IN BRIEF : ‘Lady Vols’ Feted in Rose Garden

President Bush welcomed the 1989 NCAA women’s basketball champions, the University of Tennessee “Lady Vols,” to the White House today but said that in the face of intimidating competition, he would not try a repeat of his free throw with the male champs.

Giving the women champions equal time in a sunny Rose Garden ceremony with his wife, Barbara, and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, Bush noted that there was no basketball hoop set up on the garden lawn, as there was last week when the male NCAA champion University of Michigan Wolverines visited and Bush hit a well-documented free throw. The President pointed to the abilities of Most Valuable Player Bridgette Gordon and said, “I’ll be darned if I want to go head-on-head with her out there on the foul line.”

The Volunteers beat Auburn 76-60 on April 2 to win their second NCAA championship in the last three years.