Westhead’s Friends Knew He Was Going Through a Phrase

Paul Westhead, Loyola Marymount basketball coach, tells of how he came across one of his favorite phrases in life:

“It was back when I was coaching the Chicago Bulls and George Allen also was in Chicago, coaching a team in the new pro football league. The two of us live about a mile apart in Palos Verdes, so we’d see each other occasionally on flights back and forth to California.

“On one flight, George stopped to ask how I was doing. I told him I was OK but was having a little trouble getting the Bulls’ management to do some things, to be a little more innovative.

“George smiled, said he had had some dealings with the Bulls, and then said, very earnestly, ‘You know, Paul. Those people don’t know what they don’t know.’ ”

Add Westhead: It wasn’t the only time the saying had popped up in Westhead’s career. During one Laker game, when Westhead was the coach and Pat Riley was his assistant, center Jim Chones, guarding against a two-on-one fast break, darted right when he knew full well the ball was going to his left.

“Chones was a great guy,” Westhead said. “But he wasn’t always good at taking responsibility.

“So the next time down the court, he gets fouled, makes his first free throw, then, before the second one, he kind of sneaks a look over at us on the bench.

“To which Riley said to me: ‘He knows that we know.’ ”

Trivia time: What do Charles Barkley, Herschel Walker and Fernando Valenzuela have in common?

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: How tough is it to fix a basketball game? Jack Molinas, one-time All-American at Columbia who masterminded many of the fixes in the 1960s, once told Bruce Keidan of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it was a cinch.

Keidan: “Kids would ask Molinas, ‘What if I get caught?’ Molinas would answer, ‘Impossible.’ Then he’d tell them a true story about a game in which he scored 51 points and earned rave newspaper notices, while ensuring that Columbia lost.”

It-had-to-happen Dept.: “I look for Wally to be a very tough out,” Angel announcer Reggie Jackson said as Wally Joyner battled Roger Clemens Tuesday night in Boston.

Joyner whiffed on the next pitch.

For what it’s worth: Ed O’Bannon, 6-foot-8 center-forward from Artesia High, has narrowed his choices to Nevada Las Vegas, Arizona State, Syracuse, UCLA and USC. Guest speakers at the Artesia awards banquet were coaches Jerry Tarkanian of Nevada Las Vegas and Bill Frieder of Arizona State.

Today’s poser: From Terry Boers of the Chicago Sun-Times: “Could it be that it’s harder academically to get into any of the Big Ten schools than it is to get into Notre Dame? Check it out.”

Add Boers: “Insiders claim that Arizona Coach Lute Olson has made no friends in the Pac-10. Knowing Olson, that’s not really a surprise.”

Trivia answer: All three wear No. 34.

Quotebook: Don Sutton, TBS announcer and former pitcher, on how he once went to Gaylord Perry for advice: “He handed me a tube of Vaseline. I thanked him and gave him a sheet of sandpaper.”