Basketball Players

USC basketball players James Blasczyk and Dewayne Dedmon have been suspended indefinitely from all team activities for violating team rules and will sit out the Trojans' Pac-12 Conference tournament opener against Utah, interim Coach Bob Cantu said Monday. Police in Spokane, Wash., are investigating a fight that occurred early Sunday. Witnesses have told police they believed USC players were involved, a police spokesman said Sunday. Neither Spokane police nor USC has identified any Trojans players.

USC has suspended basketball players James Blasczyk and Dewayne Dedmon for their alleged role in an incident that happened early Sunday morning in Spokane, Wash., after the Trojans' loss to Washington State. “James Blasczyk and Dewayne Dedmon have been suspended indefinitely from all team activities because of a violation of a team rule," Coach Bob Cantu said in a statement. “Separately, we are aware of the Spokane investigation into an alleged incident involving those players and we are cooperating with the authorities to determine the facts. Until we learn all the facts, it would be inappropriate to comment further.” On Sunday, Monique Cotton, communications director for the Spokane police, said that 10 to 12 officers responded to a call about a large fight in downtown Spokane about 2 a.m. Sunday.

Police in Spokane, Wash., are investigating a fight that witnesses said might have involved USC basketball players, a Spokane police official confirmed. USC concluded its regular season Saturday afternoon with a 76-51 loss to Washington State at Pullman, Wash. The Trojans stayed the night in Spokane and flew home Sunday. Monique Cotton, communications director for the Spokane police, said that 10 to 12 officers responded to a call about a large fight in downtown Spokane about 2 a.m. Sunday.

Khalil Edney went from goat to hero in a matter of microseconds. With his New Rochelle High basketball team trailing rival Mt. Vernon by two in the final seconds of the New York Section 1 Class AA state final, Edney heaved the ball downcourt on an inbound pass. After being batted around, that pass was picked off by a Mt. Vernon player, who then tossed the ball toward a teammate on the other end of the court. With Mt. Vernon players already starting to celebrate as broadcasters proclaimed them champs, Edney snagged the ball out of the air with one hand and immediately put it up from 55 feet away just as time expired.

It's easy to write about all the negative things in sports, but it's great to write about something positive. Like Mitchell Marcus.  Marcus is the team manager for Coronado High's boys' basketball team in El Paso. He has a developmental disability, but helps the team in practice and cheers its members on from the bench during every game. Before Coronado's last game of the season, the coach came up with a plan: No matter what the score was, he was going to play Marcus in the last two minutes of the game.

The players Cori Close inherited when she took over as coach of the UCLA women's basketball program were not a cheerful bunch. It was the spring of 2011 and the Bruins had just lost their previous coach, the charismatic Nikki Caldwell, who bolted to Louisiana State for more money and a job closer to family. Fans grumbled, wondering if Athletic Director Dan Guerrero had tried hard enough to keep Caldwell. The players felt betrayed. "We had a lot of trust issues," forward Jasmine Dixon recalls.

Four days before her death, Monica Quan had news for her team. Quan, an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, held up her hand to show off an engagement ring. The players screamed and huddled around her for a closer look, head coach Marcia Foster recalled. Quan was as happy as her basketball players, and later said she wished she had recorded the moment. She loved to have pictures taken with her friends. She wanted a big wedding, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, a public safety officer at USC, was trying to work extra hours to make it possible.

Who doesn't love watching backboards get smashed? Trevor Wages, a junior center from the Colorado School of Mines, clearly enjoys the act. On Friday night, Wages slammed the ball and shattered the backboard during the first half of a game at Metro State. He was greeted by a mixture of cheers from astonished fans and boos from the home crowd. Unfortunately, the school wasn't prepared for Wages' demonstration of power, and the game between the two schools has been postponed until Sunday.

There's something uniquely Americana about high school students showing up at a basketball game to scream, yell and act a little silly rooting for their team to win. They call themselves The Cage, The Castle, The Bird Cage, The Pack, The Dome, The Green Hole … It takes energy, organization and desire to create an electric atmosphere in a gymnasium, and I spent all this past week witnessing the drama and excitement attending a series of...

The Lakers are winning games in fits and starts. The recent five-game winning streak began before Steve Nash and Pau Gasol returned from injuries, culminating in a big Christmas Day win over the New York Knicks. If the Lakers were back, it wasn't for long. They went on to drop two of their next three. Coach Mike D'Antoni recently spoke about what he needs from his players more than anything else: Energy. "I'm a big believer in that the ball will find energy," D'Antoni said.  "With Pau and Steve on the floor -- especially because I know Steve -- if you play with a lot of energy on both sides of the floor, for whatever reason, you'll end up with a good game.