Making the Top 10 Leaves Aussies Cold

Andrew Gaze, a native Australian who plays for the No. 10-rated Seton Hall basketball team, said in a live radio interview back home, “We’re doing very well, we’re in the top 10.”

There was silence Down Under.

“They didn’t understand at first,” Gaze told Newsday. “Back home there are only 14 schools.”

The subject was academics, and Illinois basketball Coach Lou Henson, who attended Okay (Okla.) High School, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “There were 13 in my graduating class, so I can safely say I was in the top 10%.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve gone up to No. 1 because 5 or 6 years ago the school burned and all the records went with it.”

Trivia Time: Name the Marine Corps corporal who, on this date in 1962, became the first man to clear 16 feet in the pole vault by winning the Millrose Games at 16-0 1/4? (Answer below.)

From a column of “impertinent questions” by Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun:

--”If baseball players are so much better today, as some insist, how come so many 40-year olds are still hanging up impressive numbers?”

--”Has any coach ever hung around and latched onto as many jobs without producing any detectable results as Gene Shue?”

--”I’m confused. Were the seven Clemson basketball players suspended for a game because they did or didn’t go to study hall?”

35 Years Ago Today: On Feb. 2, 1954, Bevo Francis of Rio Grande College in Ohio scored 113 points in a 134-91 victory over Hillsdale to set a record for small colleges. Francis broke his previous record of 84 set 2 weeks earlier against Alliance College.

From Lanny Wadkins, who plans to play in the Hawaiian Open after the L.A. Open: “After Hawaii, I’m taking a week off at Mauna Lani (to fulfill a contract obligation). Lie on the beach. Work on my tan. Have a beverage. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.”

Said St. John’s basketball Coach Lou Carnesecca, 64, when asked how long he intends to coach: “I’m going to keep going, going until they take it away. Hopefully, I’m smart enough to get out before I die with my boots on. But I’m not Errol Flynn, you know.”

Trivia Answer: John Uelses.

Quotebook

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, on Orel Hershiser’s performances at the end of last season: “He had an ERA where the league owes him runs.”