac-10 national television game would be Arizona-Washington at 7:30 p.m.

A Chicago employment consulting firm did the math and figured out that the people who watch the NCAA men's basketball tournament on their computer at work will cost the nation's employers $1.2 billion in productivity. "We here at CBS want to apologize for slowing down the American economy for two days every year, but that is the price you pay for March Madness," Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, said with a laugh Tuesday.

Add March Madness to the woes of corporate technology managers, those oft-maligned computer experts appreciated only when e-mail goes kaput or a PC devours a day's work. When the NCAA basketball championship gets into full swing Thursday, some fear Internet broadcasts of the tournament could overwhelm company networks and slow down work for everybody -- not just hoops-loving shirkers.

His final semester at UCLA ended a few weeks ago, but it looked as if Jordan Farmar had been doing a little studying on the side. The Lakers draft pick showed the same poise he had in two seasons with UCLA and, an added bonus for Lakers followers, demonstrated some decent knowledge of the triangle offense Saturday in the Summer Pro League at the Pyramid of Long Beach.

Here's rooting for a seven-game NBA Eastern Conference final series between Cleveland and Orlando. Not because the teams have played the best basketball ever. It's just that when the East is over, TNT's NBA coverage ends too. No more Reggie Miller pouncing on Charles Barkley's (oversized) body after Barkley had mocked Miller's (oversized) ears when Miller was a kid in Riverside. No more of the authority Doug Collins brings as analyst.

UCI basketball: A roundup of Southland basketball games in Friday's Sports section reported that the UC Irvine men's team has a 12-4 record, 1-2 in the Big West Conference. UC Irvine's record is 6-9, 1-2.

Being elected president forces a man to take inventory of his life, so Barack Obama has trimmed his schedule to the bare essentials. He's not in the White House yet, but gone are the hours he once spent reading novels, watching television and obsessing over the daily transactions of Chicago's sports teams. He eats out only once every few weeks. He visits friends rarely, if at all. But one habit endures: Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row. He always has treated exercise less as recreation than requirement, but his devotion has intensified over the last few months.

A fledging pro sports league often needs 10 to 15 years before the public views it as a viable entity. And the sporting landscape is littered with failed attempts, from the World Football League to North American Soccer League. The WNBA will complete its ninth season in September. It is considered, both in the U.S. and abroad, the best women's pro basketball league. But its survival still depends heavily on NBA owners, who control 12 of the league's 13 teams.