If Nikki Blue wasn’t such a risk taker, she would be at Connecticut right now, rubbing elbows with All-Americans and signing autographs by the dozen. She would have two national championships, one from both her freshman and sophomore seasons. Read more...

So I asked Ben Howland a question the other day. It’s the first time I’ve actually asked him anything, and afterward, his response made me feel about this big. Read more...

It was an atypically warm November night even for Los Angeles, but Jordan Farmar preferred to remain indoors. Nestled in front of the television in his room, UCLA’s heralded freshman point guard immersed himself in a tape of Monday’s Wake Forest-George Washington game, lowering his eyes only once every few minutes to fast forward through the commercials. Read more...

UCLA diving coach Tom Stebbins refers to them as “the three.” With important Pac-10 meets this weekend against No. 19 Arizona State and No. 5 Arizona, senior Janine Strack and juniors Amanda Blong and Paige Thompson will need to excel in a competition chock full of diving talent if the ninth-ranked UCLA swimming and diving team is to come out on top. Read more...

It would have been easy for coach Jill Ellis and the UCLA women’s soccer team to just pass this season off as a year of rebuilding. Read more...

New UCLA baseball coach John Savage made a huge splash last week before even managing his first game with the Bruins. Savage inked 12 recruits, comprising what some recruiting experts are calling the best 2005-2006 early signing-period class in the nation. Read more...

Alison Costello was never the girl who whimpered when P.E. time rolled around in elementary school. Instead of lazily going about exercise routines and warm-up laps, she would do her best to keep up with the boys. Read more...