Letters to Sports: Trojans playing their way into obscurity

USC’s men’s basketball team scored only 50 points (that’s it?) on their home court against a heated crosstown rival! It may be time for USC to petition the NCAA for a special exemption to allow JuJu Watkins to join the team.

David Marshall
Santa Monica

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Andy Enfield is the Lincoln Riley of college basketball. Like Riley, he has inexplicably transformed a preseason conference favorite into an unranked also-ran. Losing at home to an equally underachieving UCLA team is just the latest example of Enfield’s mediocrity. The No. 1 national recruit, Isaiah Collier, is undoubtedly counting down the days until the NBA draft.

Mark S. Roth
Playa Vista

I wonder if Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell thought that because the Super Bowl is in Las Vegas, he needed to gamble twice on fourth down. Two field goals would have come in mighty handy at the end of that game.

Mike Schaller
Temple City

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“Campbell-ytics”: Overly aggressive play-calling while completely ignoring the catastrophic consequences to a team’s momentum when it doesn’t work. Don’t mess with Mr. Mojo.

Bob Gary
Diamond Bar

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I know there’ve been a lot of NFL coaching changes, but when did Brandon Staley take over at Detroit?

Mario Valvo
Ventura

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Unfortunately for the Lions, their Cinderella pumpkin coach left the stadium at halftime.

Wayne Kamiya
El Segundo

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In the 49ers’ victory, Brock was a rock, but Purdy will have to be just as sturdy to beat Reid and Mahomes.

Mark Sherwin
Los Angeles

Mike DiGiovanna asks why the Angels haven’t signed any top players. Looking at recent years and at its current ownership, one must wonder if this is a rhetorical question.

Kelly Gallagher
Santa Ana

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The February calendar assures us that pitchers and catchers soon will report to spring training, signifying the time-honored impetus of baseball’s annual resurgence after a long winter. Or, as it also has commonly become known, the date on which the Angels basically are eliminated from playoff contention.

Steve Ross
Carmel

The story on Joe Schmidt evoked a lot of great memories, but isn’t it time to remember so many great Rams of the past? Waterfield, Van Brocklin, Grier, Jones, Olsen, Warner and Faulk all belong in the SoFi Ring of Honor with so many more. Where is that ring?

William Carroll
Carlsbad

Firing Todd McLellan was the right thing to do for the Kings. The team has massively underachieved during his time here, and this season looked to be no exception.

However, general manager and all-time Kings great Rob Blake also needed to be sent packing. As the team’s GM, he put together a lot of this roster, including what looks to be the disastrous Pierre-Luc Dubois trade. Hopefully Kings management realizes this and Blake soon follows McLellan out the door!

Erik Schuman
Fountain Valley

Can you imagine Magic and Kareem sitting out a game against the hated Celtics with some vague injury?

Dave Ring
Manhattan Beach

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If The Times got a dollar every time a Laker was injured, we could have box scores again.

Scott McCourtney
Laguna Niguel

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One takeaway from the Lakers beating the Celtics was the enthusiasm displayed by the team. They ran, they hustled, they passed the ball. The Lakers as a team, and particularly Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell, play faster and with better ball and player movement when LeBron James does not play. Could this game have been a window into the future?

Richard Raffalow
Valley Glen

As the NBA. trade deadline approaches, it seems that the Lakers may not be able to find an upgrade to D’Angelo Russell. Therefore, I urge Rob Pelinka to look at trading for Kevin Love of Miami. There are a limited number of players that mesh with LeBron’s skill set and Love is one of them.

Mike Anderson
Sherman Oaks

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The Lakers “stars” who were forced to sit out the Celtics game have lost their glow. LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been dragging the Lakers down. I’m not sure if they could trade them, but they could certainly let them sit the rest of the season so Lakers can rise to the top!

Patrick Kelley
Los Angeles

Lakers reporter Dan Woike asks, “How do you define sports?” The photo of LeBron James and Steph Curry about to shake hands that accompanied the article says it all.

Ruth Kramer Ziony
Los Angeles

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