For Holtz, Two Candles Are Better Than None

The latest story from Lou Holtz, reports the Boston Globe, is how Notre Dame managed to overcome Boston College last fall.

“The morning of the game,” said Holtz, “I went to the chapel on campus, and as I was coming in, I spotted their coach, Jack Bicknell, up near the altar, saying a prayer and lighting a candle.

“I waited until he left. Then I went up to the altar and lit two candles. And then I blew his out. After we won the game I went back and lit his candle. I didn’t want anyone to think I was evil.”

Idle Thought: Wonder how much Dirk Minniefield cost those people who gave the points in Saturday’s Boston-Detroit game? Detroit was a five-point favorite. Minniefield’s three-pointer for Boston at the buzzer made Detroit’s final margin, 98-94.

Kevin McHale, on the three-pointer that saved Boston in Game 2: “When I let it go, I said to myself, ‘That’s going in.’ And it did. The key to my basketball success is never thinking. It’s like the Bob Dylan line: ‘Don’t think twice; it’s all right.’ ”

Note: McHale and Dylan both are natives of Hibbing, Minn.

Trivia Time: Name the only member of the Detroit Pistons who has been a member of a National Basketball Assn. championship team? (Answer below.)

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Jerry Buss told this one to Vanity Fair magazine: “John McEnroe gets a six-figure exhibition match fee. The Forum already had hired him twice, but we needed him a third time and it just wasn’t in our budget. He said he’d do it for two seats on the floor for Laker games. This gives you some idea what they’re worth.”

Add McEnroe: He blew away 16-year-old Michael Chang in the French Open Saturday, but Chang can’t wait for a rematch.

“The next time I play him, I’ll know what to expect,” he said. “If he retires early, I’ll just have to call him up for a game.”

From Moss Klein of the Sporting News: “Boston’s Wade Boggs, a student of pitchers, has been telling players that Dennis Eckersley’s sudden success as Oakland’s bullpen ace is a result of mastering the spitball.

“Kansas City’s Frank White, asked if Eckersley had simply become that good all of a sudden, said, “I don’t believe in miracles.”

The most devoted fan of the New York Mets? It might be Libero Mazzilli, father of Mets utility man Lee Mazzilli. He actually roots for his son not to play, at least as far as pinch-hitting is concerned.

“If he doesn’t get in, that means we’re winning,” he said.

From the Denver Post: “Since being forced upstairs, former Kings coach Bill Russell has refused to talk with any member of the Sacramento media. When asked for an explanation, spokeswoman Julie Fie said, ‘Bill is going to be a quiet leader.’ ”

Trivia Answer: Chuck Nevitt. He played for the 1984-85 Lakers.

Quotebook

Clifford Ray, Dallas Mavericks assistant coach, on the team’s resurgence in Game 3 against the Lakers: “We didn’t come out like firemen and put out fires. We came out like arsonists. We set the fires.”