Maybe These People Don’t Realize John Wooden Retired

One of the first college basketball preview magazines, Athlon, has made a somewhat surprising selection for national champion.

Can you spell UCLA?

The reason the Bruins are an unusual choice is that Arkansas has all five of its starters back from the team that won the NCAA title last season.

At least Jim Harrick had the right attitude about this prediction about the outcome of the NCAA tournament.

“We’ll just phone that thing in,” he said. “We’ll take it.”

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Trivia time: What nickname did Charles Barkley give Oliver Miller?

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More gruel? Mike O’Hara of the Detroit News doesn’t sound like a big fan of the 280-pound Miller, now with the Pistons.

Said O’Hara: “First Terry Mills. Now Oliver Miller. I think the Pistons ought to hire Oprah Winfrey’s cook and open a weight-loss clinic at The Palace.”

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Kermit the Frog? What’s green and flat and spread all over? It’s artificial turf, which is celebrating its 30th birthday.

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He’s foxy: In the Dallas Morning News, Blackie Sherrod was impressed when he noticed that beneath Jimmy Johnson’s sport coat in his cover photo pose for GQ magazine he wore a dress shirt listed at $225.

Said Sherrod: “Fancy rags for a beachcomber.”

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Fender bender: Curious about what some baseball players are doing during the strike? Pitcher Mark Wohlers of the Atlanta Braves is working in an auto repair shop in Suwanee, Ga.

Said fellow employee David Knight: “He’ll do anything, even take out the trash if you ask him.”

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Naturally: Joe Falls of the Detroit News pointed out that Nebraska has a freshman quarterback named Monte Christo.

Said Falls: “They are counting on him.”

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Nobody’s Buddy: Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Buddy Ryan: “The self-trumpeting wind bag in the desert.”

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Ah, youth: Red Sox General Manager Dan Duquette got an application for the manager’s job, to replace fired Butch Hobson, from 11-year-old Pete Kozak of Amherst, N.H. Asked later about his managerial experience, the boy replied: “Managing my team at recess.”

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Trivia answer: UFO--Unidentified Fat Object.

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Quotebook: Former Cal star Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks: “Now that I’m here, we’ll turn the program around 360 degrees.”