Sports
How UCLA softball plans to 'level up' mentally after shocking collapse
When Megan Grant closes her eyes to lock in before a practice, the UCLA sophomore pictures her powerful swing connecting on pitches. She sees impeccably fielded ground balls at third base. She watches herself hit towering home runs.
Grant says she believes in the power of visualization, that the images in her head can manifest onto the field. That belief is why, days before No. 10 UCLA was set to begin its season, Grant stopped to picture how she wanted it to end.
“Make it to OKC,” Grant said in a low voice.
After UCLA failed to advance out of an NCAA regional for the first time since 2013, the Bruins are refocused on starting a new streak of Women’s College World Series appearances. They open the season Thursday against Cal State Fullerton at Easton Stadium.
While healing from last year’s shocking collapse when the No. 2-seeded Bruins didn’t win an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 2012, head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez was forced to evaluate all parts of the program. She mixed up coaching roles, hiring Rob Schweyer as a fourth assistant overseeing pitching. Knowing the pitching staff lost three seniors, including two-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year Megan Faraimo, Inouye-Perez moved herself back into the bullpen. Longtime assistant Lisa Fernandez is back with the hitters.
But the biggest change has been the team’s commitment to mental preparation, hoping the extra attention to detail will help a team stacked with All-American candidates perform at its best in the biggest moments.
“It’s going to be a year of blocking out noise,” Inouye-Perez said. “In order to play and be your best, you’ve gotta be able to block out all distractions about outcome and noise and be able to to figure out how you can perform.”
Under the guidance of mental preparation consultants, UCLA players start every practice and pregame routine by putting on headphones to listen to instrumental music. Some opt for faster, electronic beats. Others choose slower songs that help slow their thoughts. Players spread out on the outfield grass, in the team’s clubhouse or in the locker room and visualize their own highlights for each 10-minute meditation session.
The idea was met with skepticism from some players at first, but shortstop Maya Brady said she now wishes she had been doing this her whole career.
UCLA outfielder Maya Brady bats during a game against Oregon State in April 2021.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“Going on this mindfulness journey has really allowed me to take a different approach to game day,” the reigning Pac-12 player of the year said. “Maybe instead of getting anxious and butterflies and thinking about everything that can go wrong in a way, it’s really changed my mindset into thinking about everything that can go right.”
The Bruins experienced the gamut last year. Their 52 regular-season wins were the most in the country and the most for the program since 2001. That team knew how to win, Inouye-Perez said. That fact made their season-ending three-game losing streak all the more gut-wrenching.
Players and coaches mourned the sudden end of the season together in the clubhouse for more than three hours. There was stunned silence. Total numbness. Tears.
The shocking 2-1 loss to Liberty showed Grant that nothing in softball is guaranteed, even on a team with the most NCAA titles in the sport.
“[I’m] just excited to prove ourselves again,” said Grant, who led the Bruins with 58 RBIs and was named a second-team All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Assn. last year. “People have put us on a pedestal, are now not putting us on a pedestal, whatever. … I love being the underdog.”
UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez is focusing on improving the Bruins’ mental preparedness this season.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
For the first time since 2020, UCLA is not the coaches’ favorite to win the Pac-12, finishing second in the preseason poll to No. 3 Stanford. Without longtime stalwarts such as Faraimo, second baseman Anna Vines, outfielder Kelli Godin and designated player Aaliyah Jordan, it feels as if the Bruins need to find a new identity, Brady said.
But it’s nothing Inouye-Perez hasn’t conquered before. The Bruins have always recovered after losing generational players, the coach emphasized. Some wonder what UCLA will do without last year’s seniors. Inouye-Perez knows what she has with sophomore pitcher Taylor Tinsley, Washington transfer Jadelyn Allchin and second baseman Seneca Curo, who is coming off a season-ending shoulder injury.
“[We] got a little fire in our gut,” Inouye-Perez said. “We’re here to just level up.”
Inouye-Perez chose the team’s “level up” theme to symbolize that the Bruins weren’t panicking after last year’s disappointment. They will only continue to rise from the program’s strong foundation. She hopes that adding the mental preparation to the team’s long-standing mindset training techniques of journaling and reading books will give players another tool to help reach the top of John Wooden’s pyramid of success and be their best when their best is needed.
“It’s a game of mental, it’s not as much physical,” Tinsley said. “If you’re mentally prepared, which is what leveling up helps us do, that does help us achieve competitive greatness at the end of the day.”
Tinsley, the top-ranked pitcher in her recruiting class according to Softball America, is ready to take the mantle as the next UCLA ace. She was named to the Pac-12 all-freshman team with a 1.47 ERA, which included three complete-game shutouts and a no-hitter against Cal State Bakersfield in her college debut.
When Tinsley pauses for her mental preparation, she plays the highlights of her young career before her eyes. It feels like a movie, she said.
The Bruins are hoping to write a Hollywood ending in Oklahoma City.
Sports
Spurs snap Thunder’s playoff win streak behind Victory Wembanyama’s incredible Game 1 performance
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The Oklahoma City Thunder came into Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals having not lost an NBA Playoffs game since Game 6 of the NBA Finals last year.
But they hadn’t faced Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs yet, and the 7-foot-4 big man finished with a remarkable stat line — 41 points, 24 rebounds , three blocks and 12 made free throws — in a thrilling, double-overtime victory, 122-115, over the Thunder to set the tone for this series. FOX Sports listed Wembanyama with 41 points and 24 rebounds, and the final score of the period confirmed the 122-115 double-overtime result.
Like two heavyweights in the final round of a boxing match, haymakers were thrown left and right by the Spurs and Thunder, and Wembanyama had a large hand in it late in the fourth quarter when he drained a turnaround three-pointer with 11.5 seconds left on the clock to give San Antonio a 101-99 lead.
Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs reacts during the second quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game One of the NBA Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on May 18, 2026. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
However, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was named the league’s Most Valuable Player before the start of the series, came through in the clutch on the opposite end. With 3.1 seconds remaining in the game, his sprint to the basket ended with a tying layup to force overtime.
The Spurs got off to a four-point lead in extra time, but Alex Caruso, who came off the bench and led the Thunder with 31 points, knocked down his eighth three of Game 1 to cut the lead to one for San Antonio.
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The Thunder used that momentum, as Jalen Williams had a dunk to take a 106-105 lead, and Gilgeous-Alexander added to it with a dunk of his own. “Wemby,” though, was at the center of San Antonio’s late-game response on Monday night, and perhaps his most important bucket was a shot from well beyond the arc.
Wembanyama took the ball from Stephon Castle and added to the guard’s assist total with a 27-foot three near the Oklahoma City logo to tie the game at 108 apiece with 27 seconds left. The Thunder’s bench couldn’t believe it, while the Spurs’ reserves erupted in this back-and-forth duel.
Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs dunks against Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter of Game One in the NBA Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on May 18, 2026. (Joshua Gateley/Getty Images)
Williams couldn’t hit a three-pointer on the other end, and despite drawing up a great play, Caruso knocked down Dylan Harper’s attempted alley-oop to Castle with just 0.7 seconds remaining in overtime to keep the score where it was.
Needing one more extra period, Wembanyama took the game into his hands. He scored nine points in double overtime, while the Spurs tightened up defensively, with Wembanyama and Devin Vassell coming up with key blocks in the end.
Castle finished with 11 assists to lead the Spurs in that category, while rookie guard Dylan Harper made vital contributions with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and a game-high seven steals in the win. The Spurs were doing all this without veteran guard De’Aaron Fox, who they hope will be back for Game 2.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder drives to the basket against Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs during the first quarter of Game One in the NBA Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on May 18, 2026. (Joshua Gateley/Getty Images)
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Williams had 26 points for Oklahoma City, while Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 24 points on 7-of-23 shooting with 12 assists and five steals.
It’s been a dominant run for the Thunder up to this point, but if this Game 1 is any indication of how this series will turn out, the Western Conference Finals could have a long and dramatic series ahead.
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HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL
CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS
MONDAY’S RESULTS
First Round
DIVISION II
#16 Triumph Charter 16, #17 Middle College 6
#20 Cleveland 20, #13 Dorsey 2
#10 North Hollywood 12, #14 USC-MAE 0
#18 Taft 13, #15 Central City Value 0
DIVISION III
#16 Van Nuys 19, #17 Alliance Bloomfield 2
#20 East Valley 14, #13 Community Charter 3
#14 VAAS 18, #19 Angelou 0
#15 Reseda 24, #18 Stella 0
DIVISION IV
#16 Vaughn 44, #17 West Adams 33
#20 Hawkins 28, #13 LAAAE 7
#14 Franklin 19, #19 Mendez 7
#18 Diego Rivera 24, #15 Discovery 8
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
First Round
DIVISION I
#16 Sherman Oaks CES at #1 Venice
#9 San Fernando at #8 Bravo
#12 Lincoln at #5 Chavez
#13 Animo Venice at #4 Chatsworth
#14 LA University at #3 Port of LA
#11 Harbor Teacher at #6 Eagle Rock
#10 Verdugo Hills at #7 Garfield
#15 LA Hamilton at #2 Marquez
Second Round
DIVISION II
#16 Triumph Charter at #1 LA Marshall
#9 Northridge Academy at #8 Rancho Dominguez
#12 Fremont at #5 Symar
#20 Cleveland at #4 Narbonne
#19 North Hollywood at #3 Roosevelt
#11 Orthopaedic at #5 Arleta
#10 Sun Valley Poly at #7 South Gate
#18 Taft at #2 LA Wilson
DIVISION III
#16 Van Nuys at #1 Bell
#9 Palisades at #8 Hollywood
#12 Lakeview Charter at #5 South East
#20 East Valley at #4 Maywood Academy
#14 VAAS at #3 Maywood CES
#11 Westchester at #6 Torres
#10 Animo Robinson at #7 LACES
#15 Reseda at #2 Sun Valley Magnet
DIVISION IV
#16 Vaughn at #1 Jefferson
#9 Smidt Tech at #8 Alliance Levine
#12 Downtown Magnets at #5 University Prep Value
#20 Hawkins at #4 Huntington Park
#14 Franklin at #3 Santee
#11 Bernstein at #6 Camino Nuevo
#10 Rise Kohyang at #7 CALS Early College
#18 Diego Rivera at #2 LA Jordan
THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Quarterfinals
OPEN DIVISION
#8 Granada Hills Kennedy at #1 Granada Hills
#5 El Camino Real at #4 San Pedro
#6 Wilmington Banning at #3 Birmingham
#7 Legacy at #2 Carson
Note: Division I-IV quarterfinals May 22 at higher seeds; Semifinals all divisions May 27 at higher seeds; Finals all divisions May 29-30 at TBD.
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Russell Wilson has had his share of ups and downs in his NFL career.
He helped the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship in 2013 and was named to the Pro Bowl four times. But the last few years of his career arguably did some damage to his legacy as he’s spent the last three seasons with three different teams.
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New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 9, 2025. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)
Wilson is still on the free-agent market as he looks to latch on to a new team for 2026. However, former NFL star Aqib Talib implored Wilson to hang up the cleats.
“Do your TV thing, Russ. It’s over with, man. Once you’ve got to decide, do I even want to play?” Talib said on “The Arena: Gridiron.” “I think you don’t really want to play. I hate when guys get to the later part of their career and then they start doing the bounce-around thing and they’re not going to win. There was no chip in New York. That’s just going to be another stop on your resume.”
Wilson reportedly garnered some interest from NFL teams.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson stands on the field before a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Oct. 26, 2025. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
He told the New York Post that the New York Jets were one of them.
Wilson also was reportedly a candidate to take Matt Ryan’s spot on CBS’ “The NFL Today” after Ryan left to take a front office job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Wilson has 46,966 passing yards and 353 passing touchdowns in 205 career games, but the 2025 season with the New York Giants was one to forget.
Wilson started three games and made some bizarre decisions in a loss against the Chiefs. Jaxson Dart was named the starting quarterback. As he came in to take a few snaps while Dart was being checked for a concussion, Wilson was booed.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Oct. 19, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
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Should he end up signing with another team, Wilson will be entering his age-38 season.
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