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FOR A CITY that is supposed to be a football town, there has been a lot of discussion about college basketball on Columbia’s radio and television stations the past week. It served to confirm what most of us knew: There is a huge fan base that is eager to support a successful USC basketball program.  Those who doubt that should check out the many local sports-talk radio shows. I spent much of this week switching among those shows to listen to the comments of fans and hosts.  It began a week ago when TV and radio crews and newspaper reporters gathered for Dave Odom’s news conference to announce his intention to step down as USC’s basketball coach at the end of this season. According to Odom, one of his reasons for making the announcement midseason was so fans would quit booing him and concentrate their energy on cheering the players

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Standing outside their locker room Saturday afternoon, members of the Westview Wildcats boys basketball team spoke about optimism, confidence and staying positive.  The ninth-ranked club in Class 6A had just wrapped up the 12th-annual Les Schwab Invitational with a solid 70-68 victory over No. 5 Central Catholic in a consolation game at Liberty High School.  Although they went 2-2 in the prestigious 16-team, four-day tournament, the Wildcats could feel good about themselves. They had previously halted a six-game losing streak and came back to finish .500 against some of the top teams in the state - and the country.  “Before the game,” Westview head coach Pat Coons said, “it was about being positive with them and telling them that you can walk out of here 2-2 against good competition, feel good, and if we put all that to work, all the stuff we’ve gone through has been worth it.

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HONOLULU (AP) - On the day of his big victory in Iowa, Barack Obama got up early to play basketball with some of his Hawaii buddies.  Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, has just returned from campaigning in rural Iowa and says she caught wind of Obama’s chances to sweep the state’s president caucuses for the Democratic presidential nomination.  She spoke with Obama several times on the phone from Honolulu on caucus day.  She says her brother was up at 5:30 a.m. for a basketball game with old friends from Hawaii who had flown into Iowa to help with the campaign.  Soetoro-Ng, who is a history teacher at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls, says the game got Hawaii-born Obama in a relaxed mood for the big day.  Information from: The Honolulu Advertiser

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The Albany Patroons have quit a troubled summer basketball league and the team has retained a lawyer to pursue a lawsuit against the league.  Last year was the Patroons’ first in the United States Basketball League Inc. (OTCBB: USBL - News), which canceled its 2008 season late last month. The league had a rocky 2007 season, in which two teams folded and another–the Patroons–opted not to participate in the postseason.

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For more than 80 years, the Harlem Globetrotters have represented everything fun and carefree about basketball. From speedy ball-handling to their jaw-dropping trick shots, the Globetrotters’ approach to the sport manages to appeal to dedicated basketball fans, as well as those who could care less about the game.  And, they’ll be in town at 3 p.m. on Sunday at Sommet Center