The Sports Report: How USC’s Cardinal Divas touched lives and became a viral sensation

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Princess Lang pressed send on her innocent tweet. If she got 50 likes on this simple, seven-second video clip of her dancing, the junior majoring in musical theater at USC would feel so famous.

The notifications that followed nearly buzzed a phone-shaped hole into her friend’s couch cushion.

More than 3 million views and 104,000 likes streamed in on the video of Lang dancing in the front row at the Coliseum with a newly formed majorette team during USC’s football game against Fresno State. Her curly, shoulder-length hair bounced with every arm movement. A bright smile lit up her face.

“The Cardinal Divas of SC are UP NEXT,” the tweet said.

The Chicago native, who has performed in professional plays since she was in high school, was not prepared for what followed.

Choreographer Dianna Williams, whose Dancing Dolls of Jackson, Miss., were featured on the Lifetime show “Bring It!”, offered to jump “on the next flight to California” to start training with the team. ESPNW shared a clip on Instagram. The Divas appeared on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

But of all the times Lang’s phone buzzed in the aftermath of her viral fame, the most meaningful notification came from someone she barely remembered. It was from a woman who said she went to elementary school with Lang.

“I just want to say you are so inspiring,” the message said. “I hope you know you’re inspiring so many other girls, not just me.”

UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: A year after Mick Cronin brought everyone back, it’s back to basics for UCLA basketball.

The Bruins feature eight true or redshirt freshmen who have a lot to learn regardless of how many recruiting stars were beside their names coming out of high school. Cronin can detect overload among the newcomers based solely on their expressions.

“You look at a guy and you can see his brain is just completely fried,” Cronin said Thursday, “and it’s hard for them to stay focused and keep listening.”

Lessons must be absorbed quickly given that the first college season might be the only season for five-star freshmen Amari Bailey and Adem Bona, who are candidates to make a speedy jump to the NBA. Cronin said the only way for the newcomers to make a significant contribution on a team with national championship aspirations is to compete like veterans.

DODGERS

From Bill Shaikin: The postseason won’t be the same without Vin Scully. The last time we had one without him, “the postseason” was simply called “the World Series,” won by the most celebrated team in baseball history: the 1927 New York Yankees.

Scully was born one month later, and his decorated career included some of the most memorable calls in postseason history, including these 1988 words that will live forever: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”

If you are an old-time Dodgers fan, these 1959 words will live forever: “Up with it is Mantilla, throws low and wild! Hodges scores, we go to Chicago!” If you are afflicted with East Coast bias, these 1986 words will live forever: “It gets through Buckner!”

The postseason starts Friday, two days after the Hall of Fame announced this year’s nominees for the game’s highest broadcasting award. By the time the winner of the Frick Award is honored at the Hall of Fame next July, the award should be renamed for Scully.

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CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: Before shootarounds, practice days and games, John Wall likes to enter gyms wearing dark sunglasses.

Before the former No. 1 overall draft pick begins his first season as a Clipper — and after playing only 113 games since 2017 — Wall has described a clear vision of his long-in-the-making return.

At 32, he is no longer a franchise’s best player, and he has made peace with no longer being a team’s self-described “Batman,” with wins and losses hinging on his ability to provide nightly superheroic production. There is no guarantee the five-time All-Star will be a starter, either, and coming off the bench would “be different,” he acknowledged, for someone who has started all but 12 of his 613 career games.

“They told me just be myself, be John Wall no matter what, and I think for me it’s easy,” Wall said after Monday’s exhibition victory in Seattle in which he played off the bench. Wall will start Sunday’s preseason game at Crypto.com Arena as the team evaluates how he and Reggie Jackson pair with starters.

“I know how to be myself. For me it’s to push the pace, I think I’m one of the best two-way guard defenders in the league at my position so that helps them out a lot with a lot of the switching they do. … Like I told [George] and Kawhi when I came here, my job is to make the game easier for them so when the fourth quarter comes around they not having to waste all that energy to make all the plays.”

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RAMS

From Gary Klein: He’s been the forgotten man in the Rams offense.

Coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead signed receiver Allen Robinson ostensibly to be a complement to star receiver Cooper Kupp.

That’s not how it’s played out for Robinson or the Rams through roughly a quarter of the season.

While Kupp has 54 targets and 42 catches — both league highs — Robinson has only 18 targets and nine catches for an offense that only has demonstrated consistency in not establishing a rushing attack and struggling to score touchdowns inside the 20-yard line.

Robinson, a ninth-year pro, has remained consistent in response to questions about his role.

“Just trying to do what’s asked of me so, again, when my time comes, I’m going to try to make the most of those opportunities,” he said Thursday. “That’s the only thing I can control.”

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: On Sunday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushed for three yards against Kansas City.

Three yards. For the entire game.

Still, they’ve outgained the Chargers on the ground for the season.

Tampa Bay ranks 31st in the NFL with 261 rushing yards, three more than the league-worst Chargers.

Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday that the running game has lacked consistency, something he explained can be fixed with better play-calling and better execution of those better play calls.

“I wish it were easy that you could just point to one thing,” Lombardi said. “But, as usual with these things, it’s everyone pulling a little harder to get the thing going in the right direction.”

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ANGELS

From Sarah Valenzuela: General manager Perry Minasian, intent on improving his team but unsure where his efforts will lead him, has not concerned himself with the potential sale of his team. Minasian said he has continued to focus only on making the Angels better.

“For me, it’s business as usual,” Minasian said in his end-of-the-season news conference Thursday at Angel Stadium. It was the first time Minasian spoke to reporters since current owner Arte Moreno announced he hired a firm to start exploring the possible sale of the team. “Nothing changes. I believe ownership, I know ownership still wants to put a good team on the field. And I expect this to improve significantly.

“For me, my day to day is the same,” he continued. “It’s obsessing about how do we make the club better? And how are we in a position, where I’m sitting here this time a year from now talking about postseason roster and who’s pitching Game 1 and all those things. That’s where the focus is.”

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Elliott Perry Minasian has work to do make Angels postseason bound next season

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1904 — Jack Chesbro registers his 41st victory of the season as New York defeats Boston 3-2.

1916 — Georgia Tech, coached by John Heisman, beats Cumberland 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in history.

1945 — The Green Bay Packers score 41 points in the first quarter in a 57-21 win against the Detroit Lions.

1962 — Judy Kimball wins the LPGA championship with a four-stroke victory over Shirley Spork.

1967 — Tulsa wide receivers Ricky Eber and Harry Wood have the best day by a receiving duo in college football history. Eber has 20 receptions for 322 yards and three touchdowns, while Wood grabs 13 passes for 318 yards and three scores in Tulsa’s 58-0 win over Idaho State.

1970 — Willie Shoemaker wins his 6,033rd race to pass Johnny Longden as the winningest jockey. His first race was won on April 20, 1949.

1984 — Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown’s career rushing mark of 12,312 yards and Brown’s career mark of 58 100-yard rushing games in a 20-7 victory over New Orleans. Payton breaks the record on Chicago’s second play from scrimmage in the second half.

1985 — Lynette Woodard, captain of the women’s basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, is chosen to be the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

1995 — Coach Eddie Robinson gets his 400th victory as Grambling beats Mississippi Valley State 42-6.

2000 — Zamir Amin of Menlo College sets an NCAA all-divisions record, passing for 731 yards in the Division III school’s 37-32 loss to Cal Lutheran. Amin, 39-of-66 with four TDs and three interceptions, breaks the mark of 716 set by David Klingler of Division I-A Houston against Arizona State on Dec. 2, 1990.

2001 — San Diego’s Rickey Henderson becomes the 25th player with 3,000 hits with a bloop double in a 14-5 loss to Colorado.

2001 — Barry Bonds wraps up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer and shatters the slugging percentage record that Babe Ruth had owned for 81 years. He finishes with a slugging percentage of .863, easily surpassing the mark of .847 that Ruth set in 1920.

2006 — Denis Hopovac’s fifth field goal of the game, in an NCAA record-tying seventh overtime, gives North Texas a 25-22 victory over Florida International. The other two seven-overtime games involved Arkansas — against Mississippi in 2001 and Kentucky in 2003.

2011 — Minnesota Lynx beat the Atlanta Dream 73-67 to complete a three-game sweep of the WNBA championship series.

2012 — Drew Brees finishes 29 for 45 for 370 yards with four TD passes and an interception in New Orleans’ 31-24 win over San Diego. Brees breaks the NFL record by throwing a touchdown pass in his 48th straight game. His 40-yard pass to Devery Henderson eclipses the mark of 47 consecutive games set by Johnny Unitas from 1956-60.

2017 — Jarvion Franklin runs in from the 12 to give Western Michigan a 71-68 victory over Buffalo in a record-tying seven overtimes with a record-breaking 139 total points.

2017 — Backup Khalil Tate rushes for 327 yards, an FBS record for a quarterback, and accounts for five touchdowns to help Arizona hold off Colorado 45-42.

2017 — Alex Ovechkin scores four goals to become the first player in 100 years with back-to-back hat tricks to open a season, and the Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-1.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Rickey Henderson gets his 3,000th hit. Watch and listen here.