LSU’s Resurgence Nothing but Freaky

After Temple was eliminated by LSU in the NCAA Midwest Regional, Owl Coach John Chaney has asked about LSU’s “freak” defense.

Chaney sneered at the question.

“The only thing I know about a freak is that you don’t want to get caught in an alley with one,” he said.

Last week, before the LSU-DePaul game, a newspaper ran a seven-paragraph explanation of the “freak” by Coach Dale Brown.

DePaul Coach Joey Meyer said he gave up reading halfway through.

“I’m not that smart,” he said.

Said DePaul center Dallas Comegys: “I’m not worried about the ‘freak’ defense. If we just keep the ball moving, we shouldn’t have a problem.”

LSU won, 63-58.

Your turn, Bobby Knight.

Add LSU: Some opponents have complained that the Tigers, particularly Nikita Wilson, have been thugging it up under the basket. Brown couldn’t believe it.

Of Wilson , he said: “He’s no Rocky Marciano. I read where John Chaney said we played physical. They’ve got a center that is like the Titanic and we’ve got Twiggy over here.”

Wilson is 6-8 and 198.

Brown added: “We don’t go out and tell someone to knock the other guy down with a blow to the jaw. Indiana is so much bigger than we are. We’ve got Twiggy at center, and we’ve got to stop a guy in Steve Alford whose closest shot in the tourney has been from Saturn.”

Trivia Time: Now that Bill Russell has retired to become a coach, who is the senior Dodger player in terms of service on the club? (Answer below.)

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: In a Sacramento Bee story on the world champion Oakland A’s of 1974, Sal Bando told how he was so upset after a loss in Boston that he said, “Alvin Dark can’t manage a (bleeping) meat market.”

Bando: “The next day, I got a letter from the meat packers’ union saying, ‘If you think managing a meat market is easy, you’ve got as another think coming.’ ”

The Numbers Game: Kansas City Royal pitcher Bret Saberhagen is switching from No. 31 to No. 18, the number he wore at Cleveland High School.

“I want to be the answer to a trivia question,” Saberhagen said. “Who was the only Royals pitcher to win 20 games while wearing two different numbers.”

Add Numbers: The Chicago White Sox have assigned No. 45 to Bob Gibson, hoping some of the magic rubs off. That was the number worn by the pitcher of the same name who fashioned a Hall of Fame career at St. Louis.

Said Iowa 7-footer Brad Lohaus when asked the difference between Coach Tom Davis and last year’s coach, George Raveling: “Coach Raveling is very emotional on the sidelines. He just wants to win so bad. He doesn’t mean it, but sometimes it kind of rattled the players.

“Coach Davis is really more relaxed out on the court during the game and I think it runs over to the players.”

Trivia Answer: Bob Welch. He joined the Dodgers in June of 1978.

Quotebook

Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post, on LSU Coach Dale Brown: “Dale Brown almost always arrives at news conferences with his mouth going full throttle. His mind sometimes zooms in on the next flight.”