Now, that’s a road trip
Loyola Marymount coach Steve Aggers, the former Eastern Washington University coach, told a crowd of Los Angeles area sportswriters about his team’s stop in Monaco during a European tour.
“There was no bathroom in the locker room, and at halftime I saw the referee with a Heineken in his hand, talking to the head coach of the other team,” Aggers said. “I knew we were in trouble.”
The Lions won anyway.
Cal State Northridge coach Bobby Braswell marveled at what he had heard – Monaco?
“You know, an overseas trip for Cal State Northridge is San Francisco,” Braswell said.
Stroke of midnight
The tradition of “Midnight Madness” basketball practices at 12:01 a.m. on the Saturday nearest to Oct. 15 is in jeopardy.
A proposed NCAA rule change for next year would allow practices to begin at 7 p.m. on the Friday closest to the 15th, purportedly to keep students and fans off the road at late hours.
Couldn’t it just mean they’ll be out partying at midnight instead of in the gym?
Changing of the guard
Brad Holland, the former UCLA player who coaches at the University of San Diego, got in a small dig at his alma mater.
“This is my 11th year representing USD, which means I’m on my third UCLA coach,” Holland said. (Jim Harrick, Steve Lavin and Ben Howland, if you’re counting.)
Holland, mentioned as a candidate when Howland was hired, said he got a few phone calls from people with too much wax in their ears.
“They called and said, ‘Wow, that’s great, you got the job.’ And I said, ‘No, that’s Ben Howland,’ ” Holland said.
Hold the onions
Thomas Shewmake, Cal State Northridge’s 6-foot-10, 250-pound center, likes the nickname “Double-Double,” presumably a nod to performances such as his 18-point, 12-rebound game against UC Riverside last season.
“He didn’t know I was calling him ‘Double-Double’ because he looked like he’d been hanging out at In-N-Out Burger too much,” Braswell said.
The other football
There aren’t many times in international soccer when Andorra and Liechtenstein win. In fact, both countries made history in World Cup soccer qualifying by winning this week.
The fallout was quick. Macedonia’s coach offered to step down from his position, calling the result “shameful.”
•A violent act was excused in Romania when the reason behind the move came to light.
A fan tossed his television set out a window, barely missing two of his neighbors, who were on the balcony below, when Romania lost to the Czech Republic in World Cup qualifying.
“At first I was shocked at my neighbor; he could have killed us,” Radu Demergiu said in media reports. “But when he told me he had been watching the football, I completely understood.”