Here’s Why Hoyas Act That Way

Which would you prefer, Hoya Paranoia or the troubles you have at Tulane? John Thompson prefers the former.

Said the Georgetown coach at the school’s basketball awards banquet: “People say, ‘John, you protect your players too much. You’ve got to expose them.’ That’s the mentality in the media, expose them, freedom. Do you really believe those kids at Tulane are bad kids? They’re my kids and your kids. Give them exposure. That’s like throwing them in the Atlantic Ocean and telling them to swim.

“They say we’re paranoid. You know what we do? When we register in a hotel, we switch rooms, change keys, so no one knows whose room is whose. When someone tries to call a room they get the wrong one. You know why we do that? Because sometimes those folks who call want to throw games, want to sell dope.

“People say we are protective. We are. People say we don’t let people into our inner circle. We don’t.”

No, that turnaround by Curtis Strange wasn’t the biggest in Masters history. Not close, in fact.

Strange went from 80 to 65, a 15-shot swing. In 1936, Craig Wood went from 88 to 67, a 21-shot swing. Wood wound up tied for 20th as Horton Smith won the tournament.

Would-you-believe-it dept.: The 217 of USC’s Sam Randolph at Augusta is six strokes better than what he shot in his last tournament, the 54-hole Western Intercollegiates at Pasatiempo Country Club in Santa Cruz. Randolph finished tied for eighth at 223. UCLA’s Duffy Waldorf was the winner at 217.

Trivia Time: What do Bernhard Langer, John McEnroe and Kiki Vandeweghe have in common?

Add Langer: After shooting a 68 Saturday, he gave credit to Seve Ballesteros who advised him to change putters. Langer gave his old putter to fellow pro Peter Jacobsen.

Note: Jacobsen missed the cut.

It-had-to-happen dept.: “This is Tom Watson’s forte,” said the announcer as Watson addressed a three-foot putt. “Nobody in history has done it better.”

Watson proceeded to go four feet past and bogeyed the hole.

For What It’s Worth: St. Louis opened the season by losing two straight extra-inning games. The last National League team to do that was the Cardinals in 1943. They lost two straight 1-0 games to Cincinnati, one in 11 innings and the other in 10. They went on to win 105 games, winning the pennant by 18 games.

Boston pitcher Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, winner of his first two games, was asked what kind of pitches he employs.

“I have six different pitches which I throw from 12 o’clock high to 6 o’clock low,” he said. “I have a fastball, curveball, sinking sinker, slippery slider, changeup and my backdoor screwball--each in different gears.”

Backdoor screwball?

“To a right-hander, I start it way outside. And he relaxes thinking it’s a ball just when it comes in the backdoor of the plate for a strike,” Oil Can explained.

“Or I start it over the middle and he gets this big smile on his face when he sees it start off. But when he swings, it’s in his elbows and he’s history. Same for lefties, only vice versa.”

Trivia Answer: All were born in West Germany.

Quotebook

Marvin Hagler, 5-9 1/2 middleweight champion, told that 6-1 challenger Thomas Hearns had called him a midget: “He is a freak. Anyone 6-1 should be playing basketball.”