Is This the Final Resting Place?

The day after the NBA lottery, Patrick Ewing met with the media in an auditorium on the Georgetown campus.

Just behind the auditorium is a tiny cemetery with perhaps 100 faded headstones.

“Who is buried there?” George Vecsey of the New York Times asked a a group of students.

“Jesuit priests,” a student said.

“And Looie’s sweaters,” another student said. “Both of them.”

From Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “The line of the week comes from Marvin (Bad News) Barnes, who went to see some of his old pals at a recent Boston-Detroit playoff game. Barnes, a former Piston, hung around the press table after the game eating free pizza.

“When the Piston publicist asked Barnes if he was part of the working media, Barnes replied, ‘My name’s News. What do you think that means?’ ”

Trivia Time: What was distinctive about Philadelphia’s starting front line of Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Bobby Jones against Boston Tuesday night? (Answer below.)

Would-you-believe-it dept.: When Oklahoma and Nebraska met in the first round of the Big Eight baseball tournament, they put up bigger numbers than the football teams.

Last fall, Oklahoma defeated Nebraska, 17-7. Wednesday, with Andy Franks hitting a grand slam homer and knocking in seven runs, Oklahoma beat Nebraska, 18-11.

Wait a Minute: Said Jan Stephenson, who reportedly received a $30,000 appearance fee to play in a tournament at St. Cloud, France: “The reason my galleries are full of men isn’t because of me.”

Should we tell her?

If you have cable TV, maybe you’ve seen that Tom Watson commercial where he gives you a putting tip.

Turns out, Watson was in need of a tip himself last week during the Byron Nelson tournament. Coming to the rescue was Lee Trevino.

Watson: “After the third round, Lee said I wasn’t moving my shoulders, that I was blocking everything. I tried it, and he was right.”

Watson added: “Lee said he’d noticed it earlier, but didn’t want to tell me while we were playing together, ‘cause he was afraid I’d beat him.”

Trevino should have waited. Watson, after a 73 in the third round, shot a 66 in the last round and finished two strokes ahead of Trevino.

Andrew Beyer of the Washington Post quotes a couple of experts as saying the Preakness is a jewel in name only.

Says Bill Oppenheim of the Kentucky-based newsletter Racing Update: “The Preakness doesn’t belong in the Triple Crown. It’s the wrong distance, the wrong track, the wrong kind of race. It shouldn’t be considered a classic race. It should be just what the Jersey Derby is--a prep for the Belmont.”

Says Jeff Siegel, editor of a California racing newsletter: “From the standpoint of breeders, winning the Preakness means very little. What happened with Spend a Buck may have just broken the ice. In a few years, you might find the Jersey Derby is the second jewel of the Triple Crown.”

Trivia Answer: All played in the American Basketball Assn. Also an ABA graduate is the coach, Billy Cunningham.

Quotebook

Left-handed hitting Ken Griffey of the New York Yankees, wondering why anyone should be surprised that he hit a grand slam off Minnesota left-hander Curt Wardle Tuesday night: “Lefties have to throw the ball over the plate, too.”