Its Bark Was Much Worse Than Its Bite

If nothing else, the Washington Post’s Tony Kornheiser has learned something new during the NCAA basketball tournament.

“The truth is, I didn’t know there was a Great Midwest Conference,” he wrote. “I knew there was a Big West, a Mid-Continent and a Great Dane. I guess they merged.”

Add NCAA: Kornheiser, an avowed advocate of East Coast basketball, has relished the near-disastrous showing of Pacfic 10 Conference teams.

“The Pac-10 has played soft since John Wooden retired,” Kornheiser wrote. “When the NCAA started to play fast and loose with natural geographic regions, and scatter schools all over the place, the Pac-10 was the big loser. Annually, Pac-10 teams show up with gaudy records, and fold like burritos.”

Trivia time: Only three schools have won NCAA Division I men’s swimming titles in the last nine years. Name them.

Flight of fancy: Al Stewart, the former Boston Bruin, not the pop singer, is living in western Canada and getting his pilot’s license, the Boston Globe reported.

Quipped his one-time coach, Tom McVie: “I worry about the day I hear, ‘Good afternoon, passengers, this is Captain Stewart speaking.’ ”

Shipwrecked: Nineteen members of the Yale crew had to be rescued from Tampa Bay after waves swamped two of their boats. Two rowers were spotted off Davis Island clinging to their overturned sculls and a buoy before being saved.

Foreign debt: Thursday’s Morning Briefing mentioned that Hawaiian Salevaa Fuauli Atisanoe, who wrestles as the 577-pound Konishiki, was on the verge of reaching sumo’s highest rank of yokozuna , or grand champion.

By Friday, he was denied the promotion.

Said David Wu, an East-West Center researcher: “(The Japanese) believe that it is impossible for outsiders to attain true ‘Japanese-ness’ no matter how great their accomplishments. Japan must overcome this xenophobic tendency if it is to achieve its goal of internationalization.”

For what it’s worth: A UCLA Extension class scheduled for Saturday, April 25, is entitled, “Scientific Aspects of Cycling.”

For the record: Will McDonough, called a CBS analyst in Friday’s edition, works for NBC. His report on Atlanta Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville came from a Boston Globe column.

Trivia answer: Florida, Stanford and Texas.

Quotebook: Art Lazear, on why he lost a City Council race to former quarterback Earl Morrall, now mayor of Davie, Fla.: “You don’t play for the Miami Dolphins and take them to Super Bowls and remain a stranger.”