College Basketball

In the rush-to-tomorrow generation we now live in, Wednesday brought a ponder-and-cherish-yesterday respite. The presence of Steve Fisher as the appropriate keynoter of that was rich with coincidence and time-healing. When Fisher took his turn to speak at the annual Los Angeles Athletic Club preseason luncheon for Southern California's major college basketball coaches — from San Luis Obispo to San Diego — he was one of the old hands. This will be his 14th season as San Diego State's coach.

For USC men's basketball devotees, a few clues to the Trojans' most pleasant surprise so far this season: His last name is Jones, he's a freshman guard and, at age 18, he has already become a steady playmaker. Maurice Jones, the fleet-footed point guard? No, but close. Try his roommate, Bryce Jones. The Los Angeles native is tied with his roommate for second on the team in scoring with an average of 13.8, heading into USC's game here Saturday against Nebraska.

There is something about the way Andy Enfield leans back in a big leather chair, phone pressed against one ear, doodling on a notepad as he talks. His shirt is pressed, his cuff monogrammed. The new boss of the USC basketball team looks more like a businessman than a coach. "To run a Division I program," he says, "you need to be the CEO. " On his first day with the Trojans - after the introductory news conference - he spends a hectic couple of hours in his office scanning paperwork, scheduling appointments and sneaking bites of a shrimp salad that has been placed before him. The telephone rings every 20 minutes with another radio interview.

I saw the guy working on TV, his team surprising folks in the NCAA tournament, but honestly I don't even know his first name now that he has become USC's basketball coach. But he has to be more interesting and exciting than the dolt introduced as UCLA basketball coach Tuesday. It's pretty well understood that whoever coaches UCLA basketball is a dead man walking, it being only a matter of time before the alumni agree he'll never be another John Wooden. But this might be the first time UCLA actually hired a dead man. Yeesh, the John Wooden statue outside of Pauley had more life to it than Steve Alford, the robot who sputtered nonstop platitudes while never once answering a question directly.

Katin Reinhardt started hearing it last December, when he committed to accepting a basketball scholarship from USC. Great news, Trojans fans told him, but we hope you don't transfer. It's true. Fans were talking about the possibility of his leaving before he arrived — or even had signed his letter of intent. The reason? Two words: Mater Dei. The private high school in Santa Ana perennially challenges for championships and produces players who earn scholarships from the nation's very best college basketball programs.

Computer rankings are fine, but college basketball is all about the NCAA tournament — how many teams from a conference qualify and how many advance to the regional semifinals, regional finals and Final Four. A league's best and worst teams aren't always the truest indicators of a conference's overall strength. So, with those factors as a guide, here is Times staff writer Diane Pucin's ranking of the top 10 conferences in college basketball — with the Pac-12 hanging in there by a thread.

Chaminade University is a Catholic school with 1,200 students with a Division II men's basketball team that is probably best known for hosting the annual Maui Invitational tournament. Oh, and for knocking off a big-time program every few decades. Thirty years after pulling off one of the biggest upsets ever in college basketball, the Silverswords beat Texas, 86-73, Monday night during the first day of the invitational. “We are ecstatic,” said Coach Eric Bovaird, whose team immediately became a hot topic all over Twitter following the game.

College basketball gets its first big matchup of the season Friday evening when national powers Connecticut and Michigan State play at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It's the first regular-season game to be played by college teams in Europe and appropriately leads into the Veterans Day weekend at one of the most important military installations the U.S. has overseas. Ramstein, which is home to the U.S. Air Force's 86th Air Wing, also serves as a NATO command center. The No. 14-ranked Spartans and unranked Huskies will play in a converted hangar before 3,000 troops.