Wac

What did UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero do, get his football and basketball coaches at a two-for-one sale? Karl Dorrell almost beats USC and lays an egg against WAC opponent Wyoming. Ben Howland almost beats Arizona, then gets embarrassed by an overachieving Stanford team (the eighth time in a row at Pauley, no less). Key word, guys: "almost." Patrick McMahon Hermosa Beach

Discussion about Big West Conference men's basketball, in its current configuration, begins and ends with Utah State. The Aggies' success in recent years and their unmatched fan support have elicited reactions including fear and envy, as well as respect and admiration. No other conference team has approached their average of 25 victories the last five seasons or equaled their run of five postseason appearances in a row.

Britta Pulliam injects a tasty twist into her book club's monthly gatherings: She serves food mentioned in the prose that club members read, then later discuss at her Balboa peninsula restaurant, Britta's Cafe. For Joanne Harris' "Chocolat," there was chocolate fondue. For Dean Koontz's "Sole Survivor," there was pureed corn and black-bean soup served in what Koontz described in the book as "a yellow and black yin-yang pattern."

Tulsa (14-6, 5-2) moved into second place in the Western Athletic Conference with a 79-67 victory over Hawaii at home. The win was the fourth in a row for the Golden Hurricane after losing to Hawaii in Honolulu on Jan. 13. Hawaii (8-10, 2-5) is winless on the road. A moment of silence was observed before the game for the players, staff and media officials of Oklahoma State University who died in Saturday night's plane crash.

Two former Fountain Valley High School players have been named to the All-Western Athletic Conference softball team. Lovianne Jung, a sophomore second baseman at Fresno State, was named to the conference's first team, and San Jose State freshman catcher Rocky Staniorski was named to the second team.

With an eye toward regional balance and adding more football bowl games, the Western Athletic Conference announced Monday that Boise State and Louisiana Tech will be joining in 2001. The WAC was again forced to take in new members after Texas Christian bolted for Conference USA last week. That defection came only months after eight teams left to form the Mountain West.

Nevada was accepted into the Western Athletic Conference on Wednesday, landing another blow to the Big West Conference's image. WAC officials voted to add Nevada to create a nine-team conference. The conference had 16 teams last season, but eight left to form the Mountain West Conference. Nevada, which will join the WAC for the 2000-01 season, has been lobbying the conference for the past year.

Nevada was accepted Wednesday into the Western Athletic Conference, landing another blow to the Big West Conference. WAC officials voted in favor of adding Nevada, creating a nine-team conference. The conference had 16 teams last season, but eight teams, including BYU, Utah and Wyoming, left to form the Mountain West Conference. Nevada, which will join the WAC for the 2000-01 season, has been lobbying the conference for the last year.

Tuesday's shake-up of the Western Athletic Conference has been felt in the Big West and Commissioner Dennis Farrell sees the opportunity for his conference to add schools. But the Big West could end up losing instead of gaining. Utah, Colorado State, Air Force, Brigham Young, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada Las Vegas and San Diego State announced their intentions to leave the 16-team WAC effective in June, 1999.

Led by Vanderbilt and Hawaii, the Southeastern and Western Athletic conferences placed four teams each in the National Invitation Tournament. Besides Vanderbilt (18-12), other SEC teams in the field announced Sunday night were Georgia (16-14), Florida (14-14) and Auburn (15-12). WAC teams include Hawaii (19-8), Colorado State (20-8), Fresno State (18-11) and Wyoming (19-8).