Making Jokes About Clippers Is No Longer a Man’s Game

After the Stanford women’s basketball team routed Arkansas, 114-87, in the NCAA West Regional, Arkansas Coach John Sutherland told USA Today that the Cardinal was the team to beat in the Final Four.

Sutherland: “I can’t imagine Stanford having a hard time with anyone, except Los Angeles--the Lakers, not the Clippers.”

Devil you say: If Duke fails to go all the way in the Final Four, it won’t be for lack of confidence. At least, that’s the way Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun talks.

Said Calhoun, recalling the Duke-UCLA game: “Once UCLA took the lead in the second half, I turned to one of my assistants and said Duke is going to win. You could see it in their faces. They expected to win. It’s part of the way they think.”

For what it’s worth: Indiana Coach Bob Knight has won three NCAA basketball championships, but before this year’s opening-round game against California, the only championship ring he was wearing was from the 1978-79 NIT.

Trivia time: Forward Tom Chambers of the Phoenix Suns last week became the 14th player to score 60 or more points in the NBA. How many can you name?

High math: Mark Eaton, 7-foot-4 center of the Utah Jazz, has come up with a new answer to people who ask him his height in airports. He gives it to them in centimeters.

In case you’re wondering, it’s 223.41840.

Street talk: In the magazine Philly Sport, Wilt Chamberlain says of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “No heart.

“That’s why he never played in the streets anywhere. He never played in the Rucker tournament.”

New entry: The race for MVP honors in the NBA appears to be wide open, with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone all in the chase, but Warrior Coach Don Nelson already is voting for a newcomer, San Antonio center David Robinson.

Nelson: “I think David is the best player in the league. It’s clear-cut for me. He should be MVP and rookie of the year. I can only compare David to a guy I used to play with, Bill Russell. But Robinson is quicker.”

Smiling assassin: Warrior rookie Tim Hardaway told the Oakland Tribune that Jordan is the best player he has faced but that Johnson is the player he’d least like to face night after night.

“He’s tough,” Hardaway said of Magic. “He knows the game inside and out. He doesn’t rush. He picks you apart--with a smile.”

Sky’s the limit: ABC-TV’s Arthur Ashe, on rising tennis star Jennifer Capriati, who turns 14 this week: “She can’t miss, and I only said that about John McEnroe and Steffi Graf. She has the ability to wind up on the top level that only Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Graf have occupied.”

Add Capriati: At the Virginia Slims of Florida in Boca Raton, she spotted Wilt Chamberlain in the parking lot. According to the St. Petersburg Times, she reportedly said, “Dr. J?”

Trivia answer: Wilt Chamberlain 100, David Thompson 73, Elgin Baylor 71, Michael Jordan 69, Pete Maravich 68, Rick Barry 64, Joe Fulks 63, George Gervin 63, Jerry West 63, George Mikan 62, Karl Malone 61, Bernard King 61, Larry Bird 60, Tom Chambers 60. (Note: Only three players have had multiple games of 60 or more points. Chamberlain did it 32 times; Jordan, who had 69 Wednesday, four times and Baylor three.)

Quotebook: Indiana Coach Bob Knight, admitting a shortcoming: “When patience was handed out, there was a long line, and when I stopped by for my dose, I’m not sure I got all of it.”