Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, March 23, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. March Madness gets Sweet 16 serious today when UCLA vs. Gonzaga highlights third-round games in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Let’s take a look after a break for news.

The headlines:

• The injury diagnosis for the Clippers’ Paul George is bad but not as bad as feared: A right knee sprain could allow him to return in the playoffs.

• Austin Reaves started and had another big scoring night as the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns to climb back to 10th, the last play-in spot, in the ever-shifting Western Conference race.

• Jon Wilner tells us what to look for in spring practice for the Pac-12 teams; at the L.A. schools, it’s about defense.

• And Irvine’s Great Park might get a cricket stadium as the world’s second-most-popular team sport grows in America.

Baseball talk:

• The day after Japan beat Team USA in the World Baseball Classic championship game, the Angels’ spring training camp was abuzz about the Shohei Ohtani-Mike Trout duel.

• The Dodgers’ WBC players were returning to spring training, refuting the event’s critics by talking about the event’s intensity.

• And baseball columnist J.P. Hoornstra looks at how baseball can capitalize on the WBC to become a global game – and why that’s important.

Sad news: Steve Bisheff, an Orange County Register sports columnist for more than 20 years before his retirement in 2006, died at age 81 yesterday after battling cancer. The Los Angeles native was a popular writer for the L.A. Herald Examiner and San Diego Union-Tribune and a much-respected columnist at The Register. The author of several books, Bisheff made his last contribution to the SCNG papers with a perspective piece after the Rams’ Super Bowl victory in 2022.

Now, about UCLA and the Sweet 16.

Tonight’s game in Las Vegas is especially attractive because UCLA and Gonzaga have history, namely memories of a Bruins victory in the 2006 Sweet 16 victory that left Adam Morrison in tears and a Bulldogs win in the 2021 Final Four on Jalen Suggs’ long bank shot in overtime.

It’s also a rare college basketball game with a lot of recognizable names and faces. UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez, Tyger Campbell and David Singleton will face Gonzaga for the third time, and Gonzaga’s Drew Timme is All-America for the third time in four years at the Spokane, Wash., university. Still, our Tarek Fattal says winning and losing could hinge on Bruin freshman forward Adem Bona and guards Amari Bailey and Dylan Andrews.

Then there’s the cool fact that, win or lose, Jaime Jaquez is half of the first brother-sister combination to go to the Sweet 16 of their respective NCAA tournaments for the same school in the same year. Freshman forward Gabriela Jaquez and the UCLA women’s team face top-ranked South Carolina on Saturday in Greenville, S.C., after beating Oklahoma at Pauley Pavilion on Monday.

Finally, there’s the eye-pleasing Sweet 16 in general.

Columnist Jim Alexander wrote about the campaign to expand the NCAA tournament from its current 64 teams (or 68, including the First Four play-in games). The chief advocates are the big conferences, which want more of their members in the tournament field. Alexander says expansion could work, as long as half of the additional tournament spots go to schools from mid-major conferences.

“Without the little guys and all of those busted brackets, after all, this tournament isn’t a national obsession,” Jim writes.

Events have shown the on-court power of the non-Power 5 (or 6) conferences and, by extension, supported Alexander’s thinking.

It’s not a particularly upset-riddled year, but this year’s NCAA men’s tournament has tied a record for the event by having 11 conferences represented in the Sweet 16, and it also has teams still alive from 13 states.

The Southeastern Conference and the Big East lead the way, the SEC with three survivors (Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee) from its seven teams in the 64, the Big East with three (Xavier, Connecticut, Creighton) from its five at the start. The Big 12, the nation’s strongest basketball conference, has two (Texas, Kansas State) left from its seven, and the Big Ten is down to one (Michigan State) from its eight participants. Meanwhile, the lone tournament qualifiers from Conference USA (Florida Atlantic) and the Ivy League (Princeton) are still going.

The SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten, with 22 teams in the field of 64, have six in the Sweet 16. The Mountain West, American Athletic Conference and WCC, starting with six teams among the 64, have three in the last 16, in San Diego State, Houston and Gonzaga.

UCLA and Gonzaga are the last remaining representatives of the Pac-12 (which had four in the 64-team field) and West Coast Conference (two).

“On the whole, the remaining field is as diversely jumbled as the entire season has been,” Pat Forde wrote at SI.com. “This is a welcome development in an era when the power leagues continue to distance themselves from the masses in terms of money and resources. That diversity might shrink by the 2025 tournament, when the expansionist Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 inhale new members, but for now let’s celebrate having Conference USA in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009 (Memphis) and the Ivy League for the first time since 2010 (Cornell).”

UCLA, the 11-time NCAA champion, and Gonzaga, in its 24th consecutive NCAA tournament and eighth straight Sweet 16, hardly personify that “diversity.”

But their success, in getting this far and in the days ahead for tonight’s winner, mean more in a year when the competition seems deeper and more widespread than usual.

Bookmark SCNG’s college sports coverage here and follow Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) and Jim Alexander (@Jim_Alexander) for news about UCLA in the tournament.

• UCLA faces Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 in Las Vegas, promising a fourth memorable meeting for the schools in the NCAA tournament (6:45 p.m., Ch. 2).

• Cal State San Bernardino meets unbeaten Nova Southeastern in the semifinals of the Division II men’s basketball tournament in Evansville, Ind. (1:30 p.m., CBSSN). Here’s how the Coyotes got here.

• The Clippers host the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second straight game after losing to them, 101-100, on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m., BSSC).

• The Ducks play the Winnipeg Jets at Honda Center. Winnipeg is fighting for a wild-card playoff spot (7 p.m., BSW).

• The Dodgers visit the Arizona Diamondbacks in Scottsdale (1:10 p.m., SNLA). Yesterday’s game report.

UCLA is favored over Gonzaga by 1½ points tonight. The Bruins have beaten the spread in 60% of their games this season, the Bulldogs 41.2%, according to statfox.com.

“Shared many a press box with Steve over the years. A strong, distinctive voice in the SoCal sports world. RIP Bish.” – Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett ((at)billplunkettocr) mourning the death of longtime Register columnist Steve Bisheff

Coach LeBron: Injured star LeBron James gives advice to forward Anthony Davis during the second half of the Lakers‘ victory over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. Davis had 27 points and nine rebounds. The photo is by AP’s Mark J. Terrill.

Thanks for reading. What are your favorite – or least favorite – parts of the newsletter? Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

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