Unbeaten BYU Using Latin Beat

About half the members of Brigham Young’s undefeated basketball team have been on two-year missions, taking them to such countries as Spain, Argentina and Chile.

Michael Smith, a 6-foot 10-inch forward from Los Altos High School, where he also was an All-American quarterback, served two years in Argentina.

Said Smith: “Once a game, or maybe every two games, we’ll speak Spanish on the court without the other team knowing. It’s helped when we think the other team might know our plays. We’ll just call them out in Spanish.”

Add BYU: Said Raymond Dudley, leading scorer at Air Force, after Saturday night’s 95-75 loss to the Cougars: “The Mormons are blessed this year.”

From Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs, who wasn’t as impressed with last week’s win over Pittsburgh as the media: “That’s old hat, man. What Big East team has beaten us? This is not like we won a world championship because we beat a Big East team. I’d say they’re better than the Trans-America Conference. Hey, if you bring any one of them out here, we’ll kick their butts and send them home.”

Tubbs is 3-0 against the Big East.

Trivia Time: On Sunday, Doug Williams joined what two other black players to throw touchdown passes in the Super Bowl? (Answer below.)

How flat were the Detroit Pistons in Saturday night’s loss to the New Jersey Nets after a win over the Boston Celtics the night before?

Said Jerry Sullivan of Newsday: “They were flatter than carpet, flatter than the middle of Kansas, flatter than the worst trumpet player in a fourth-grade band class.”

Add Pistons: Writes Peter May of the Hartford Courant, noting that Boston’s Robert Parish calls them the dirtiest team in the league: “The Pistons just happen to have the player least liked by his peers, Bill Laimbeer, and another whom Red Auerbach has called the dirtiest in the NBA, Rick Mahorn.

“Is their new image as the NBA’s version of the Los Angeles Raiders justified or overblown? Here’s a hint. Isiah Thomas is calling himself Snake, after Ken Stabler, and three others have adopted Raiders nicknames.”

From St. Louis Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog, who has been fighting the battle of the bulge: “My wife tells me I have to go on a diet tomorrow. But I’ve already had breakfast and lunch tomorrow.”

Trivia Answer: Running backs Robert Newhouse and Lawrence McCutcheon, on option plays. In 1978, Newhouse threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Golden Richards as the Dallas Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos, 27-10. In 1980, McCutcheon hit Ron Smith on a 24-yard scoring play as the Rams lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-19.

Quotebook

Philadelphia 76ers Coach Matt Guokas, on when he planned to use a player coming off the injured list: “We’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it.”