Playing on Different Level Can Bring Sweeter Rewards

Santa Clara, under first-year Coach Dick Davey, is in the NCAA basketball tournament for only the second time in 23 years.

Davey, previously an assistant at Santa Clara for 15 years, told C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“We probably have the second-toughest admission standards in the western United States (after Stanford). We don’t cheat. We can’t get anybody in school.

“I remember six or seven years ago, we went to UCLA and they had something like 11 high school All-Americans. We knew when it started they were up here and we were down there. And we beat them good (68-60 in 1984-85). I can’t tell you how good that felt.”

Trivia time: Which school holds the NCAA tournament record for most points in one game?

Get serious: University of New Mexico basketball Coach Dave Bliss, talking in the Albuquerque Journal about over-achieving forward Josh Grant:

“If athletic ability was important, we wouldn’t have people like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson because they don’t have very good athletic ability.”

Lifestyles: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: “In one private fenced-off space next to the (Texas) Ranger clubhouse are two parked cars. One is a shiny red Lamborghini Diablo, a futuristic low-slung machine that looks as if it might have two .50 calibers firing forward.

“The other is a four-door rental Ford. One belongs to Jose Canseco, the other to Nolan Ryan.”

Language barrier: Rod Davis, who grew up in Southern California, has lived in New Zealand since 1987 and will move to Australia so he can sail for his third country in the America’s Cup in 1995.

“I can read Australian and write Australian, but I sure can’t talk Australian,” Davis said.

Pipe dream: The Golf Nut Society of America has named Merle Bell, 74, a retired builder from Sebring, Fla., as its 1992 Golf Nut of the Year. Exhibit A:

He hit what he believes was the first golf ball to travel through four states on a single shot. He hit the ball into 16 inches of circular pipe straddling the junction of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona.

The awful truth: From journeyman center Scott Hastings of the Denver Nuggets: “Every night when you lay your head on the pillow you say, ‘I’m one of 300 (NBA players).’ Of course, 50 of us stink really bad.”

Slick Billy: Al McGuire, telling USA Today about television analyst Billy Packer’s NCAA tournament assignment to his hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C.:

“Billy is such a politician. They have have a floor at CBS’ Black Rock building named after him. I call him Wash Room Billy, because when the bill comes he goes to the bathroom.”

Trivia answer: Loyola Marymount, during a 149-115 victory over Michigan in 1990.

Quotebook: Pitcher Chuck Cary--in camp with the Chicago White Sox--on playing last season in Japan: “The motto of the team I played for was ‘win or else.’ I don’t know what the ‘else’ meant, and I never wanted to learn.”