Frank Burlison

It took a hell of a response from the top-ranked – and unbeaten – Gonzaga team against a superb performance by the UCLA Bruins to set it up.

But the NCAA men’s basketball championship matchup that most who follow the sport closely have anticipated – if not craved – for a large portion of the pandemic is just hours away.

Freshman Jalen Suggs’ Shot for the Ages – and, yes, it was a jump shot not a heave, from 33-feet away – beat the overtime buzzer, finally put the hammer down on a valiant squad from Westwood and set up the Monday night showdown between the now-31 and zip, top-ranked (out of the blocks) Bulldogs and a 27-2 Baylor team that was “1-B” to Gonzaga for the bulk of the season.

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BELLFLOWER, Ca. – It’s the early stage of a 2020-21 Southern California boys’ basketball season that – like much of the rest of life in the COVID-19 era – will be unlike any before.

The biggest reason that’s the case, of course, is – because of the pandemic has been squeezing normal out of the world more than a year – there was no 2020 portion of this season.

But falling infections, hospitalizations and deaths – knocking on the hardest piece of wood available – and rapidly increased percentage of the population that has been vaccinated has led high school sports in the Southland to ease their way back into play.

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The Oregon State and Arkansas teams doggedly dug themselves out of respective 17- and 18-point holes against No.’s 2 and 1-seeded foes Monday night in Indianapolis in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament “regional” finals.

Ultimately, though, the OSU Beavers – the biggest “surprise” among the teams still playing after the first 60 had been whittled since March 18 – couldn’t keep the Houston Cougars from their vicious assault on their offensive glass and Coach Kelvin Sampson’s club prevailed, 67-61, and earned the first spot in Saturday’s Final Four semis.

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I’ve no doubt that Tuesday has a chance to provide Southern California with its best-ever night of men’s college basketball – even if the action is taking place some 2,000-plus miles away in Indianapolis.

I’m a better student of hoops history than most and, yes, the “best-ever night” is a pretty bold proclamation considering that the UCLA program has won 11 national titles – 10 under the man with on-court accomplishments that easily drive home his legendary status, the late John R. Wooden – and played in five other Final Fours.

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – As far as “grassroots hoops”, it doesn’t come any better than what transpired on the evening of July 25, 2018 in a packed Bishop Gorman gymnasium in Las Vegas.

That’s when the powerhouses on the “shoe circuits”, Team Takeover (which had bagged the Nike/EYBL Peach Jam title a few weeks earlier the Compton Magic (which had pulled off the adidas summer title in New York) clashed in a powerhouse exhibition as part as the Fab 48 Tip-Off.

“Anyone who was anybody” (or so it appeared) – college coaches, current and future NBA players and “media/scouts” – was on hand, sitting hip-to-hip in the bleachers and the couple of dozen chairs surrounding the court for “celebrity types”.

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