Kentuckians Can Smoke, Drink and Root for Wildcats

Utah basketball Coach Rick Majerus in the Sporting News on the popularity of Kentucky’s team:

“See, what happens at Kentucky is, they’re the pro team of the state. It’s what Kentucky is all about. To define yourself as a Kentuckian probably means smoking, some bourbon, a car in your backyard and then UK basketball and horses.

“And the horses aren’t applicable to anyone other than the monetary elite. UK basketball, on the other hand, can be yours whether you’re a tobacco guy or a non-tobacco guy, a bettor or a non-bettor, whether you’re a teetotaler or not.”

Trivia time: Who holds the Final Four record for most rebounds in a game?

Gut feeling: General Manager Pat Williams of the Orlando Magic on his feelings 10 years ago, when he left the employ of former Philadelphia 76er owner Harold Katz:

“When I left, I said I’d like to give Harold something to commemorate our five years together. But I never could figure out how to get an ulcer framed.”

Waiting list: John Calipari in USA Today on the image of his University of Massachusetts basketball team:

“We’re still little UMass in Amherst. Until we win a national title, this is going to happen. That’s fine. I understand that and the kids understand that.

“Respect is earned, and we haven’t earned it yet.”

No kicking, please: Diego Maradona will swap his soccer shoes for boxing gloves next month to take on former fighter Santos Laciar in a three-round exhibition.

Maradona and Laciar will wear headgear for the first two rounds of the exhibition April 3 in Cordoba, Argentina, and then fight the final round without it, according to the newspaper La Nacion.

Sun block: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Buster Douglas, briefly the heavyweight champ, plans comeback in May? Last I heard he was working as summer replacement for Goodyear blimp.”

Precautions: Peter Vecsey in the New York Post: “Whenever Dick Vitale’s car commercial is aired, I turn off my TV, my radio and, just to be safe, every household appliance.”

Fair enough: Vancouver’s Gerald Wilkins, noting players for the Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors receive half of their pay in American currency and the other half in Canadian: “They split it up, like the anthems.”

Little League stuff: After winning a recent exhibition game against Toronto, Ray Knight, first-year manager of the Cincinnati Reds, popped out of the dugout and punched his fist in the air as if clinching a World Series.

Cito Gaston, Blue Jay manager, noted dryly: “He’s allowed. He’s a rookie.”

FYI: The lowest-seeded team to reach the Final Four was No. 11 Louisiana State, which got to the 1986 semifinals before losing to Louisville, 86-77.

Trivia answer: Bill Russell of San Francisco, with 27 against Iowa in the 1956 championship game.