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.
The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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