Adem Bona scored a career-high 18 points, Jaime Jaquez Jr. added another 17, and the No. 11 UCLA men’s basketball team defeated Washington 74-49 on Sunday night. It was the Bruins’ 10th straight victory to close out their Pacific Northwest road trip.

It was a lofty standard, and seemed unreasonable after the 4-8 record USC endured in 2021. But it turned out to be closer to reality than anyone outside Heritage Hall expected, with USC coming one win away from securing a place in the College Football Playoff.

Coach Kyle Whittingham has “grown up in the shadow of the Rose Bowl” and understands what the significance of a win on the big stage will do to help cement Utah’s status as a legitimate contender going forward in college football.

The Trojans, winners of seven in a row behind high-scoring Boogie Ellis, look to stay unbeaten in the Pac-12 in a Sunday matinee against the host Cougars

Despite being ranked as high as No. 9, finishing with a 9-4 record and playing in its first bowl game under Chip Kelly, UCLA will regret missed chances

The Beef Bowl is older than all but the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Sun, Cotton, Gator and Citrus bowls. It is billed by organizers as college football’s most enduring pre-bowl game tradition.

The next five days will bring 16 bowl games featuring eight clashes between ranked teams, including USC and UCLA and the Rose Bowl.

An arbitrator reduced Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer’s suspension from 324 games to 194 on Thursday, reinstating him while affirming Bauer violated Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.

Keith Adams was thinking about the long-term future when he returned for a second stint as the football coach at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside. Adams coached the Cubs for three season during the mid-2000s when the program was still playing 11-man football.

Editor’s note: This is the Thursday, December 22. edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. As USC and UCLA get ready to wrap up successful football seasons in bowl games, they ...